The iconic “Kissing Sailor” photo in Times Square at the end of World War II came back in the news recently upon the death of the sailor at age 95. The two people involved remained anonymous for many years — but eventually the sailor was identified as George Mendonza, and the woman (a dental…
Stephen Wolfram, 59, is a British-American mathematician, computer scientist, physicist and visionary businessman. In 1981, Wolfram received the prestigious MacArthur Genius Fellowship Award. He’s the founder and CEO of the software company Wolfram Research, where he served as chief designer of the computer algebra system Mathematica (now called the Wolfram Language). In 2002, the company…
Jim Dine, 83, is a pioneering and highly esteemed American pop artist. In 1962, Dine’s art, which features many images of hearts, was included in a groundbreaking exhibit at the Norman Simon Museum in Los Angeles — one of the first pop art exhibitions in America. His works are exhibited in the permanent collections of…
The website funinjerusalem.com describes Israeli group singing sensation Koolulam this way: “‘Come and sing with strangers’ — that’s part of Koolulam’s mission of spreading joy through music and bringing together diverse groups within Israel.” The following is from the introduction to the video linked below, performed on the occasion of Israel’s 70th anniversary as a…
Maggie Haberman is a prominent White House correspondent for The New York Times. In addition to her work at The Times, she’s a frequent commentator on CNN. Previously, the 45-year-old Haberman was employed by the New York Post, New York Daily News and Politico. During her tenure at The Times, she — both individually and…
Super Bowl LIII might not have been the most exciting game in the series’ history, but one exciting thing did come out of the event: It resulted in the first Jewish Super Bowl player named MVP. While Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman, 32, is not considered part of the tribe by Jewish religious law (Jewish…
In the midterm elections of November 2018, Jay Robert (“J. B.”) Pritzker was victorious in his quest to become governor of the State of Illinois. Pritzker, 54, defeated the incumbent governor, Bruce Rauner, by a 600,000-vote margin. He was inaugurated on January 14, 2019. In his inaugural speech, he said, “I’ll be committed to helping…
On October 19, 2017, an astronomer at the Haleakala Observatory on the Hawaiian island of Maui discovered what is thought to be an object from interstellar space moving through our Solar System — the first such body ever detected. Astronomers named the object Oumuamua, which means “scout” in Hawaiian. Its exceptionally elongated shape and…
On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion — speaking in Tel Aviv under a portrait of Theodore Herzl, founder of modern Zionism…
Dr. Steven Pinker, a professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard, is recognized as one of the world’s most influential intellectuals. The 64-year-old Pinker is the author of eight mainstream books, including How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature and — his most recent — Enlightenment Now. He…
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