Worldwide Jewish Population

 

If you start with a kid born in the year 2000  here is the geometric progression

This kid will have 1,099,511,627,776 direct ancestors if he/she traces his/her roots to the year 1000 for a total of 41 generations.

The further you go back in time, the more duplicate ancestors you find -- due to distant cousins marrying, most likely not realizing that they are cousins.  Over a large number of generations (41 is a large number) it becomes meaningless to talk of being descended from any one specific person.  The proportion of genes you share in common with any one person of 41 generations back, is somewhere in the range of 1/2 to the negative power of 41 -- i.e. negligible, especially since geneticists generally claim that the human genome consists of only a few hundred thousand genes in total.  And the difference between your kinship with that one person, and with any other contemporary person of 41 generations ago is meaningless.

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Comparing the beginning of the last century, as opposed to what it is today, these
are the statistics ...

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Cohanim

Cohanim are the 'sons of Aaron' and there is a web site dedicated to gather together and to discuss important family/tribal matters.  You must join first in order to contribute to the discussions
http://communities.msn.com/cohanim/ 

The terms "halevi" and "hacohen" refer to the person's descent from the tribe of Levi who became assistants to the priestly class of Cohen.  These positions are defined in the Bible and are, in Orthodox congregations, still observed as positions of great honor.  Therefore, to indicate the prestige associated with the fact that these people had great family honor (yichus), these adjectives are added to their names.

In present day Orthodox congregations this honor is preserved in 2 ways.  One way is when people are called to read from the Torah on Saturday morning services, the first called is a Cohen and the second called is a Levi.  The second way is when the priestly blessing is chanted; the Levis in the congregation have the honor of assisting the Cohens who chant the blessing with their heads covered by their prayer shawls.

Another vestige of this position of honor and responsibility is when the first born male is ransomed from being required to serve the priestly class in the ceremony called "Pidyan ha Ben", which takes place 30 days after birth.  The previous information was contributed by Gene Sucov in a posting.

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Cousin Marriages

Cousin marriages were very common during the 19th century and earlier in Eastern European Jewish communities.  One major reason was that when people lived in small communities, the available matches were small.  Sometimes only a cousin was available.  Also, there weren't prohibitions or knowledge of the possible negative genetic effects.  There were also advantages of keeping whatever wealth a family had "within the family".

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Einstein, Albert

"Albert Einstein is one of the most famous Jews of the 20th century. He was best known for simply being a genius. Most recently, he was honored as Time Magazine™s 
person of the century. Most people recall his scientific achievements, which have profoundly affected our everyday lives. I wanted however, to focus on Albert Einstein the Jew. Throughout his life, Einstein always identified with Zionism and maintained a sense of fairness and justice.

More importantly, he remained fiercely loyal to Jews. Whenever his name could help, he always made it readily available.

For instance, he allowed Yeshiva University to name its medical school The Albert Einstein College of Medicine.  Also, many other Jewish sponsored hospitals in the 1930s carried his name.
 

There is a very telling story about Rabbi Telushkinâ's aunt. It seems she was on the board of a Jewish sponsored hospital in New York. She sent a letter to Albert Einstein asking for his support. Within a week he accepted and lent his name for their letterhead.

A brief timeline of 1905 gives us a glimpse into his world. In February of that year, he completed his PhD thesis. The following month he discovered that light travels in both wave and particle form. In May, he proved the existence of atoms with experiments on boiling water. He disproved Isaac Newton's theory of absolute time with his special theory of relativity in June. His contemporaries at the time said this was perhaps the greatest achievement in the history of human thought. All this was done while working as a clerk at a patent office.

In 1914, Germany declared war on Russia, and Einstein was conflicted between his ideals of nationalism and pacifism. He was appointed to a position at the League of Europe, and called for peace by signing the Manifesto of Europe. The following year he published his second major paper, The General Theory of Relativity. This paper included a section explaining how gravity can bend light.

