David Dushman was the last surviving soldier who liberated Auschwitz. At 22 years old, Dushman was a tank commander in the Soviet Red Army. On January 27, 1945, he drove his T-34 tank through the barbed wire and electric fences surrounding the concentration camp and helped to liberate the prisoners […]
SPOTTED: Celebrate Israel Parade today on Fifth Avenue in New York City Photo: Lizzy Savetsky Ira Savetsky
Ted Comet was born in Cleveland, Ohio on May 24, 1924. He moved to New York City in 1946 and in 1965 he founded the first parade to celebrate Israel. The parade has since grown to be one of the worlds largest gatherings in support of the Jewish State. Today […]
America runs on Dunkin’, but there is nothing more American than the founder’s history. Bill (William) Rosenberg was born in Boston on June 10, 1916. The son of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, he began working at 12 years old, delivering orders for a small grocery store. By 14, he was […]
#ShabbatShalom from The Spanish Synagogue in Prague, known as one of the most beautiful synagogues in Europe. Photo: Noam Chen
Did you know that Frank Sinatra was a devoted friend to the Jewish people and a lifelong supporter of the State of Israel? Growing up in Hoboken, New Jersey, Sinatra’s Jewish neighbor, Mrs. Golden, often babysat while his mother was out working. She spoke to him in Yiddish and served […]
Did you know that Dr. Ruth (Westheimer), the famous sex therapist and author, is also a trained sniper? Born as Karola Ruth Siegel in Germany on June 4, 1928. She was the only child of Orthodox Jewish parents. After surviving the Holocaust, where her entire family was killed, Dr. Ruth […]
Jerry Stiller was born Gerald Isaac (Yitzchak) Stiller in Brooklyn, New York on June 8, 1927. He was the oldest of four children born to Polish Jewish immigrants, Bella and William. Stiller attended high school in the Lower East Side before serving in the Army towards the end of WWII. […]
On June 6, 1944, a synagogue on West 23rd Street in New York City held 24-hour special services on D-Day to pray for the Allied troops as they landed on the beaches of Normandy.
Roddie Edmonds was a Master Sergeant in the United States Army. In late 1944, Edmonds was captured in the Battle of the Bulge and held at a German POW camp. In January 1945, the Nazis ordered all Jewish-American POWs to step forward. Edmonds, the highest-ranking noncommissioned officer at the camp, […]
The Ritchie Boys were a special group of U.S. soldiers; many of which were German-born Jews who escaped the Nazis, fled to America and joined the U.S. Army. Understanding the German language and culture allowed the soldiers to better interrogate prisoners of war, translate and intercept messages and engage in […]
Check out this flower in the shape of a Star of David. Wishing you a Happy Shavuot.
Three men who stood in the same line in Auschwitz have nearly consecutive numbers, Menachem Shulovitz (B14594), Anshel Udd Sharezky (B14595) and Jacob Zabetzky (B14597). “We were strangers standing in line in Auschwitz, we all survived different paths of hell, and we met in Israel. We stand here together now […]
Bob Dylan is Best Man at the wedding of longtime friend, Louie Kemp in 1983. The decades long friendship first started in 1953 at a Jewish summer camp in Wisconsin. Photo: Louie Kemp
Raoul Wallenberg’s death remains a mystery to this day. The Swedish diplomat is responsible for saving 100,000 Jewish lives during WWII. Here’s his story. Wallenberg was born on August 4, 1912, to a prominent well-respected family in Sweden. Following his Swedish military service, Wallenberg studied in Paris and in 1931 […]
#shabbatshalom from Jerusalem. Check out this collection of before and after photos from familiar views in the holy city. #jerusalemday Photos: Noam Chen The above photo is a view of the Western Wall, 1920 and today. David Citadel, 1898 and Today. Tower of David, 1930’s and Today. Jewish Cemetery on […]
You may remember Sacha Baron Cohen portrayed Eli Cohen in the Netflix series, The Spy. On May 18, 1965, Eli Cohen was executed by the Syrian regime. Born to to a Mizrahi Jewish family, Eliyahu Ben-Shaul Cohen was born on December 6, 1924 in Alexandria, Egypt. In 1949, his parents […]
