Jews: Who Knew?

T. Belman.  In 2007, COMMENTARY MAGAZINE published “Jewish Genius” by Charles Murray, the author of “The Bell Curve”.  Its a classic.

By Debbie Jones Thornton  5/10/2020

The last paper I wrote for Proteus was about words, which is a topic that I actually know something about. My topic today is more risky, since it is about Jews, and I am not Jewish. (Full disclosure: my sister married a Jewish man and became a convert, but I’m pretty sure you can’t be considered Jewish via sibling.) This paper had its genesis at Drew Rosenberg’s bar mitzvah in 2003. When I walked in to Tifereth Israel Synagogue, I was immediately struck by Andy Warhol’s series of silkscreen prints and paintings entitled, “Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century” (1980).

The ten individuals depicted are;

  1. Golda Meir (one of the founders of Israel and its fourth Prime Minister)
  2. Albert Einstein (German theoretical physicist and father of the theory of relativity)
  3. Franz Kafka (Czech-born author best known for his short story, “The Metamorphosis”)\
  4. The Marx brothers (American stars of vaudeville, stage, film and TV),
  5. Martin Buber (German-born religious philosopher),
  6. Gertrude Stein (American writer, poet and playwright),
  7. Sarah Bernhardt (French actress),
  8. Louis Brandeis (American litigator and Supreme Court Justice) and
  9. Sigmund Freud (Austrian neurologist and co-founder of the psychoanalytic branch of psychology).
  10. George Gershwin (American composer)

Seeing these images, I was struck by the immense impact these cultural and intellectual icons – all Jews from diverse fields – have made in the world.

Shortly thereafter, my friend StanleyEngman happened to send me an article about Jewish contributions to society. It described how, considering that Jewish people constitute less than one-half of one percent of the world’s population, their contributions to religion, science, art, literature, music, medicine, finance, philosophy, entertainment, etc. are simply staggering.

Not only was I awe-struck; I was intrigued. Why should this be so? I was determined to see if I could find out! I worried that the Jewish members of Proteus might find it presumptuous of me, a non-Jew, to attempt to tackle this complex subject. I actually stewed about this quite a bit. But finally I decided to forge ahead on the basis of the old Proteus protocol that encourages you to write about anything that interests you. And this topic really interests me. So here goes …

I’ll begin by highlighting just a few of many Jewish contributions to society. You may or may not be familiar with their names, but for sure, your life has been impacted by their work.

Some examples:

  • Isaac Singer – invented the sewing machine
  • Simon and Garfunkel — musicians
  • Levi Strauss – largest manufacturer of denim jeans
  • Kirk Douglas – actor (changed his name from Isadore Demsky)
  • Gabriel Lipmann – discovered colorphotography
  • Joan Rivers – comedian (changed her name from Joan Molinsky)
  • Martin “Marty” Cooper – invented the cell phone
  • Walter Annenberg — philanthropist In the field of medicine alone, Jewish contributions have been phenomenal.

It was a Jew who created the first polio vaccine, who discovered insulin, Novocain, penicillin and the measles vaccine, who found that aspirin dealt with pain, who introduced chlorination of drinking water, who discovered the origin and spread of infectious diseases, who invented the test for diagnosis of syphilis, who identified the first cancer virus, who invented the mammogram and introduced the birth control pill, who founded the Heimlich Maneuver and who added to our knowledge about yellow fever, typhoid, tetanus, diphtheria, meningitis and influenza

It is estimated that the lifesaving medical and scientific advances made by Jews throughout history account for an estimated 2.8 billion lives saved.

Consider also that Jews constitute:

  • 51% of Pulitzer Prize winners for non-fiction 50% of Ivy League presidents
  • Nearly 50% of chess grandmasters
  • 37% of Academy Award directors
  • 33% of symphony conductors
  • Three of our nine Supreme Court Justices (Ginsburg, Breyer and Kagan … all the rest are Catholic, by the way)

Clearly, Jews are the world’s most disproportionate high achievers. But to me, the most astonishing statistics deal with the number and percentage of Jewish Nobel Prize winners. More on that later, but first some background on the Nobel Prize itself.

The Nobel Prizes were established in 1895 by Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist and chemist who invented dynamite, among many other inventions. He left his entire immense fortune to fund the prizes. Nobel died in 1896 and five years later – in 1901 – the first Nobel Prizes were awarded.

The Nobel Prizes are administered by the Nobel Foundation and awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institute, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in the fields of chemistry, physics, literature, peace and physiology or medicine. The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was established in 1968 by the Sveriges Rikesbank, the central bank of Sweden, in memory of Alfred Nobel.

Each recipient, or “laureate,” receives a gold medal, a diploma and nine million Kronor, roughly equivalent to one million U.S. dollars. The awards are presented in Stockholm at an annual ceremony on December 10th, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.

Between 1901 and 2017, the Nobel Prizes and the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences were awarded 585 times to 923 people and organizations. With some receiving the Nobel Prize more than once, this makes a total of 892 individuals (including 844 men and 48 women) and 24 organizations. The youngest Nobel laureate is Malala Yousafzai (Peace, 2014), age 17. The oldest is Arthur Askin (Physics, 2018), age 96.

Six laureates have received more than one prize; of the six, the International Committee of the Red Cross has received the Nobel Peace Prize three times, more than any other person or organization. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize twice. Also the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded twice to John Bardeen, and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded twice to Frederick Sanger. Two laureates have been awarded twice but not in the same field: Marie Curie (Physics and Chemistry) and Linus Pauling (Chemistry and Peace).

