This article on Oscar Zariski, the founder of modern algebraic geometry talks a lot about Jewish culture.
If I still ran JewOfTheDay I'd for sure mention this fellow!
Today's Jew of the Day is Wilbur J. Cohen!
Wilbur Joseph Cohen was one of the key figures in the United States that is responsible for the social services that many Americans rely on today. He was one of the key authors of the Medicare, Medicaid, the New Deal and Great Society programs, which shifted US society and culture towards supporting those in need.
Today's Jew of the Day is Rashida Jones!
Rashida Leah Jones is an actor, writer and producer. Jones has a long filmography that includes hit TV shows such as Boston Public, the Office, Parks and Rec, Angie Tribecca, and #blackAF as well as films including The Social Network, The Muppets (2011). She also co-wrote Toy Story 4
She produced the Netflix documentary "Quincy," about her father. This series won an Emmy for Best Musical Film.
Today's Jew of the Day is Paul Berg!
Paul Berg was a biologist whose experiments helped shape our understanding of DNA, specifically recombinant-DNA- the ability to split DNA and analyse it in parts.
Berg's postdoctoral work was around the conversion of food into simpler molecules used to build up cells. Later, he became the first scientist to splice DNA.
His work in gene splicing is foundational in our ability to do DNA research today, and provided early foundational work for gene therapies, which are now being used to treat some illnesses.
For his achievement in DNA, Berg won several prestigious awards and acknowledgements, including one half the Nobel Prize in 1980, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a position at the American Philosophical Society, and others.
Today's Jew of the Day is Lesley Stahl!
Lesley Rene Stahl is journalist. She's best known for her work on the television program 60 Minutes, where she's been working since 1991.
Stahl began her journalism career joining a local CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) station in the Boston region in 1971. From there she worked as an on air reporter, and eventually moved to national coverage.
In the early 1980s, she began working the US political beat, hosting the public affairs program Face the Nation, and moderating US political debates, before moving to 60 Minutes.
On 60 Minutes, she largely does interviews, including politicians, business-people, controversial newsmakers, and more. She is known for a frank, hard hitting style while still keeping her interviewee at ease.
At age 81 she is still working at 60 Minutes and has no immediate plans to retire.
Today's Jew of the Day is Marilyn Monroe!
Marilyn Monroe was an actress, a model, and a singer. She was known as one of the most iconic figures in Hollywood and is considered a sex symbol, both then and today. In addition to her many acting roles, Monroe is known for her business saavy, having eshewed the Hollywood studio monopoly system by creating her own film production company, which not only gave her contract leverage, but signaled to other actors at the time that they have greater power and control in their own contracts.
Monroe's filmography has many notable roles, including Clash By Night, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How to Marry a Millionaire, and Some Like It Hot.
Monroe was also a Zionist who had been invited to speak at the United Jewish Appeal, but had to decline after her husband was pressured by the government for possible ties to Communism.
#JewOfTheDay #MarilynMonroe
#Hollywood #actor #actress #model #Jewdiverse
Today's Jew of the Day is Marvin Minsky!
Marvin Minsky was one of the most important people in the area of computer sceince, and especially AI. It's diffcicult to summarize just how critical Minksy was other than to say he invented head mounted graphical displays (VR Headsets), he built first neural network using special hardware called "perceptrons", which is important not only for AI, but specifically visual AI used in applications such as self-driving cars, as well as the field of analog computing. His AI theory, called "The Society of Mind", is not only useful in exploring concepts of AI, but of all cognitive processes.
Much of Minsky's career was at MIT, where he worked for 58 years. Aside from his work in AI, Minsky is one of the founders of the MIT Media Lab, which itself has contributed to many new advances in human-computer interactions.
Today's Jew of the Day is Neil Sedaka!
Neil Sedaka is famous singer and musician. He has written, or co-written over 500 songs. His most successful decades were the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, though he's continues to write and perform to this day, including online mini-concerts during the COVID lockdown.
He has had many hits in his career, including Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen, Breaking Up is Hard To Do, Love Will Keep Us Together, Love in the Shadows, Crying My Heart Out for You, and Oh! Carol.
