Famous
Jewish Faces
To be thankful for
Rabbi Yitzvhak Luria1534-1572
The “Ari”


A Rabbi in the
community of Safed in
the Galilee region of
Ottoman Palestine.

Considered the father of
contemporary
Kabbalah.

Etz Chayim- “Tree of
Life” is his most famous
literary work composed
of 8 volumes.
Baruch Spinoza

1632- 1677

Dutch philosopher of
Portuguese Jewish
origin.

He is considered one of
the great rationalists of
17th century
philosophy.
Rebecca Gratz

1781-1869

Jewish American
educator

In 1801 at age 20
helped establish the
Female Association for
the Relief of Women
and children in
reduced
circumstances.
Moses Montefiore

1784-1885

A Jewish English
financer and banker
advocate of social
reform.

Donated large sums of
money to promote
industry, education,
and health amongst
the Jewish community
in Israel.
Karl Marx

1818-1883

German philosopher
and socialist.

Marx’s work in
economics laid the
basis for the current
understanding of labor
and its relation to
capital.
Levi Strauss

1829-1902

American businessman
of German Jewish
decent who founded
the 1st company to
manufacture blue
jeans.
Sigmund Shlomo Freud

1856-1939

An Austrian psychiatrist
who founded the
psychoanalytic school
of psychology.
Hanna G. Solomon

1858-1942

Founder of the
National Council of
Jewish Women, the first
national association of
Jewish women.
Eliezer Ben Yehuda

1858-1922

He was the driving spirit
behind the revival of
the Hebrew language.

Author of the first
modern Hebrew
dictionary.
Alfred Dreyfus

1859-1935

A French artillery officer
of Jewish background
whose trial and
conviction in 1894 was
for charges of treason.

Known today as the
“Dreyfus Affair”, the
incident eventually
ended with Dreyfus’
complete exoneration.
Gustav Mahler

1860-1911

Born in Bohemia,
formerly part of the
Austrian Empire,
currently located in the
Czech Republic.

Composer and
conductor.
Theodor Herzl

1860-1904

Born Benjamin Ze’ev
Herzl

He is considered to
have been the father
of modern political
Zionism and in effect
the founder of the State
of Israel.
Lillian Wald

1867-1940

American nurse

Known for contributions
to human rights and
founder of American
community nursing.
Chaim Weizmann

1874-1952

A Zionist leader, President of
the Zionist Organization and
the first President of the State
of Israel.

He was also a chemist who
developed the acetonebutanol-ethanol
fermentation process

He founded the Weizmann
Institute of Science in
Rehovot, Israel.
Harry Houdini

1874-1926

Hungarian-American
illusionist.

Best know for his
difficult escapes from
handcuffs.
Albert Einstein

1879- 1955

A German born
theoretical physicist best
known for this theory of
relativity on massenergy equivalence,
E=mc2 the famous
equation of the 20th
century

Received the Nobel
Prize in Physics in 1921
Vladimir Jabotinsky

1880-1940

He was a revisionist
Zionist leader, author,
poet, orator, soldier,
and founder of the
Jewish Self-Defence
Organization in Odessa.

With Joseph Trumpeldor,
he co-founded the
Jewish Legion of the
British army in WWI
Franz Kafka

1883-1824

German-language
writer and regarded as
one of the most
influential authors of
the 20th century.

“The Metamorphosis”,
“The Trial” and “The
Castle” are his best
novels.
Edna Ferber

1885-1968

American novelist,
short story writer and
playwright.

Received the Pulitzer
Prize for her novel “So
Big” (1924)
Louis B. Mayer

1885-1957

American film
producer.

Cited as the creator of
the “star system” within
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
(MGM).

One of the founders of
the “Oscars” Academy
Award.
Niels Bohr

1885-1962

Danish physicist who
made fundamental
contributions to
understanding atomic
structure and received
the Nobel Prize in
Physics in 1922.

Worked on the
Manhattan project.
David Ben Gurion

1886-1973

1st Prime Minister of
Israel

Founder of State of
Israel

Led Israel to victory in
the 1948 Arab-Israeli
War.
Marc Chagall

1887- 1985

A Belarusian-born
French artist.

Using stained glass, he
produced windows for
the cathedrals of Reims
and Metz, windows for
the UN and the
Jerusalem windows.
Golda Meier

1898-1978

Israeli teacher,
Kibbutznik and
politician who became
the 4th Prime minister of
Israel.

Elected in 1969, she
was Israel’s 1st and the
world’s 3rd woman to
hold such an office
and was described as
“The Iron Lady” of Israel
politics.
George Gershwin

1898-1937

American composer and
pianist

Among his best known
works are the orchestral
compositions “Rhapsody
in Blue” (1924) and “An
American in Paris” (1928)
as well as the opera
“Porgy and Bess” (1935).
Groucho Marx

1890-1977

American comedian

He made 13 feature
films with his siblings
the Marx Brothers.

He hosted a radio and
television game show“you bet your life”.
Gregory Goodwin Pincus

1903- 1967

American biologist and
researcher.

He developed “The
Birth Control Pill”

Produced “in-vitro
fertilization”.
Josephine Esther MentzerEstee Lauder
 1906-2004

She was the only
woman on Time
magazine’s 1998 list of
the 20 most influential
business geniuses of
the 20th century.

Her nickname was Etsy
and that’s why the
company is called
Estee.
Barbara W. Tuchman

1912-1989

American historian and
author.

Won Pulitzer prize twice
for “The gun of August”
later called August
1914, a prelude to
WWI.
Menachem Begin

1913-1992

Israeli politician, founder
of Likud and the 6th
Prime minister of Israel.