Now back to my fascination with Jews and the Nobel Prize. The following statistics are noteworthy. As of 2017, Nobel Prizes have been awarded to 902 individuals, of whom 203 or 22.5% were Jewish, even though Jews, as I’ve indicated, comprise less than one-half of one percent of the world’s population. This means the percentage of Jewish Nobel laureates is about 112.5 times or 11,250% above average. Of organizations awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 21% were founded principally by Jews or by people of half-Jewish descent.

Broken down by Nobel Prize category, Jews represent:

  • In Economics – 40% of the world’s total prize winners
  • In Physics, 26% of the world’s total
  • In Physiology or Medicine, 26% of the world’s total In Chemistry
  • In Literature, 20% of the world’s total
  • In Peace, 13% of the world’s total
  • – 8% of the world’s total

I don’t know about you, but I find this to be absolutely astounding!

Many of the names of the 203 Jewish laureates are obscure, although some will be familiar to you. Among them are:

  • Paul Ehrlich of Germany (Physiology or Medicine, 1908), “in recognition of his work on immunity,” shared with Elie Metchnikoff of Russia.
  • Albert Einstein of Germany (Physics, 1921), “for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of photoelectric effect.”
  • Boris Pasternak of Russia (Literature, 1958), “for his important achievement both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition.”
  • Henry Kissinger of the United States (Peace, 1973), “for the 1973 Paris agreement intended to bring about a cease-fire in the Vietnam War and a withdrawal of the American forces,” shared with Le Duc Tho of Vietnam.
  • Saul Bellow of the United States (Literature, 1976), “for the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work.”
  • Menachem Begin of Israel (Peace, 1978), “for the Camp David Agreement, which brought about a negotiated peace between Egypt and Israel.”
  • Elie Wiesel of the United States (Peace, 1986), Chairman of The President’s Commission on the Holocaust.
  • Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres of Israel (Peace, 1994), “to honor a political act which called for great courage on both sides, and which has opened up opportunities for a new development towards fraternity in the Middle East”
  • Bob Dylan of the United States (Literature, 2016), “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”

As an aside, this comment from an internet blog caught my eye and cracked me up. Participants were discussing the question, “Why are there so many Jewish Nobel laureates in comparison to other groups?”

Amy Whinston, a self-described “useless math professor” wrote:

“I’m sure I’ll offend someone, but I’ll say it anyway. I think it is selective breeding.

It is not just the Nobel Prizes. Forty percent of the top lawyers in New York and New Jersey are Jewish. A very high percent of Field’s Medal winners (the Nobel Prize equivalent in mathematics) are as well. Many estimates put the average IQ of Ashkenazi Jews at 115, while the average IQ for anyone of any age is 100.”

She goes on to say, “While other groups have worshipped sports figures, Jews have emphasized scholarship. It wasn’t the football hero who got the girls. It was the class genius. In the ghettos and shtetels of Europe, the smartest boy could have his choice of the girls. He could marry one and they could have a lot of children and pass on smart genes. So now Jews, on average, have high IQs but suck at sports.” HA!

And now to the crux of the matter. Why? Why have a group of people so small in number been able to create such a mighty body of work for the betterment of mankind – especially considering their difficult history?

The history of the Jewish people is complicated, but allow me to make some observations. After being exiled from their homeland by the Roman Empire, the lives of the Jewish people were disrupted and the community was displaced. They migrated from one place to the next, adapting, but not really assimilating themselves in to whatever society they wandered into. What followed was a long, calamitous history of persecution and abuse by their gentile neighbors, whether Christian, Muslim or pagan.

Over the years, millions of Jews have been killed in inquisitions, pogroms, and more recently, the horror of the Holocaust. At certain times in history, Jews were banned from membership in craftsmen’s guilds; they couldn’t own land; they were heavily taxed. Even in more recent times, top universities and colleges maintained strict quotas on Jewish admissions, country clubs and patriotic organizations barred them, gentile employers limited how many Jews they hired, if any, intermarriage was severely discouraged, and Jews experienced significant anti-Semitism in their lives and careers.

And yet – from this lineage, Jews have survived and thrived against all odds. Leo Tolstoy (Russian icon, author and social reformer, 1828-1910) said, “What is a Jew? What kind of unique creature is this whom all the rulers of all the nations of the world have disgraced and crushed and expelled and destroyed; persecuted, burned and drowned, and who, despite their anger and their fury, continues to live and to flourish?”

Mark Twain (aka Samuel Clemens, American author and humorist, 1835- 1910), said, “The Jews are peculiarly and conspicuously the world’s intellectual aristocracy. Jewish contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine and abstruse learning are way out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in the world, in all ages, and has done it with his hands tied behind him.”

So back to the central question – why – against all odds — has Jewish achievement been so significant? Is the reason due to genetics, environment, culture, history, religious tradition, education, or a unique combination of multiple factors? There are a myriad of theories out there, but I found the reasoning of Steven L. Pease to be the most compelling and frankly, the easiest for me to understand.

In his 2015 book, The Debate Over Jewish Achievement: Exploring the Nature and Nurture of Human Accomplishment, Steven L. Pease chronicles the disproportionate level of Jewish achievement in virtually every area of human endeavour, and offers a number of theories to explain this amazing phenomenon.

He says that in the end, the debate over the factors behind Jewish exceptionalism boils down to nature (genetics) and nurture (culture).

His research concludes that, yes, genetic heritage and linkages between most of the world’s Jews (the Mizrahim, Sephardim and Ashkenazim) date back thousands of years. But Judaism is not a “race,” given that anyone can freely convert, and today you will find Chinese Jews, Ethiopian Jews, etc. Rather, Pease believes culture is the most important driving influence behind Jewish achievement.