At the start of World War I, Chaim Weitzman was a biochemist working for the government of England. He had just discovered a particular strain of bacterium that could synthesize acetone. This was essential for the manufacture of the explosive cordite. Before Weitzman's discovery, explosives were very unstable and could blow at any point. At the outbreak of war, he moved to a lab under the direction of
A. J. Balfour.

At this time, Einstein was known as the German that opposed the war. But he was prepared to use his fame to heal the world's wounds by preaching world peace, reforming educational systems, restoring international scientific cooperation, and ensuring the welfare of European Jews.

But as his fame grew he was attacked at lectures and in the press. The majority of scientists still could not understand relativity.

When the war ended, Germans as a whole were bitter about their defeat. Einstein became the focus of their hatred. At this point he was not considered a German or Swiss, but a Socialist and a Jew. He was indeed a pacifist and Zionist.

After the war, the dismal economy in Germany was blamed on the Jews. The ranks of unemployed provided recruits for the extremist political views that were taking hold in Germany.

An interesting thing happened in 1919. On the morning of November 7th, a solar eclipse expedition confirmed Einstein's theory about gravity bending light. Einstein awoke to find himself famous worldwide. He was initially puzzled by his celebrity status, but immediately put it to his advantage. He sold pictures of himself to journalists and sent the money to an orphanage for war refugees.

In 1922, the same year that Hitler started the Nazi party, Einstein accepted an intellectual position in the newly formed League of Nations the precursor to the United Nations. The problem with the League was the victors of the first world war excluded Germany from the multinational organization. That put Einstein in a precarious political position with German nationals.

Later that year, Einstein's friend Walter Rathenau, Foreign Minister of Weimar Republic, was assassinated by right wing extremists. He was Jewish, and had just established diplomatic relations with the Bolshevik Soviet State.

Albert Einstein knew he was a target for Nazi aggression and wanted to leave. His contemporaries like Max Plank strongly urged him to stay in the name of German nationalism.

Chaim Weitzman, the leader of the Zionist Movement, went on a fundraising tour of the United States in 1922. The goal was to establish a Jewish homeland. He brought Einstein who had just received the Nobel Prize for his 1905 paper along with him. This was Albert Einstein's first trip to America. His superstar status was still on the rise.

On his Judaism, Einstein said, "I am not much with people, nor a family man. I want my peace. I want to know how G-d created this world. I am not interested in this phenomenon, or that spectrum, or this element. I want to know His thoughts. The rest are details"�.

Sadly, Albert Einstein could not get personal with Hashem. His G-d appears as the physical world itself with its infinite beauty at the atomic level. He did not believe in life after death. His G-d stood for an orderly system obeying rules. Those rules could be discovered by those who had courage, imagination, and persistence. Albert Einstein tried to find the law within the laws of nature. He wanted science to pick up where he felt religion left off. Later in life, he saw both as different sides of the same coin.

In the early 1930s, Einstein recognized the threat of Hitler, and worked through harsh immigration quotas imposed against Jews. He wrote countless affidavits and helped as many refugees as possible. So many, in fact, that by 1938 his signature on a document no longer carried any weight.

At the same time, he was busy raising funds for organizations like United Jewish Appeal, and continued his work toward securing a Jewish homeland.

In Germany, Albert Einstein and his work became seen as a Jewish plot to pollute science. There was a division in the physics community between the perceived right of Aryans and the perceived wrong of the Jews.

True physics is the creation of German Spirit� said one German paper. Nazis claimed all the great discoveries from Galileo to Newton as Aryan accomplishments.

By the late 1930s, the world was poised for another war. Einstein still had friends in Germany physicists who were working on separating uranium for Germany's atomic bomb. They kept Einstein informed as to their progress. It was he who alerted Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1939 that Germany's labs were getting close to success.

Einstein helped establish the Manhattan Project and received an appointment in the US Navy.  He actually opposed the use of atomic bombs, and instead urged the US to demonstrate the weapon to foreign governments rather than use it on an actual target.

Germany had all the minds to create the atomic bomb, but because of their anti-Semitism, they chased Albert Einstein, Lise Meitner and hundreds of other qualified Jewish minds out of Germany and into Allied nations.