In 1967, Israeli paratroopers broke through Jerusalem in the 6-day-war ending decades of oppression against Jews in the Holy City. In this iconic picture, the three paratroopers who were photographed standing at the Western Wall are pictured together again 50 years later. #jerusalemday Photos: David Rubinger Government Press Office/ Sharon […]
Jack Pomeranc was born in Vlodowa, Poland and his life was defined by incredible resilience and bravery. As a Holocaust survivor, he witnessed unspeakable horrors, including the loss of his parents, Eliezer and Bellaita, and two sisters, Channa and Mateleh in a mass execution at the Adampol labor camp in […]
‘Life is Beautiful’, the beloved movie and Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film, was inspired by Holocaust survivor Rubino Romeo Salmoni. Director Roberto Benigni read Rubino’s book, ‘In the End, I Beat Hitler’, based on his experiences as a survivor of Auschwitz, which inspired the movie. An Italian […]
Are you Jewish? A woman is handed Shabbat candles in front of the Chabad Mitzvah Tank in New York City, 1975. Photo: JEM/The Living Archive
How does a Rabbi use martial arts to help kids with cancer? Here’s the story. This is Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg, a first-degree black belt in Choi Kwang Do, former Rabbi to Young Israel of Southfield, Michigan and clinical assistant professor in pediatrics at the Wayne State University School of Medicine. […]
These are my grandparents. These are my grandparents. This photo was taken on the Lower East Side of New York. My grandmother Miriam was born in the old city of Jerusalem on December 10, 1920. Her mother was born in Jerusalem as was her grandmother, great grandmother and so on. […]
This is Miep Gies. She was the last remaining survivor who helped in hiding the Frank family during WWII. Miep was born to a Catholic family in Vienna on February 15, 1909. Following WWI, conditions in Austria worsened and food supplies were sparse, Miep’s parents sent her to the Netherlands […]
Erich Schwam died at 90 years old. In his Will, he left $2M+ to the French village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in thanks to the town for hiding and saving his family during WWII. Schwam arrived to the village with his parents in 1943. The family was saved by local residents […]
“Israel is the first country in the history of the world to bring humans from Africa not to enslave them, but to set them free.” – Colin Powell, Former US National Security Advisor In May of 1991, Ethiopia was coming to the end of its long civil war and the […]
In this photo is Audrey Hepburn with Otto Frank, Anne’s father. Audrey Hepburn was born on May 4, 1929. The actress is best known for such films as Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but did you know that she turned down playing the role of Anne Frank? Here’s why. […]
Golda Meir. • May 3, 1898, born Golda Mabovitch in Kiev.• 1906, Golda moved from Kiev to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.• 1916-1917, Golda attended what is now the University of Wisonsin-Milwaukee.• 1921, Golda and her husband, Morris Meyerson, moved from the U.S. to a kibbutz.• May 14, 1948, Golda was one of […]
Born Golda Mabowitz on May 3, 1898 in Kiev, Ukraine. Golda Meir was a teacher, an Israeli politician who was amongst the founders of the State of Israel and the State’s fourth prime minister – Israel’s first and the world’s third woman to have served in this position. Here is […]
Before Marcel Marceau became a world-famous mime, he was responsible for saving the lives of Jewish children during WWII. Marceau was born Marcel Mangel on March 22, 1923. When he was 16 years old his family had to flee their home in France. Soon after, he joined the French Resistance […]
Happy Birthday Gal Gadot! Gal Gadot was born on April 30, 1985.
What’s the deal with birthdays? Jerry Seinfeld was born in Brooklyn on April 29, 1954. His parents were both orphans and married when they were in their 40’s; his father Kalman was of Austrian descent, known to have collected jokes while serving in WWII and his mother Betty Hesney was […]