Among the cultural elements he highlights are:

The huge premium Jews have placed on literacy and education for more than 2,000 years. Every Jewish friend, colleague and family member I talked to stressed this factor. The Torah (the five books of the Jewish Bible) and the Talmud (recordings of rabbinic discussions) are intellectually complex and sophisticated. Serious practitioners of Judaism are required to study and learn the extensive, mentally rigorous laws. As noted earlier, throughout history, Jews have been expelled from many places and their belongings taken from them. Jews invested in knowledge for many reasons, among them because knowledge is portable and the only wealth that can’t be stolen.

Most Jews believe in progress. They are not passive, nor resigned. They think they have a duty to help improve things. They believe in free will and intend to exercise their minds and bodies to advance the ball in the directions they feel important.

Jews have long maintained very strong family values. They divorce less. They are mostly members of two-parent families. Most religious holiday events, even for secular Jews, are major family events, as is Shabbat (Friday night dinner). Loyalty to family and kin is highly valued.

Jewish lifestyle is generally healthy in terms of diet, and the approach to drugs and alcohol is moderate. Kosher conformance has served many purposes, but historically one of them has been to mandate healthy eating habits.

Jews typically demonstrate high levels of self-discipline (deferred gratification). We see it in their commitment to formal education, their careers, and their drive to achieve. Making the very best of your abilities is gospel to many Jews.

They encourage and develop their verbal skills and the inclination to speak up, make an argument, debate, and disagree if they feel strongly. (You’ve heard the old joke: “Two Jews; three opinions.”) Generally, reticence has not been esteemed. The Talmud, which Jews study, is a religious tract, but it is also essentially an ongoing academic debate over the evolution of Jewish law in light of changing circumstances.

Jews stand up for what they believe in. They have “grit.” They champion causes important to them. Wallflowers are rare!

Ethical behavior has been inculcated in Jews by the Torah and Talmud. God demands it.

Rationality is also embodied in the Talmud and in the lives of most Jews. One must deal with the facts on the ground and adapt. The Diaspora (the dispersion of the Jews beyond their original homeland) made anything less than this approach unfeasible. For most of 2,000 years, Jews had to exist as a small minority among other cultures, co-existing with countless other peoples, tribes, and cultures with substantially different beliefs and native languages. Staying alive demanded rationality and adaptability.

Jews almost never adopt the mentality of victims deserving of entitlement. God knows they have more right than most to adopt that view, but they do not. They do not believe they are entitled. Jews traditionally have fought for equal opportunity and they help those who are downtrodden.

In the same vein, Jews have traditionally felt a strong sense of duty to each other and to those less fortunate. Jews are among the most charitable and philanthropic of people. I can attest to this through my own personal experience during my career at United Way.

Yes, these are generalizations, but Pease says there is really nothing unique about any of these cultural attributes. In fact, most of them are consistent with the cultures of other high performing groups of people around the globe.

Yet the combination and intensity make for a uniquely Jewish experience, one that has undeniably produced more “good” far beyond expected norms.

Quite frankly, I simply do not have the expertise to either corroborate or refute any of these theories. I present them for your thoughtful consideration and encourage you to draw your own ultimate conclusions.

Be assured though that I am not alone in being awe-struck by the stunning accomplishments of the Jewish people. John Adams (second President of the United States, 1735-1826) said, “I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this earth. The Romans and their empire were but a bubble in comparison to the Jews.”

Winston Churchill said, “No thoughtful man can deny the fact that the Jews are, beyond any question, the most formidable and most remarkable people who have appeared in the world.”

I even found this quote from a rabbi who said, “I saw a remarkable study of the five most influential people of all time: Moses, Jesus, Marx, Freud and Einstein. All Jewish!”

And the beat goes on. Many of the products and services we enjoy today are provided to us by companies with Jewish founders and executives, including

  • Intel (Grove and Vadasz),
  • Google (Brin and Page),
  • Oracle (Ellison),
  • Microsoft (Balmer),
  • Dell (Dell), Qualcom (Jacobs) and
  • Facebook (Zuckerberg and Sandberg).

In finance, the names are legion: Rothschild, Warburg, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and many more.

My Jewish brother-in-law cautioned me not to make sweeping generalizations and most certainly not to say that Jews are just smarter than everyone else.

He worried that such a statement could play in to typical antisemitic stereotypes. Now I’m not worried about antisemitism within this group. But I won’t make the claim that Jews are smarter than everyone else for the simple reason that I could not find definitive, empirical evidence to support it.

What I do conclude unequivocally and with complete confidence is this: throughout history and continuing in to modern times, the Jewish people have made unparalleled contributions to the betterment of mankind, far disproportionate to their numeric representation in the world’s population. That fact, in my opinion, is irrefutable!

If I had more time (and you more patience), I would have liked to explore two other areas in which I believe Jews excel disproportionately to their numbers. The first is in philanthropy. Giving back to their communities is proscribed in Judaism. I observed this phenomenon time after time during my 17-year career at United Way. Simply put, the relatively small Jewish population of Des Moines contributes disproportionately to local philanthropic causes. I have some great quotes from and about Maddie Levitt which I’m itching to share, but alas, no time this time.

And second, the incredible contributions of the tiny nation of Israel. Of course not all Israelis are Jews, but most are. So consider this: according to the book, Start-Up Nation, Israel, an embattled sliver of a country only 70 years old, home to eight million people, or 1/1000th of the world’s population, has in proportion to its population, the largest number of startup companies in the world, the highest production of scientific publications per capita in the world, the highest ratio of university degrees, the highest percentage of home computers per capita, the most museums per capita, and I could go on and on.

All of the above while engaged in regular wars with implacable enemies that seek Israel’s destruction, and an economy continuously under strain by having to spend more per capita on its own protection than any other country on earth.

