All-American Giver
Mervin Pregulman earned his initial fame as a college football star, but his real success was achieved later as a man of business and as a philanthropist. Born in Lansing, Michigan, on…
Tooning Machines
There are not many people whose names appear as a dictionary entry, and even fewer whose names have become adjectives. As of 1966, however, the name “Rube Goldberg” took on an official…
Samuel Gompers, Labor Leader
Jewish Treats presents a brief biography of Samuel Gompers, a man who helped transform the early American Labor Movement. Born in London, England, on January 27, 1850, Gompers was the son…
The Challenge of Fitting In
The weekly Torah reading of Mikeitz (Genesis 41:1-44:17), which almost always coincides with Chanukah, tells the story of the rise of Joseph the son of Jacob from slave to viceroy. And…
Touching the Equation
Imagine having a passion for mathematics but lacking the language to express it. Math, with all of its detailed and complex problem solving, is an extremely visual field of study. Because…
They Make Us Laugh
When the hit comedy Funny People was released in movie theaters (2009), it was frequently noted in the Jewish press that almost all of the comic actors in the film, including the…
National Freedom Day
Today, February 1st, is both National Freedom Day and the first day of Black History Month. National Freedom Day was initially advocated for by Major Richard Robert Wright Sr.…
West Point
In 2015, the Jewish news media delightedly reported that Rachelle David was the first female graduate of an Orthodox Jewish high school to be accepted to West Point. It is a…
Mordecai Manuel Noah
While one of the founding principles of the United States of America is freedom of religion, any historian would agree that in the early days of the United States, this was often more…
A Taste of Shakespeare
Yiddish theater, which saw its heyday in the early decades of the twentieth century, played an important role in the lives of the American Jewish community. More than just entertainment…