Jewish Group

ismnotwasm

(41,989 posts) Thu Nov 7, 2013, 02:04 AM Nov 2013

Notable American Jews And Their Amazing Contributions

(I liked this for the great Irving Berlin intro and then some awesome pictures in the slide show, while I, ahem, strongly suspect members of this group are far more familiar with some of the names, or fact that said names were/are Jewish than I, I also thought this might be enjoyable)

A recent Pew Survey investigated the current state of Jewish life in America with some surprising findings . However, what is clear is that American Jews have an inspiring history of contributions in music, politics, science, law business, and many other areas.

Meet some of the people whose work has affected your life, from Jonas Salk's polio vaccine to Levi Strauss' blue jeans.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/27/notable-american-jews_n_4164220.html

1 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Notable American Jews And Their Amazing Contributions (Original Post) ismnotwasm Nov 2013 OP

"Our Crowd" and "The Rest of Us" are fascinating books. Manifestor_of_Light Nov 2013 #1

Manifestor_of_Light

(21,046 posts)

1. "Our Crowd" and "The Rest of Us" are fascinating books.

Reply to ismnotwasm (Original post)

Thu Nov 7, 2013, 02:18 AM

Nov 2013

"Our Crowd" is about German Jewish immigrants to New York who were bankers and financiers such as August Belmont, who the racetrack is named after, the Warburgs, the Guggenheims. These people were wealthy and substantial.

"The Rest of Us" is about Russian Jewish immigrants who came between 1880-1920, and were wilder and more creative than the German Jews before them. Some of them moved west and created Hollywood like Samuel Goldfish, who became Samuel Goldwyn of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
There were gangsters like Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel. Brilliant entertainers like the Marx Brothers and Leonard Bernstein and the Gershwin Brothers, Danny Kaye, Jack Benny, Lauren Bacall.

Both books are by Stephen Birmingham. Good reads.

Houston trivia: Did you know that Carolyn Farb, ex-wife of Harold Farb, and local philanthropist, is Mickey Cohen's granddaughter?? More useless information.

Reply to this discussion