But since I don’t have time to explore these other issues, there may have to be another Proteus paper in the offing: “Jews: Who Knew? Part Two.”

Finally, I want to thank my friends,Shari and Stanley Engman, who encouraged me to pursue this topic; my brother-in-law and sister, Dr. David and Abbie Nash, who listened and offered feedback and helpful insights; and especially my friend and former neighbor, the late Sheldon Rabinowitz, grandson, nephew and brother of rabbis, and a student of history, whose advice and wise counsel were invaluable.

But wait – just when I thought I’d put this paper to bed, I got on the elevator in my building with Sheldon and his daughter, Elyse. She said to me, “I read your paper. If I hadn’t already been raised in the faith, it would have made me want to be Jewish.”

It made my day.

December 29, 2022 | 76 Comments »

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  2. Salomon Sulzer’s life was that of a pioneering Austrian cantor and composer who became known as the “father of modern synagogue music” for reforming Jewish liturgical music by combining traditional melodies with the harmony of classical European music. After a childhood accident that led to his mother dedicating him to a sacred career, he received extensive musical training and was appointed as the cantor of Vienna’s Seitenstettengasse Synagogue in 1826, a position he held for 54 years. His life included composing important works like Schir Zion, gaining admiration from composers like Franz Schubert, and becoming a prominent public figure who was even imprisoned briefly for his involvement in the 1848 revolution.
    Early life and training
    Childhood: Born in Hohenems, Austria, in 1804, Sulzer had a near-fatal childhood drowning accident. His mother then vowed to dedicate his life to a sacred career, which led to his extensive training in cantorial art.
    Early career: By age 16, he was appointed cantor and choirmaster in his hometown, modernizing the liturgy and introducing choral music to services.
    Advanced studies: He later received a conservatory education in composition and singing, studying with noted musicians such as Ignaz von Seyfried.
    Vienna and musical reforms
    Cantor in Vienna: In 1826, he was appointed the main cantor at the Seitenstettengasse Synagogue in Vienna.
    Modernization of synagogue music: Sulzer is credited with being the first musician in modern times to create a synagogue liturgy of high aesthetic quality by blending Jewish cantorial heritage with forms and techniques from modern European music.
    Schir Zion: His major work, Schir Zion (published in two volumes), was a collection of his compositions that included the application of classical harmony to traditional melodies and was widely adopted by modern synagogues.
    Relationship with other composers: He commissioned Franz Schubert to compose the 92nd psalm and performed with him, a testament to his respected status in the musical community.
    Later life and legacy
    Public life: Sulzer became a notable public figure in Vienna. He was involved in the 1848 revolution and was briefly imprisoned for it, and he was later honored by the city with titles such as Knight of the Order of Franz Josef.
    Continued influence: His influence was immense and widespread, carrying over into the 20th century, and many standard synagogue tunes today are based on his arrangements.
    Death: He died in 1890 and is remembered as a key figure in the renewal of Judaism in 19th-century Europe.

    AI Overview

    I read elsewhere that he wrote an autobiography entitled, “My Life” which I am trying to find. Schir Zion is on Amazon.

  3. Happy Birthday (November 5) to Devy Erlih (French violinist)!

    The French-born violinist, conductor and music pedagogue, Devy Erlih, was the son of Moldovan-Jewish immigrants. The family ran a café orchestra that performed in a Parisian brasserie, and by the age of 10 Devy was the star attraction with his fearless fiddling – all learned by ear. “It was a wonderful beginning,” he told Duchen. “It’s known that a child speaks his mother tongue after about three years of age – therefore he can speak music in the same way.” On one occasion the head of a French music society missed his train and called into the café, where Erlih was billed on a poster as “Le petit Devy”. After hearing him perform, he asked if the boy could play Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. “My father was certain that this offer was a fake, so he said, ‘Oh yes, no problem’,” recalled Erlih. But when the offer arrived in writing Erlih had to learn the music. Spurred into action, Erlih’s parents took him to Jules Boucherit, a well-known teacher at the Paris Conservatoire; but Boucherit demanded that Erlih cease his café work, so they went away. When war broke out, however, the café closed and the family returned to the teacher. Boucherit introduced Erlih to a wealthy Italian who encouraged Erlih to spend Sunday afternoons playing for his friends – who, he later learned, included de Gaulle’s private secretary, one of de Gaulle’s ministers and the Papal Nuncio, later Pope John XXIII.

    But one night Devy Erlih was given a tip-off and hid in a bookstore before leaving Paris for the countryside. “The next Sunday the Gestapo came looking for ‘the little Jew who played the violin’. They knew all about me,” he said. At this point, however, Erlih’s Italian benefactor, a Signor Ferretti, pulled a business card from his wallet signed by Benito Mussolini. The Gestapo troubled Erlih no more.

    After the war Devy Erlih resumed his studies, won the Conservatoire’s Premier Prix and began his international career, including an appearance at the Proms in London in September 1946 playing F. Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Basil Cameron. Several London recitals followed, including at the Wigmore Hall in 1952, where a critic noted how “he brought a powerful and beguiling tone, and the intelligence that made Bach’s Chaconne not a display of bravura but an intimate confession”. The following year he played the Second Sonata by George Enescu (with whom he had worked in Paris) with “refreshing zest and brilliance”.

    In 1955 Devy Erlih won the Long-Thibaud competition in Paris, the last Frenchman to win (though a Frenchwoman, Solenne Païdassi, won in 2010, when Erlih chaired the jury). Thereafter his career took him around Europe, America and Japan. In the meantime, Boucherit had thrown Erlih out of his class for daring to study works by Béla Bartók. News soon spread that he would champion almost any modern composer. “I made a point that any time I was in contact with a composer I would ask him to write a violin concerto. Why not?”

