Whatever one thinks of Michael Bloomberg as a politician, mayor, or presidential candidate, two things are beyond dispute: He has been phenomenally successful in business and he’s been an extremely generous philanthropist. The 79-year-old former mayor of New York City has built a worldwide, recognized, and respected brand that includes a TV cable channel, a…
Although we ran an item about crypto-Jews (also known as conversos) in New Mexico several months ago, we recently came across a fascinating one-hour documentary on the subject: A Long Journey: The Hidden Jews of the Southwest. Crypto-Jews are descendants of Jews living in Spain and Portugal from the 15th to 17th centuries, who…
Ira Glasser (born 1938) was the iconic executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from 1978 to 2001. His life was the subject of the 2020 documentary Mighty Ira (his nickname). Glasser is an ardent proponent of freedom of speech, even today despite the proliferation of hate speech on social media. In 1978,…
A Bar Mitzvah boy from Scarsdale, N.Y., has built a website that, as of this writing, has enabled nearly 3,000 New York seniors to get appointments for COVD-19 vaccine shots. Twelve-year-old Sam Keusch created VaccineHelper.com as his Bar Mitzvah project. Sam originally thought of making a financial donation but realized the website he envisioned would…
You may already know the foods that go on the traditional seder plate: shank bone (zeroa), egg (beitzah), bitter herbs (maror), vegetable (karpas) and a sweet paste called haroset. You may also be vaguely aware that an orange is increasingly being added to those symbolic foods. Do you know why and what the orange represents?…
Before there was Judge Judy there was The People’s Court. Although Judge Judith Sheindlin has had the longest-running reality arbitration-based court show in TV history (25 seasons), she did not pioneer the genre. That distinction belongs to Judge Joseph Wapner (Nov. 15, 1919 — Feb. 26, 2017), who presided over the first run of The…
New York City has approximately 1.5 million Jewish residents — and Jews are estimated to be about 13 percent of voters in the city (60% of them registered Democrats). The Jews of New York have always been a highly sought-after voting group; that hasn’t changed as the upcoming 2021 party primaries approach. Of course, with…
Offensive Tackle Mitchell Schwartz (31) is a professional football player, currently a free agent. He was named to the Pro Football Focus 2012 All-Rookie Team and to the 2014 PFF All-Third Year Team. Following the 2018 season, he won the Pro Football Focus Matthews Award and was designated a First Team All-Pro by the Associated…
Steven Breyer (82) has served as an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme court since 1994, after being nominated by then-President Bill Clinton. In his 2005 book Active Liberty, Breyer argued that the judiciary should seek to resolve issues in a manner that encourages popular participation in governmental decisions. Reportedly, he is being urged to…
For half a century, Eugene Levy (74) has been making people laugh. The comedic actor, producer, director, and writer came to prominence on the hilarious Canadian series SCTV and never left the public stage since then. (Levy is Canadian.) He has appeared in many motion pictures, including Best in Show. Today he is most identified…
To learn about these and many more AmazingJews, watch a compilation put together by JewOfTheWeek.net in 2015 and posted on YouTube.