Throughout the 1940s, Einstein was at the forefront of the campaign waged by atomic scientists to educate the public and world leaders about the implications of nuclear energy. In a letter to David Ben Gurion he wrote, My relationship to the Jewish people has become my strongest bond ever since I became aware of our precarious situation among the nations of the world.�

In 1952, after the first president of Israel, Chaim Weitzman died, Albert Einstein was offered the presidency by Ben-Gurion. In a touching letter, he wrote, "I am deeply moved by the offer from our State of Israel, and at once saddened and ashamed that I cannot accept it."�

Einstein's profoundly simple, childlike nature was the epitome of the absent minded professor. He was the Jew that it was impossible to hate.
http://www.imageusa.com/index.php/community-articles/1146.html?
task=view

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Family Tree Info

If you want more information about your family tree try this site http://news6.thdo.bbc.co.uk/ 

and type in Family at the top right corner to search.  You'll be amazed and astounded, I am sure, (as I was) with what can be found here.

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George Washington and a Jewish Soldier

The following is a translation from the Hebrew text taken from the book, Pardes Chanukah. From the personal journal of a Jewish Soldier who fought side by side with General George Washington at Valley Forge during the period of Chanukah.

"It is Chanukah in the year of 1776. The winter is hard and the cold is fearsome. We are sitting in Valley Forge and waiting. Waiting for what? I do not know. Possibly, for days better than those at hand. I am to my knowledge the only Jew here. Possibly, there are others, however, I do not recognize any as such."

"We are starving for bread. We have no clothes to warm our bodies and no shoes for our feet. Most of the soldiers curse General Washington who went to fight the English. There are also those among us who seek and hope for his downfall; however, I believe justice is with him. We need to remove Britain from the colonies. Britain seeks to extend her hand upon all she sees."

"I believe with all my heart in General Washington though we suffer here so greatly. I observe the General as he is passing at night in the camp among the sleeping troops. He looks upon them with compassion as they struggle with the cold. There are those among them that he approaches to cover as a father would his son. There are those who suffer with the famine and cold bringing them to the brink of death. However, I do not curse General Washington who fights to bring independence to America."

"At these moments, I am reminded of my father in Poland . I recall how much he suffered at the hands of the cruel Baron. I remember I was but a youngster and saw my father dance before the Baron. How terrible was the sight. My father was made to dress up in the skin of a white bear and he danced for the sport of the Baron and his guests. How great is my pain and shame. Father dances as a bear and the Baron jests and revels. I affirm in my heart that I will never be so humiliated myself. At my first opportunity, I set sail to America 

"Behold; I am at Valley Forge and trembling from the cold. There are rumors in the camp that General Washington is about to fall. However, I firmly believe he will surely succeed. I sleep at nights and pray for his welfare."

"It is now the first night of Chanukah. This very night, two years ago, I fled from my father's home in Poland . My father gave me a Chanukah menorah and said, "When you will light, my son, these candles for Chanukah, they will illuminate the path for you." From that day on, my menorah was as an amulet. Wherever I go, I take it with me. I do not know what to do here and now; to light the menorah among the gentiles or not. I resolve to wait until all are asleep."

"When all are sleeping, I take out my father's menorah. I light the first candle and say the blessings. I gaze upon the flame and I see the home of my parents. I see once again my father dancing as a bear before the Baron with tears welling up in the eyes of my mother. My heart is filled with pain and I burst forth in tears like a young child. I resolve that for the sake of my parents and siblings left in Poland , I will assist the General with all my might, to make America free and a land of refuge for my entire family who suffer so harshly."

"Suddenly, I feel a soft, tender hand upon my head. I lift my eyes, and behold it is him, in all his majesty, standing upon me. He asks me, "Why soldier do you cry? Is it then so very cold?" Pain and compassion are in his voice. I could not bear his pain, and I jumped up from my place. I forgot at that moment that I am a soldier in the presence of my superior, and spoke before him as a child to a parent. "My master the General," I said. "I cry and pray for your victory. I am certain with the help of G-d, we shall prevail. Today, the enemy is strong; tomorrow they will surely fall, for justice is with us. We seek to be free in this land; we desire to build a country for all who flee from oppression and suffer abroad. The Barons will not rule here. The enemy will falter and you will succeed."