    Devy Erlih combined the raw gipsy music styles of his Balkan heritage and the refined elegance of the French school. He was also a forward-looking musician, performing works by Igor Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Béla Bartók at a time when they were dismissed by the French musical elite. He became passionate about contemporary music, and gave the world premiere of Milhaud’s Second Violin Concerto and the Japanese premiere of Henri Dutilleux’s L’arbre des songe. He also premiered concertos by Bruno Maderna, Henri Sauguet, Henri Tomasi, and others. He championed music by Maurice Jarre and several major works by André Jolivet, including the 1972 Violin Concerto and the Suite rhapsodique. After Jolivet’s death, Erlih married the composer’s daughter, Christine. For Erlih, performing was more than just hitting the right notes: it was also an intellectual quest. “There is constant evolution,” he told Jessica Duchen in The Strad three years ago. “And to me there is no such thing as one way to do things.”

    Devy Erlih joined the teaching staff of the Marseille Conservatoire in 1968, and joined the Paris Conservatoire in 1982. He formed Les Solistes de Marseilles in 1973, and from 1977 directed the Centre provençal de musique de chambre. He was president of the jury for the 2010 Jacques Thibaud Competition. His own compositions included La Robe de plumes, commissioned by Rita Hayworth in 1965. If in his later years promoters lost interest, fellow violinists never did. Names such as Isaac Stern, Philippe Graffin and the Manhattan String Quartet would drop by for coaching, mentoring or simple words of encouragement. And, even in his eighties, Erlih could be seen at almost every Parisian concert of contemporary music. He was still teaching up to 80 students a year at the École Normale de Musique.

    Devy Erlih died in a road accident in Paris on Tuesday morning, February 7, 2012. He was on his way to the École Normale de Musique when he was hit by a truck. He was 83 years old. He is survived by two daughters of his first marriage, by his second wife, Christine Jolivet, whom he married in 1977, and by their daughter.

    Sources:

    Obituaries in The Telergraph (April 4, 2012), The Strad (April 9, 2012) & Aryeh Oron (July 2015)

    https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16qP9nkGLy/?mibextid=wwXIfr

  5. Haydée Chikly Tamzali was a Tunisian-Jewish actress, writer, and filmmaker who played an essential role in the development of Arabic and African cinema. She was born #ThisWeekInHistory in 1906.

    Chikly began working with her father as a young girl. When she was 16, he directed her in her first starring role in the short film “Zohra” (1922), which was written by Chikly herself and is considered the first fiction film made in Tunisia. She served as her father’s muse and was able to participate in various aspects of filmmaking, including film editing and hand-coloring.

    Still from film “Zohra” (1922).

    Jewish Women’s Archive on FB

    https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid032oNAtC6oxYtRp4xXJALiX39qVZbk9Xx7RCvr8BLfUU2X7UeD886a14z6vuZJXfS6l&id=100064492372229

  7. * Nobel-Winning Jewish Genius Who Captured Color from Light*

    On August 16, 1845, in the Luxembourg suburb of Bonnevoie, Gabriel Lippmann was born to Miriam Rose (Lévy) and Isaïe Lippmann, who managed the family glove-making business. From these modest beginnings, Lippmann would rise to become one of the great scientific minds of his generation, earning the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physics.

    A child of Jewish heritage in a rapidly changing Europe, Lippmann’s intellectual gifts set him apart early. He pursued studies in physics and mathematics, later joining the prestigious École Normale Supérieure in Paris. His brilliance lay in the fusion of theory and experiment. Lippmann made contributions across a wide range of fields, from thermodynamics to electricity, but his most groundbreaking achievement was in the realm of color photography.

    He developed the “interference method,” a revolutionary photographic process that made it possible to reproduce natural colors for the first time, using the physics of light waves rather than pigments or dyes. This was a profound leap, as it showed that technology could mirror nature itself with scientific precision. It was this work that earned him the Nobel Prize.

    Lippmann’s identity as a Jew in 19th- and early 20th-century Europe was not incidental. The intellectual rigor, persistence, and questioning spirit that characterized Jewish life and learning infused his approach to science. Despite the challenges faced by Jews in the academic and professional world of his time, Lippmann’s career flourished, and he became a symbol of Jewish brilliance contributing to universal human knowledge.

    He passed away in 1921, but his legacy remains alive every time we encounter the vibrant world of color photography. Lippmann’s life is a reminder of how Jewish perseverance, combined with scientific genius, has shaped the modern age.

    https://www.facebook.com/share/173NFjZ37P/?mibextid=wwXIfr

  10. Did you know that, for the first time ever, Superman is being portrayed by a Jewish actor in a major film?

    David Corenswet is making history as the first Jewish Superman, a proud milestone and a win for representation!

    Superman’s creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, were Jewish children of immigrants, and the character’s story reflects many themes from the Jewish experience. Even his Kryptonian name, Kal-El, has Hebrew roots, meaning “voice of God.”

    The film also stars Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, known for her iconic Jewish role in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Jewish actor Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, an alumnus of Jewish day schools.

    This is a huge moment for Jewish and comic book fans alike as the movie hits theaters next week! We’re basking in Jewish pride!

    -UJA Federation of Greater Toronto on FB

    1

  11. Marcel Marceau’s Holocaust heroism is the focus of a new off-Broadway play
    Starring and co-written by Jewish actor Ethan Slater, ‘Marcel on the Train’ explores the legendary mime’s early days in the French resistance.

    …Marcel Marceau was born Marcel Mangel in 1923 in Strasbourg, France — an important Jewish hub at the time — to Anne Werzberg and Charles Mangel, a kosher butcher.

