Benjamin “Ben” Cardin (77), who serves as the senior United States Senator from Maryland, was first elected to that seat in 2006. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously was the U.S. Representative for Maryland’s 3rd congressional district. Before that, Cardin served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates and as Speaker…
Jacqueline Mates-Muchin , a San Francisco native, is the world’s first Chinese-American rabbi. Her mother was second-generation Chinese American and her father was the son of Austrian Jewish immigrants. She was ordained by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York in 2002. After serving as an assistant rabbi in Buffalo, New York, she…
Although many in the… uh… older crowd might question characterizing rapper Kosha Dills (and perhaps all rappers) as performing “music,” it is undeniable that rap and hip hop have a huge fan base. Thirty-nine year old Dillz (birth name Rami Matan Even-Esh) is the son of Israeli immigrants to the U.S. Although he rhymes in…
Mandel “Mandy” Patinkin (68) is an actor and singer known for his work on stage, screen, and television. Patinkin has appeared in such movies as The Princess Bride, Criminal Minds, Yentl, Alien Nation, and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland. He also has had recurring roles in a number of television series, including Homeland, Chicago…
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…
WOW! FACTS
Inventor of the mobile phone, “Father of the Internet,” inventor of the video game cosole, inventor fo the laser, inventor of the gramophone, creator of the Barbie Doll, creator of the cruise ship, “Father of Immunology,” inventor fo the modern condom (!), a prime minister of the U.K., a three-time prime minister of France, a president of Switzerland and the primary financier of the American Revolution?
We knew you could guess… all of them are (or were) Jews!
To learn about these and many more AmazingJews, watch a compilation put together by JewOfTheWeek.net in 2015 and posted on YouTube. >>
Nobel Prizes
Although Jews are less than two-tenths of one percent of the world’s population, more than 20% of Nobel Prize winners have been Jewish. Source: Google
Polio Vaccine
Millions and millions of people worldwide have been spared the ravages of poliomyelitis — including paralysis and even death — thanks to research conducted by Jewish scientist Dr. Jonas Salk and his team. The Salk vaccine entered widespread use in the U.S. in 1955. Source: Wikipedia
Miss Liberty
The words “…give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses…” on the Statue of Liberty were written by Emma Lazarus, a Jew. Source: BuzzFeed
Blue Jeans
Levi Strauss, an immigrant from Germany, invented his blue jeans in 1873. Source: BuzzFeed
Start-Up Nation
Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship in the world. It has the highest rate of entrepreneurship among women and people over 55 in the world. Source: BuzzFeed