"The General shook my hand. "Thank you, soldier," he said, and sat at my side next to the menorah. "What is this?" asked the General. I told him I brought it from my parent's home. Jews the world over light this menorah to celebrate the great miracle of Chanukah and the miraculous salvation of the Jews. The light of the Chanukah menorah danced in the eyes of General Washington as he called forth in joy, "You are a Jew from the children of prophets and you declared that we shall prevail." "Yes my master," I answered with confidence. We will be victorious as the Maccabees of old, for our own sake and the sake of all who follow us to build a new land and a new life."

"The General got up; his face was ablaze. He shook my hand and disappeared into the darkness. My faith was rewarded, victory was achieved, and peace reigned in the land. My General became the leader of our new country, and I became one of its citizens."
 
"I quickly forgot those frightful days and nights at Valley Forge . However, that first night of Chanukah, with General Washington, I carried in my heart always as a precious dream. I never told anyone of my encounter, for I reasoned, who would believe me. Certain I was that General Washington himself had long forgotten the matter. However, this was not to be. He indeed had not forgotten that night at all."

"The first night of Chanukah the following year of 1777, I was sitting in my house in New York on Broome Street , with the Chanukah light in my window. Suddenly, I heard a knock on the door. I opened the door, and incredibly, my General, George Washington is standing in the doorway. "Behold, the wondrous flame, the flame of hope of all Jewry," he called forth in joy as he gazed upon its light."

"The General placed his hand upon my shoulder and said, "This light and your beautiful words lit a flame in my heart that night. Surely, you and your comrades will receive due recognition for all of your valor at Valley Forge . But this night, accept from me, this medallion." He hung the medallion of gold upon my chest and shook my hand. Tears came to my eyes; I couldn't say a word. The General shook my hand once again and left the house."

"I stirred as if coming from a beautiful dream. I then looked upon my medallion and saw a beautiful engraving of a Chanukah menorah with the first candle lit. Below was written, "As an expression of gratitude for the candle of your menorah."

This medallion is part of the permanent collection in the Jewish Museum in New York .

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Goldman - Emma

"Emma Goldman" 
Authored by Vivian Gornick

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 Gompers - Samuel

"We cannot wage a war for humanity and at the same time make no provisions for humanity at home."

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"From This land is Our Land through to the Civil War, We Jews served with distinction." Marnie Winston-Macauley

In my article "The Yiddish Are Coming” we looked at Jews in the American Revolution and came to this conclusion: Without We Jews, we’d be “queuing” for our fish ’n chips from the local “chippy.” But of course the American Revolution was just the start of our mighty contributions. From Bernard Baruch, Ernestine Rose, Benjamin Cardoza, Maud Nathan, to David “Mickey” Marcus, brilliant, sacrificial, and yes, sometimes funny, We Jews changed the U.S. landscape. Here are a few of my lesser known faves.

We Jews changed the U.S. landscape. Here are a few of my lesser known faves.

Smelts & Smelting
The first known Jew on Southern soil was Joachim Gans, from Prague, who accompanied Sir Walter Raleigh on his 1585 voyage to the New World. A fisherman he wasn’t. But Gans established the first smelting furnace in what is now North Carolina. Later Jewish arrivals brought the “traveling dry goods store” to “the sticks,” the cotton gin to Alabama, and the peach to Georgia. Even while “wandering,” at least we had the courtesy to bring a little something when we “landed.”

Jew’s Creek
Spanish Jew, Luis Moses Gomez, a successful fur trader, built a flint stone blockhouse, just north of Newburgh, New York, as part of a trading station. Erected around 1720, it’s the first known free-standing Jewish home in the U.S. Residents of Ulster County gave him the dubious honor of calling him “Gomez the Jew,” and the adjoining area, Jew’s Creek. Personally, I would’ve preferred, “Ai! Ai! Ai! Look at Gomez ............... a house right on the water.”