    To better blend in with their non-Jewish neighbors, Marceau and his brother, Alain, took on the surname Marceau — borrowing it from an Alsatian general in Napoleon’s army, François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers. Around 1940, as the war began, Marcel and Alain and their parents moved to Limoges in southwestern France, and then to Paris, with false identification papers.

    In 1943, Marcel Marceau was recruited into the French resistance by his younger cousin, Georges Loinger. Marceau helped evacuate the Jewish children hidden in an orphanage in the Parisian suburb of Sèvres, and brought them to Annemasse on the border with neutral Switzerland. To evade detection by the Nazis, the group dressed as and posed as a boy scout troop.

    Marceau made the journey three times, rescuing 24 children each time.

    Having been raised on the silent films of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, Marceau had developed a passion for physical comedy and pantomime. As a young man, he used his fledgling talents during these train journeys to the Swiss border, where he used pantomime to keep the children quietly entertained.

    “The kids loved Marcel and felt safe with him,” Loinger told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 2007. “He had already begun doing performances in the orphanage, where he had met a mime instructor earlier on. The kids had to appear like they were simply going on vacation to a home near the Swiss border, and Marcel really put them at ease.”

    After France was liberated in 1944, Marceau joined the French army. (He would later find out that his father had been deported to Auschwitz and died there in 1944.) He also gave his first public miming performance the following year in front of American troops.

    In 1947, he created his famous, tragicomic “Bip the Clown” character. Bip’s look cemented the prototypical image of a classic French mime that we think of today: a white, brightly made-up face, a striped shirt and a torn-up hat with a red flower poking out.

    “You see the pain and the sadness in his mime skits,” Loinger said. “The origin of that pain was his father’s deportation.”

    In the following decades, Marceu made stage appearances across the globe. He also appeared in films like “Barbarella” and Mel Brooks’ “Silent Movie.” He became an Officer of the Legion of Honor in France, the highest order of merit in the country, in 1986.

    Marceau died in 2007 at age 84….

    https://www.jta.org/2025/06/16/ny/marcel-marceaus-holocaust-heroism-is-the-focus-of-a-new-off-broadway-play

  12. House resolution praises ‘enduring contributions of Jewish Americans’

    …The resolution singled out several accomplished Jews, including the inventors Irving Naxon (slow cooker), Sylvan Goldman (shopping cart) and Edwin Land (Polaroid instant camera). It also named Ruth Handler, who founded Mattel and invented the Barbie doll, and Ralph Baer, whose “Brown Box” was a prototype for the first multiplayer, multiprogram video game system, as well as the actress Hedy Lamarr, whose concept of “frequency hopping” made possible such wireless communications technologies as wifi, GPS and bluetooth…

    https://www.jns.org/house-resolution-praises-enduring-contributions-of-jewish-americans/

  13. Eduard Reményi and His Relationship with Johannes Brahms

    Introduction to Eduard Reményi

    Eduard Reményi (1828–1898) was a Hungarian violinist of Jewish origin, renowned for his passionate playing style and his role in popularizing Hungarian folk idioms in classical music. Born in Miskolc, Hungary, Reményi studied at the Vienna Conservatory and later became a court violinist for Queen Victoria in London. He was a fervent patriot, exiled due to his support of the 1848 Hungarian revolution. His life was marked by artistic wanderings across Europe and America, but perhaps one of his most important contributions to music history is his early and formative relationship with Johannes Brahms.

    First Encounter with Brahms (1853)

    In 1853, Reményi, already a well-traveled and fiery violinist, returned to Hamburg where he was introduced to a 20-year-old Johannes Brahms, then a virtually unknown pianist and aspiring composer. The two embarked on a concert tour across northern Germany, with Brahms serving as Reményi’s piano accompanist.

    This tour was more than just a professional arrangement—it became a crucial formative period for Brahms, exposing him to Hungarian and Romani (gypsy) musical traditions that would later deeply influence his compositional voice, especially in his Hungarian Dances and other works with Hungarian stylistic elements.

    Mutual Influence and Musical Synergy

    Reményi’s fiery temperament and dazzling violin technique, along with his profound understanding of Hungarian folk idioms, made a lasting impression on Brahms. During their travels, Brahms learned to improvise in the Hungarian style at the piano, and these improvisations became crowd favorites. It was through this immersion that Brahms absorbed the rhythmic vitality, modal colors, and improvisatory spirit of Hungarian music.

    This musical synergy planted the seeds for works such as:

    • Hungarian Dances (1869–1880), particularly Nos. 1, 5, and 6, which reflect the verbunkos and csárdás styles Reményi performed.

    • Zigeunerlieder, Op. 103, a set of gypsy-inspired songs for vocal quartet and piano.

    Introduction to Joseph Joachim

    A turning point in Brahms’s career came thanks to Reményi. During their tour, they visited the court of Weimar and then made their way to Hanover, where Reményi introduced Brahms to the virtuoso violinist Joseph Joachim, who was already a towering figure in German musical life and closely associated with composers such as Mendelssohn and Schumann.

    Joachim was so impressed by Brahms’s talent that he wrote a glowing recommendation letter to Robert Schumann, calling Brahms a “genius.” This ultimately led to the legendary meeting between Brahms and the Schumanns in Düsseldorf in the autumn of 1853, which launched Brahms’s public career.

    Ironically, after facilitating this introduction, Reményi soon quarreled with both Joachim and Brahms, likely due to his volatile personality and perceived slights. He fell out with Brahms not long after their tour and the two never reconciled. Reményi resented the fact that Brahms would go on to use Hungarian idioms so prominently in his works without acknowledging Reményi’s formative influence more explicitly.

    Legacy of the Relationship

    Though their relationship was short-lived and ended in bitterness, the artistic debt Brahms owed to Reményi was substantial. Without Reményi:

    • Brahms may never have absorbed Hungarian musical idioms in such a direct and vivid manner.