Mr. Sedeka has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, is in the Songwriters Hall of Game, as well as lesser known honors such as being in the Long Island Music Hall andan Art Gilmore Career Achievement Award.
His website is https://neilsedaka.com
Fun Fact: Neil's mother was Ashkenazi of Russian and Polish heritage and his father was Sephardi with his own parents being from Turkey.
Today's Jew of the Day is Uri Gavriel!
Uri Gavriel is a theatre and film actor known primarily, though not exclusively for his work in Israel in dramatic roles.
Gavriel's has appeared in 32 films and 28 television series, including The Band's Visit, Byzantium, Shavua ve Yom, The Dark Knight Rises, One Week and a Day, The Attack and The Ballad of the Weeping Spring.
In 2005 he won an Ophir Award (Israel's Academy Awards) and Karlovy Vary International Film Festival as Best Actor for What a Wonderful Place.
Today's Jew of the Day is Susan Solomon!
Susan Solomon is a climate scientist notable for being the first scientist to identify chlorofluorocarbons as a major contributor to the hole in the ozone layer. During the 1980s, Solomon's research and expeditions showed elevated levels of chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere, and the mechanism by which they could be degrading the Ozone layer, an atmospheric barrier that protects the earth from solar radiation.
Her work directly lead to the UN Montreal Protocols, a plan to save the atmosphere through reduction in harmful chemical generation. This has largely been a success and the ozone layer is healing.
Solomon's work has been recognized as crucial by many institutions and she's been granted awards by including the National Metal of Science, the French Metal of Science, the UK Royal Society, the National Women's Hall of Fame, and Time Magazine, amongst others.
Today's Jew of the Day is Elena Kagan!
Elena Kagan is a US Supreme Court judge. Kagan achieved many firsts in her career, starting with her childhood where she negotiated with her rabbi to perform his/the congregation's first bat mitzvah where she read from the Book of Ruth, rather than the Torah.
In the mid-90s, Kegan worked with the Clinton White House in various capacities, from White House Council, to Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy.
Kegan went back to academia and eventually became the first dean of Harvard Law, where she was known for many pro-student reforms.
In 2009 she was appointed as the first Solicitor General of the US by the Obama administration, and in 2010 she was appointed to the US Supreme court, where she sits today.
Today's Jew of the Day is Jonathan Mann!
Dr Jonathan Mann was a public health physician and human rights advocate.
After graduating from Harvard School of Public Health he served the :united_states: Centers for Disease Control and led AIDS research in Zaire. From 1986, as founding head of WHO's Global Programme on AIDS he became an adamant champion of human rights, recognising that respect for vulnerable communities is central to health and that coercive disease control measures can be counterproductive and unjustifiable. But his disruptive style led to conflict with WHO management and he returned to Harvard, becoming Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of Health and Human Rights in 1993.
He continued work on links between health and human rights until he died alongside his second wife, vaccinologist Mary-Lou Clements Mann, in the 1998 Swissair flight 111 crash while en route to Geneva to meet the new head of WHO.
Today's Jew of the Day is Leon L. Lewis!
Leon Lawrence Lewis was a lawyer, Nazi hunter, and activist for American Jews. Nazis called him "the most dangerous Jew in Los Angeles."
After graduating law school, Lewis accepted the position as the first national secretary of the Anti-Defmation League where he worked to prosecute hate crimes against Jews before enlisting in WW1. After the war, Lewis continued to fight antisemitism. Eventually he moved to Los Angeles and founded what would later be called the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, Community Relations Committee, where he launched a major spy ring to identify Nazi activities, starting in the late 1920s. He continued this work for the next twenty years. His work was directly responsible for thwarting Nazi plots and bringing Nazis to justice.
Today's Jew of the Day is René Cassin!
René Cassin was a French lawyer known for his co-authoring the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Cassin was a soldier in WW1, where he was awarded the Croix de Guerre. After the war, he helped found and run several organizations, including the French Federation of Disabled War Veterans, and Union fédérale, a pacifist veteran organization. He was eventually sent by France as a delegate to the League of Nations where he advocated for disarmament.