Community Rocks
On State Road 45 in Pennsylvania a marker reads: “Aaronsburg, named for Aaron Levy, founded 1786"— the first town planned by and named for an American Jew! The savvy, humanist, came to America from Holland as a teen and established Aaronsburg, hoping to make it a center of government and commerce. In 1789, he gave the Salem Lutheran Church two lots to demonstrate interfaith brotherhood. One hundred and fifty years later, the Church offered a Kiddush cup to New York’s Shearith Israel, symbolizing the return of the gift. OK, yes. Today, with fewer than 400 dwellers, it isn’t the center of anything, like a Wall Street or a Capitol Hill, but Aaronsburg still stands for brotherhood.

Uriah P. Levy & Jefferson
It wasn’t easy rising from cabin boy to Commodore. Especially if you were a Jew in the early 1800s. And most especially, if you opened your pisk about beatings in the Navy. Yet that’s exactly what Levy did, who had become the highest ranking officer in the Navy, having distinguished himself in the War of 1812. For his opposition to corporal punishment, he was court marshaled, which was overturned by President Tyler. As if this weren’t enough, the generous and patriotic Levy, did what no other citizen had done before him: Gave the country a gift. A big one. The statue of Thomas Jefferson in the Capitol rotunda! A huge admirer, Levy also bought Jefferson’s estate, Monticello, and willed the historic home to the American people. In 1959, the Navy's oldest Jewish Chapel in Norfolk, Virginia, was renamed the Commodore Levy Chapel, and in 2005, the U.S. Naval Academy opened a Jewish Chapel also named for Levy. At the dedication, The Navy Glee Club, sang the Navy Hymn, and “Adon Olam" in perfect Hebrew!

A Model Jew
Rebecca Gratz the first U.S. Jewish woman college student (now Franklin & Marshall) was born in 1781, into the prestigious Philadelphia Gratz family. Along with her ground-breaking work for orphans, she founded the Jewish Sunday School system in 1838! Her friend, Washington Irving, told Sir Walter Scott of her inner and outer beauty, who then immortalized her as the model for Rebecca in Ivanhoe.

The Lonely Watchmaker
In 1817, watchmaker Joseph Jonas schlepped from New York to Ohio – no easy feat– becoming the first permanent Jewish settler in “the wilds.” Not a lot to do or pals to talk to. Worse, how many watches could they use in the boonies? But more, there weren’t enough Jews for a Minyan within hundreds of miles. Two years it took him to persuade his brothers and two other Jews to join him. Minyan short, nevertheless, in 1819, prayers rang out in the “outback” when this tiny group celebrated Rosh Hashanah! Things picked up. In 1824, Jonas established the first Jewish congregation in Ohio, Kahal haKodesh Bene Israel, (now, the Rockdale Avenue Temple). Jonas became a leading macher, and “made time” to serve in the Ohio legislature during the 1860s.

Talk about Multi-tasking!
America’s first official photographer on a scientific expedition was Sephardic Jew, Solomon Nunes Carvalho, who accompanied John C. Fremont when, in 1853, he sought to map the route for the transcontinental railway. Carvalho, born in 1815 in South Carolina, was chosen because of his expertise in daguerreotype photography. This historical contribution was enough, but Carvalho had more – much more to offer. He was also a portrait painter (who captured Lincoln on canvass), an inventor, and religious philosopher who was later active in Jewish affairs in Baltimore, and New York.