    • He may not have met Joachim, and thus, not met the Schumanns so early in his life.

    • His development as a stylistically versatile and rhythmically bold composer might have taken a different course.

    Reményi himself would continue to have a respectable career, traveling and performing until his death in 1898 (reportedly dying on stage during a performance), but he remained somewhat bitter about his fractured relationship with Brahms.

    Conclusion

    Eduard Reményi played a pivotal but often underappreciated role in shaping the early career of Johannes Brahms. Their tour in 1853 was a musical and spiritual apprenticeship for the young composer, providing him with a direct connection to the passionate, improvisational world of Hungarian folk music. Although their friendship did not endure, the artistic legacy of their brief collaboration lives on in some of Brahms’s most beloved and spirited works.

    popped up from Brahms group in FB.

  14. TEN Individuals………..So???

    Warhol was commissioned to do these works likely VERY well paid. There are dozens, hundreds, thousands just as and some even more impressive.

    Take for instance likely the most famous and distinguished woman in Jewish History, never mind the probably mythical Matriarchs.

    Dona Gracia Nasi…….You’ve never hear of her?? LOOK HER UP?…!!

    I have her biography….incredibly incredible.

  15. Naturally impressive list but still lacking many subjects.

    I won’t delve into any of the issues raised,…..except to say that Singer didn’t invent the sewing machine. He just built on the patented inventions of many other precursors who’d already invented workable-and working- sewing machines, from as far back as the late 1700s.
    I would suspect that there are other “entrants” who have done the same thing.

  16. Salamone Rossi – important Jewish violist and composer during the 16th century Italian Renaissance, mentioned in “Lives of the Great Composers” by Harold Schoenberg.

    Salamone de’ Rossi became the leading Jewish composer of the late Italian Renaissance, and a court musician of the Gonzaga rulers of Mantua. Very little is known about his life. He was apparently the son of a certain Bonaiuto (Azariah) de’ Rossi; but this Azariah cannot be identical with the well-known philosopher of the same name who expressed regret that he had no sons to survive him.

    Rossi’s published works ranging between the years 1589-1628 are the only direct documentation on his life and work. It has been assumed that he was born about 1570. He entered the service of Duke Vicenzo I in 1587 as a singer and viola player, and soon became the leader of the duke’s musical establishment and of an instrumental ensemble composed most probably of Jewish musicians. In 1606, Duke Vincenzo I freed Rossi of the requirement to wear the yellow badge imposed on the Jewish community of the city, and this privilege was renewed in 1612 by the new duke, Francesco II. Rossi’s group achieved a high reputation and was occasionally loaned to neighboring courts, as in 1612 when Alessandro, duke of Mirandola, invited “the Jew Salamon and his company” to his court. Rossi’s name as a violist appears on the ducal payrolls until the year 1622. The death of the last Gonzaga duke and the sack of Mantua by the Austrian army (1628-30) put an end to the golden age of Mantuan court music. In that year many Jews fled to the Venetian ghetto where the Mantuan music circle found a certain measure of continuation in the Jewish musical Accademia degli Impediti. This group was sponsored by Rossi’s patron, the famed Leone Modena, although it cannot be ascertained whether Rossi himself was still alive and active in the Accademia.

    With Salamone de’ Rossi, a peak was reached in Jewish contributions to Western art music. He was perhaps the last, but certainly the most important, of a long and distinguished list of Jewish court musicians (instrumentalists, singers, dancers, players) who were active in Mantua throughout the 16th century.

    At the Mantuan court Rossi developed his abilities through a constant exchange of views and techniques in composition with the well-known musicians of the court.

    Like the other Mantuan court musicians, Rossi started as a madrigalist but soon tried his creative talents at the new style of ornamental monody, i.e., songs or instrumental pieces with one leading solo voice supported by a fundamental bass. He is considered the pioneer of these new baroque forms which include the trio sonata and suite. As a Jewish musician, his lasting contribution is his Ha-Shirim Asher li-Shelomo, 33 settings for three to eight voices of Hebrew texts, comprising psalms, hymns, and other religious poems for festive synagogue services. The settings are composed in the then prevailing a cappella style of Palestrina and G. Gabrieli, with intent to regenerate traditional musical liturgy with polyphonic choral settings.

    https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/salamone-de-rossi

  17. SEB-

    Bethel Solomons was a well known doctor specialising in women’s ailments. I recall him telling me as a very young Med student, that the Rotunda Lying-in hospital was unique in the world.

    He said that it was the only place where medicos could examine and study women who routinely would have had 12-15 children.
    Ireland was a verbrente Catholic country which banned birth control then. Students, doctors and other medical people came from all over the world to visit there.

  18. SEB-

    I see you unearthed a lot about Jewish sportsman of Ireland. I knew every one of them and played both with and against several, Notably Louis Jacobson, whose brother Noel Jameson, was a very good frien d of mine besides being on my Carlisle team.

    From what I’ve disclosed you’ll even get my name. but to Israpundit I am Edgar G

  19. SEB-

    I would think it was…..in 1908.

    Look up Louis Bookman, I would think that there would be a Large Article as he was very famous. I saw it some years ago and I’m sure Adelaide was named. Adelaide Rd Synagogue is the largest shool ever built in Ireland.

    Let me know if you find it.