His most significant
achievement as Prime
minister was the signing
of the Peace treaty with
Egypt at Camp David in
1979.
Abba Eban

1915-2002

Israeli diplomat and
politician.

In his career he was
Israeli Foreign Affairs
Minister, Education
Minister, Deputy Prime
Minister, and
ambassador to the US
and to the UN.
Leonard Bernstein

1918-1990

American composer,
conductor, author,
music lecturer and
pianist

His fame derived from
his long tenure as a
music director of the
New York Philharmonic
and from his music for
West Side Story.
Hannah Senesh

1921-1944

1 of 37 Jews from
mandatory Palestine
parachuted by the
British Army into
Yugoslavia during WWII
to assist in the recue on
Hungarian Jews about
to be deported to
Auschwitz.

Arrested, imprisoned
and tortured but refused
to reveal details of her
mission.
Yitzhak Rabin

1922- 1995

Israeli politician and
the 5th Prime minister of
Israel serving 2 terms.

In 1994 he received the
Nobel Peace Prize
together with Shimon
Peres and Yasser
Arafat.
Eli Cohen

1924-1965

Israeli spy

Best known for his
espionage work in
1961-1965 in Syria

Convicted to the
death penalty in 1965

His work helped
succeed in the six-day
war.
Alan Greenspan

Born 1926

An American
economist who served
as Chairman of the
Federal Reserve of the
US from 1987-2006.
Elie Wiesel

Born 1928-2016

Romanian-born Jewish
American.

Author of 57 books
including Night, a work
based on his
experiences as a
prisoner in the
Auschwitz
concentration camp.
Ya’acov Agam

1928

Israeli sculptor

Best known for his
contributions to optical
and kinetic art.

His father was a Rabbi
Anne Frank

1929-1945

Holocaust victim

Born in Frankfurt as a
German national, but
lived mainly in
Amsterdam.

Her diary documents
her experiences hiding
during the German
occupation of the
Netherlands in WWII.
Elizabeth Taylor

1932- 2011

British-American
actress.

One of the world’s most
famous stars and
famous for her violet
eyes.

National Velvet (1944)
was her 1st success.

Co-founded the
American Foundation
for AIDS Research.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg

1933

Associate Justice of the
Supreme Court of the
US, appointed by
Clinton.

She is the 2nd female
justice and the 1st
Jewish justice.
Woody Allen

Born 1935

American screenwriter,
director, actor, author,
playwright, and
musician.

Nominated 23 times for
an academy award
and won 4 times
Ralph Lauren

1936

American fashion
designer

Estimated wealth is
$5.5 billion

He is the 233rd richest
person in the world.
Barbara Streisand

Born 1942

American singer

Won 2 academy
awards, 5 Emmy
awards, a Grammy
and a Tony awards.

She has sold more than
71.5 million albums
Robert “Bobby”
James Fisher

1943-2008

American chess
grandmaster and the
11th World Chess
Champion.

Considered a chess
prodigy who became
the youngest
grandmaster in the
world, at age 15 ½ .
Janet Yellen

1946

American economist

Chair of the Board of
Governors of the
Federal Reserve
System

First woman to ever
hold this position
Diane Von Furstenburg

1946

Fashion designer

In 2014 was listed as
the 68th most powerful
woman in the world by
Forbes magazine
Steven Spielberg

Born in 1947

American film director
and screenwriter as
well as producer.

He is the co-founder of
DreamWorks movie
studio.

He won the Academy
Award for Best Director
for “Schindler’s List”
(1993) and saving
“Private Ryan” (1998).
Judith Resnik

1949- 1986

She was the 1st Jewish
American astronaut in
space, the 2nd
American female
astronaut, and the 1st
Jewish woman in
space.

Died in the Space
Shuttle Challenger.
Safra A. Catz

1961

Israeli-boarn American

Executive at Oracle
Corporation since
1999.

Nominated as new
CEO of Oracle in 2014
Susan Wojcicki

1968

Current CEO of You
Tube

After her 5th maternity
leave, she wrote in the
Wall Street Journal and
article on the
importance of paid
maternity leave.
Sheryl Sandberg

1969

American technology
executive

She is the Chief
operating officer of
Facebook

In 2012, she was
nominated by Time 100
as one of the most
influential people in the
world
Do you know who
Ruth Handler is?
Ruth Handler

1916-2002

American
businesswoman

President of Mattel, Inc.

Marketed the Barbie &
ken doll named after
her own kids.
FUNNY FACTS ABOUT
BARBIE & KEN
Kollel Barbie & Ken
-funny factsComes with several jobs as her
accessories and a tummy that
inflates and deflates in nine
month cycles. Kollel Ken comes
with a bench to sit on and a
table to put his gemara on.
Ken’s head fits perfectly into the
contours of the gemarah’s
accessory and is equipped to
drool and snore away the day
while Barbie tends to the babies
and her 17 jobs.
Yeshiva Barbie & Ken
-funny factsComes with 84 snoods,
174 hats, 24 non-Indian
hair sheltels and one tichel
that allows her hair to
show a bit when she’s
feeling naughty. Yeshiva
Ken comes with one suit,
one crumpled hat, and
one pair of tzitzis that drag
on the ground.
Modern Barbie & Ken
-funny factsComes with pants,
plus a helmet and
body armor to
protect her from the
stones thrown at her
by ultra-orthodox Ken
dolls that come with
the Meah Shearim
playset.
Upper West Side
Barbie & Ken Comes with 74 single
Ken dolls she considers
-funny facts- friends because she
doesn’t think of them
“that way”. Little does
she know that 37 ken
dolls have like this totally
huge crush on her. She
also comes with
Kleenexes to wipe away
the tears that she sheds
every time Skipper
reminds her that
“Friends” is over.
And now our feature
presentation
What does it mean to be an
American Jew today?