First Jewish Supreme Court Nominee Says ........ Nah!
When most of us think of the early Supreme Court, Louis D. Brandeis jumps to mind as the first Jewish nominee. Wrong. In 1853, Southerner Judah Philip Benjamin declined the nomination by President Fillmore. The ardent Southerner preferred to remain a Senator from Louisiana – and deliver Louisiana’s secession speech! (There were Jews on both sides of the conflict). He was such a macher in the Confederacy as Attorney General, and Secretary of State, and War in Jefferson Davis’s Cabinet, that he became the face on the Confederate two-dollar bill. After the War, when his own bill couldn’t buy him a good boiled chicken, Benjamin fled to England, where he was finally admitted to the British bar at age 55. His rep in Britain grew and he lived out his life as a VIPPY attorney, proving once again, MOTs just don’t quit!

The “First” Jewish Chaplain
In 1861, only Christians could be chaplains. This didn’t bode well with the mostly Jewish 65th Regiment of the Fifth Pennsylvania Cavalry (Cameron’s Dragoons). The 1,200 men did things their way by electing 30-year-old Michael Mitchell Allen, a Philadelphia cantor, chaplain! Complaints flew from the Calvary. With his usual common sense, President Lincoln pushed legislation allowing non-Christians the role, which was passed in 1862, thanks in part, to the courage and conviction of the “first” Jewish chaplain, and his “Jewish” regiment.

When Lincoln became president in 1861, he received an American flag (or painting of a replica) with Hebrew verses that came from the Book of Joshua. The gift was from Abraham Kohn , later a city clerk in Chicago. In 1860, a meeting between the men inspired Kohn to think of Lincoln as an American Moses. After the assassination on April 14, 1865, Kohn was one of the citizens appointed to escort the train bearing Lincoln’s body to Chicago.

A Jew & The Declaration of Independence
President Lincoln was a frequent visitor to read and send field dispatches. It was young Edward Rosewater, with the Telegraphers Corps of the Union Army, who transmitted The President’s Gettysburg Address in 1863. After the war, Rosewater who had a way with words – even if they weren’t his own – founded the Omaha Daily Bee!

At the Foot of the Prez Lincoln:
“My chiropodist, Isachar Zacharie , has so many times ‘put me upon my feet' that I would have no objection to giving his countrymen ‘a leg up.'"

When the greatest chiropodist in America meets the biggest, most important feet in America, what do you get? A perfect fit! Which was the case between President Lincoln and Isachar Zacharie, a Jew who worked his way up, toe-by-toe, through Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Secretary of War, Stanton. When Zacharie soothed Lincoln’s tootsies, the two became buds, and Zacharie took on another role: peacemaker between North and South. His “plan” supposedly involved conquering Mexico. OK, he “tripped” up. But, his was an important “step” in establishing close ties between American leaders and Jews.

Wolf Grants Grant L’Chaim
Simon Wolf, whose friends included both Grant and Sherman, published the names of 7,000 Jewish Civil War veterans, in 1895. And while on the subject, Ulysses S. Grant met with Wolf at the White House in 1869 regarding the harsh treatment of Russian Jews, resulting in Grant sending a letter to the czar. Wolf honored him by inviting the President to be godfather at his son’s circumcision and naming the infant Adolph Grant Wolf. Grant’s earlier feelings toward Jews came under fire based on an exclusionary General Order in 1862 (expelling Jews from areas in Tennessee. Mississippi, Kentucky). Prominent Jews (no doubt Wolf) considered this more a judgment lapse than anti-Semitism. Hmmmm. The Emmes? Who knows?

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How are we related

A chart showing relationships
related.txt

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Jewish Web Ring

http://www.webring.org/hub/jewishperson

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Jewish Women in the Middle Ages

An article "Medieval Feminism"
by Rochelle Furstenberg and published in the June/July 2002 issue of Hadassah Magazine discusses Jewish women in the Middle ages and disputes many of the perceived images about them.  You'll find more information at their web site in the Archives link
http://hadassah.org 

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Jews and the Great Depression in the US

"Runs on banks by nervous depositors were a common practice of the Great Depression."  Photo from Prologue Magazine Spring 1992

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Jews - Number of Jews in America on the Rise?