  21. “Irish Jews in sport
    edit
    Bethel Solomons played rugby union for Wesley College and for Ireland earning 10 caps from 1907 to 1910.[53][54]
    The Lithuanian born Louis Buchalter (later Bookman) (1890–1943) who moved to Ireland as a child, played soccer at international level for Ireland (winning the Home International Championship in 1914), as well as playing at club level for Shelbourne and Belfast Celtic, he also played cricket for Railway Union Cricket Club, the Leinster Cricket Club and for the Irish National Cricket Team.
    Louis Collins Jacobson played cricket for Ireland opening the innings on 12 occasions, and also at club level in Dublin as the opening bat for Clontarf C.C. and earlier, for Carlisle Cricket Club in Kimmage which was made up of members of the Dublin Jewish community.[55]
    Dublin Maccabi was a soccer team in Kimmage/Terenure/Rathgar. They played in the Dublin Amateur Leagues; only players who were Jewish played for them. Maccabi played their games in the KCR grounds which opened in the 1950s. They disbanded in 1995 due to dwindling numbers and disputes over fees, and many of their players joined the Parkvale F.C.
    For a time, the Dublin Jewish Chess Club played in the Leinster Chess Leagues, winning the Ennis Shield in 1936 and being promoted to play in the Armstrong Cup.[citation needed] Riga born Philip Baker (1880–1932) was Irish Chess Champion in 1924, 1927, 1928 and 1929.[citation needed]
    There was also a Dublin Jewish Boxing Club, on the south side of the city. It was based for its whole existence of many years, in the basement of the Adelaide Road Synagogue, which was the largest synagogue in the country. Many fine boxers were produced, amongst whom were Sydney Curland, Freddie Rosenfield, Gerry Kostick, Frank and Henry Isaacson, and Zerrick Woolfson. As a boxer, Gerry Kostick represented Ireland at the 1949 Maccabiah Games and the 1953 Maccabiah Games and, representing Trinity College Dublin, won two Universities Athletic Union titles. Kostick also played rugby and football for Carlisle for over ten years, while Woolfson also played cricket for Carlisle C.C. for several years, and, in 1949 for Dublin University, when he bowled a hat-trick in his first match. As reported in the newspapers, he dismissed J.V.Luce, Mick Dargan, and Gerry Quinn with 3 successive balls. They were all very competent, current international players. He also played first division table-tennis for Anglesea T.T.C. as the number 3 player, joining Willie Heron and Ernie Sterne, both international players, on the 1st team.
    Enon Gavin played Gaelic football for Roscommon in the 1990s, winning an All Star Award in 1991.[56]”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Ireland

    Trying to avoid Wikipedia after their editors’ reprehensible decision to call Israel’s intervention in Gaza a genocide and entitle an article that way but sometimes there really is nothing else.

  23. My beloved late father was the captain of the earliest Jewish soccer team in Ireland. They won the All-Ireland Under 18 cup. The club was called “Adelaide”, which was also the name of the largest shool in Ireland.

    One of the players was a little boy aged 14. His name was Louis Bookman_(Buchalter). As an adult he became a soccer star, although only about 5’6″ tall. He played professionally for several top class Irish clubs, was an International with about 10 caps or so, During this period he was signed by Blackburn Rovers a Premier League English club, and eventually a couple of others..
    He was also an Irish International cricketer.
    For a couple of years his daughter was my girl friend. I spent many hours in their front room looking through the several bursting scrap books they had.
    He finished as a watchmaker.

    I recall telling this site all about him several years ago……but no one was interested……………

    1

  24. My beloved late father was the captain of the earliest Jewish soccer team in Ireland. They won the All-Ireland Under 18 cup. The club was called “Adelaide”, which wa also the name of the largest shool in Ireland.

    One of the players was a little boy aged 14. His name was Louis Bookman_(Buchalter). As an adult he became a soccer star, although only about 5’6″ tall. He played professionally for several top class Irish clubs, was an International with about 10 caps or so, During this period ne was signed by Blackburn Rovers a Premier League English club, and eventually a couple of others..
    He was also an Irish International cricketer.
    For a couple of years his daughter was my girl friend. I spent many hours in their front room looking through the several bursting scrap books they had.
    He finifhed as a watchmaker.

    I recall telling this site all about him several years ago.

  26. Seb-

    How co-incidental. I knew Marty Reisman, I was at a couple of parties with him and other famous Jewish Table tennis plyers.

    He came over to Dublin as second string to Richard Miles the US Champ. He played Viktor Barna in the semis, and after 3 games in which hed’ lost 2 he came around the table to congratulate Barna,( about 45 then with a steel plate in his arm from war wounds.) who although 20 years past his best was still a world class player.

    Reisman knew of course that it was “the best of 5 not 3” and hoped to put Barna off. He did and won in 5 sets. He was only about 16 then and later became a “money player”, betting on himself under severe handicaps like tying him to a chair etc. A Houdini sort (????)
    What is Ireland we’d call “a chancer”. But he was a very successful one.

    I didn’t like him, brash, boastful and vulgar I though then. To me, the sport was the thing, win or lose. Still is.

    P.S, The writer, although she’s collected many wll known facts that most Jews know -or should- missed out on the sports capability of Jews.

    Table tennis for instance, for many years was known as “The Jewish sport” as the vast majority of top players and World champs male and female were Jews.
    Boxing- Very many top fighters and champions were Jews. In New York alone, in the 1920-30s period there were more Jewish boxers than are today in the whole world for all races.
    Some are all Time Greats with records which will never be broken. And Baseball and American Football have had many Jewish standouts-even in our lifetime.
    Also…….in the realm of Gangsterdom…………Ahem…..!!!

    Not to forget that Hollywood was created by Jews and all the Major Studios were Jewish owned and operated.

    The was a really funny quip about Hollywood, in a book by EJdra goodman (a Jew) “The rise and fall of 50 years of Hollywood”.

    It was, “in Hollywood, The Son-in-Law Also Rises”
    Those who read Hemingway will recognise it…….and I hope, appreciate it.