During WW2, he encouraged Jews to fight the the Vichy government and work to free France. Shortly after, they stripped him of his citizenship and sentenced him to death in absentia. After the war, he worked on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the UN Human Rights Commission, the European Court of Human Rights, and the Hague Court of Arbitration.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1968.
Today's Jew of the Day is Joey Ramone!
Jeffrey Ross Hyman, better known by his stage name Joey Ramone, was a musician best known for his band The Ramones. While the Ramones were a relatively unknown band outside of the small proto-punk scene in the New York area, the band had a signficant cultural influence.
The Ramones is considered by many to be the first punk band, and while the band did not have much commercial or critical recognition while they were active, they've posthumously been critically recognized as one of the most important rock bands.
Today's Jew of the Day is Shabtai Shavit!
Shabtai Shavit is was an Israeli intelligence officer, a CEO, and special forces officer. He played an important role in Israel's diplomacy and direction in the post-Cold War era.
Shavati was born in Mandatory Palestine and lived through the creation of Israel. After his military service and university, he joined the Mossad and took on several roles, including working undercover in Iran during the era of the last Shah.
In 1989 he was was appointed head of the Mossad. This was a difficult time for Israel as world was undergoing change due to the fall of the Soviet Union. He also had a partial diplomatic role in the normalized relations between Israel and Jordan, a peace that was almost unthinkable at the time, and during Israel after Prime Minister Rabin's assassination.
After the Mossad, Shavit ran several large organizations, including his role as CEO of Maccabi Health Services Group.
Today's Jew of the Day is Sarah Aroeste!
Sarah Aroeste is a musician. Aroeste's work primily focuses on feminist and Sephardi themes.
In the 1990s, Aroeste created a Ladino band in response to the rise of Ashkenazi klezmere.
Her early work was largely re-recordings and updates of traditional Sephardi music. Her later work has become more creative and intellectual, with albumns focusing on specific themes, for example in her album Gracia, the focus is on experiences of cultural theft and liberation and her album Ora de Despertar is an original albumn of Ladino children's music.
In addition to music, Aroeste has published three books. Ora de Despertar - Time to Wake Up! is a children's book introducing them to Ladino culture, Buen Shabat, Shabbat Shalom, about Sephardi shabbat, and Mazal Bueno!, an infant book introducing children to Ladino words.
Today's Jew of the Day is Ynon Kreiz!
Ynon Kreiz is a businessman, and the current CEO of Mattel!
As CEO of Mattel, Kreitz is in large part responsible of the shift of the company from a toy company to a toy and media company, as illustrated with the recent Barbie movie. He's also focused on social responsibility at Mattel, including using 100% recycled plastic in the products, reducing plastic waste by reducing packaging by 25%, and maintaining 100% pay equity.
Before Mattel, Kreitz worked on a series of companies, primarily in media, including Fox Kids Europe with Haim Saban (https://babka.social/@jewoftheday/110791922048713935), Endemol, and Maker Studios.
Today's Jew of the Day is Sarah Hughes!
Sarah Elizabeth Hughes is a former Olympic figure skater. Starting to skate at age three, at age twelve, she won the junior title at the 1998 US Figure Skating Championships. She's since won many competitions, including and especially her gold metal at the 2002 Olympics, as well as many bronze metals in various competitions. Before her win in 2002, she was featured on the cover of Time Magazine.
Since her ice skating career, Hughes has focused on her education, graduating from college, and in 2018, from law school at the University of Pennsylvania and more recently, a business degree from Stanford University.
In 2023, she filed paperwork to run for Congress in New York's 4th congressional district, which covers a large portion Nassau County.
Today's Jew of the Day is Sidney Lumet!
Sidney Arthur Lumet was an actor and filmmaker. Lumet is best known for his work portraying gritty, realistic depictions of life, especially life in New York City. He directed over 70 films including 12 Angry Men, Serpico, Prince of the City, The Fugative Kind, A View from the Bridge, Murder on the Orient Express, and others.
Lumet's psychodrama projects often explored morality, guilt and innocence, as well as collective responsibility. Critics of the time and later noted that these themed, and the subjects that Lumet explored were filtered through a Jewish lens.
Lumet won six academy awards, eleven BAFTA awards, and ten Golden Globe Awards