According to an article authored by Deborah Fineblum Raub, and published in the April/May 2011 edition of Hadassah Magazine, the United States Jewish population is larger than previously thought.  So says the Steinhardt Social Research Institute at Brandeis University.  Investigators reported 20 percent more self-identifying American Jews - 6.5 million - than in 1990 (5.5 million).  Although most of them say they are Jewish by religion (5.5 million), 1 million claim a secular or cultural Jewish identity.  The odds of marrying someone Jewish are far greater for Jews who identify religiously; these Jews are also more likely to participate in Jewish life-cycle events or belong to a synagogue.

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Jews - who are we?

http://www.loeb-tourovisitorscenter.org/jll_jews.shtml

"Imagine belonging to a people that come in so many flavors.  We should all be very proud to be part of a people that are so diverse. Jews come in every shade of color; white, black, yellow, red, etc.  Jews speak almost every language and are found in almost every part of this world. A true microcosm of this world. So varied in cultures, ideologies, beliefs, and other circumstances.  Yet we are all descended from the same ancestors and history.  Jews can truly be called a people of the world." From a posting by Saul Klarer

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Judaism

There are many forms:

Cardiac Judaism  -        In my heart I am a Jew
Gastronomic Judaism -  We eat Jewish foods
Pocketbook Judaism -    I give to Jewish causes
Drop-off Judaism -        Drop the kids off at school and then go out to breakfast
Two times a Year Judaism - Attend service on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur

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Lincoln, Abraham
(His assistance in getting Chaplains appointed to the Union Army)

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Looking for a friend or a classmate? 

www.classmates.com 

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Marceau - Marcel

He was born Marcel Mangel on March 22, 1923, in Strasbourg, Alsace.  His father Charles, was a kosher butcher who loved the arts.  Marcel's mother Anne nee Werzberger, took him to a Chaplin movie when her son was five.  He was entranced.

At the beginning of WWII, he and his brother, Alain, hid their Jewish origins, and changed their name from Mangel to Marceau.  His father died in Auschwitz.  His mother survived the war.

The French Resistance was headed up by many Jews.  Marcel and Alain joined the Resistance in Limoges.  The Jewish children had to be protected from both the French police and the Germans.

Although he was trilingual, Marcel taught hundreds of Jewish children the art of communicating in mime because it was important for the children to converse silently.  The children were brought to safety in Switzerland by Marceau.

In 1944, he joined the Free French Forces under General Charles de Gaulle, acting as liaison officer to General Patton's army.  Marceau entertained thousands of US troops after the liberation of Paris.

Marceau was "discovered" by Laurel and Hardy.  He spoke only once in a performance.  In Mel Brooks' film "Silent Movie," Marceau said the word, "Non."  His career lasted over 60 years as an actor, director, teacher, interpreter, and public multilingual speaker on five continents.  He died on Yom Kippur in 2007. From an email from Dianne Elliott.

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Max, Peter

Peter Max was born in Berlin in 1937 but his family moved to China when he was still very young. In fact the young Max would move frequently with his family, learning about a variety of cultures throughout the world while traveling from Tibet to Africa to Israel to Europe until his family moved to the U.S. In America Max was trained at the Art Students League, Pratt Institute, and the School of Visual Arts, all in New York. After closing his design studio in 1964, Peter began creating his characteristic paintings and graphic prints.

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Mendelssohn - Moses  

A book about the fascinating life of Moses Mendelssohn, authored by Shmuel Feiner is available. Feiner's book on his life serves as a useful introduction to this complex figure, and fills a longstanding need for a short, accessible biography. 
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Moses_Mendelssohn.aspx

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Merrick, David

An American movie and stage producer died in London at 88 in an old age home.  He was the man behind "The Great Gatsby, Hello Dolly, 42nd Street, as well as many other shows and movies.  He was born in St. Louis in November, 1912 and his birth name was David Margulouis.

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Nobel Prize Winners

Israel vs. Arab/Islamic Winners of the Nobel Prize

There are 1.2 billion Muslims representing 19.6% of the World's population and there are 8 Nobel Prize holders.

There are 14.1 million Jews representing 0.2% of the World's population and there are 127 Nobel Prize winners.

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