American Trivia: What We All Should Know About U.S. History, Culture & Geography by Richard Lederer and Caroline McCullagh; Gibbs Smith Publisher; © 2012; ISBN 9781423-622772; 144 pages, including some silly riddles at the end; $9.99
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – Abe and Bea Goldberg attended an event at which co-author Richard Lederer was a speaker and obtained an autographed copy of American Trivia for my recent birthday. Once I started thumbing through it, I realized that it was the kind of light-hearted reference that people would enjoy browsing, if not reading every word.
For my co-religionists, I can report that the authors treated us kindly, spinning more than a handful of anecdotes involving Jews and choosing to quote three of our people in some depth. There also were some biblical quotations thrown in, as for example the paraphrase of Leviticus which adorns the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia: “Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”
Among the Jews singled out in anecdotes are Emma Lazarus (poets whose verses adorn the Statue of Liberty), Irving Berlin (composer of “America the Beautiful”); Morris and Rose Michtom (conceived and marketed the Teddy Bear in honor of Theodore Roosevelt); Haym Salomon (helped finance the American Revolution); Levi Strauss (manufacturer of Levi’s jeans); Al Jolson (two references for the first talkie movie, The Jazz Singer); and Sandy Koufax (Cy Young Award winning pitcher who declined to pitch on Yom Kippur).
Our people, as a group, were noted in an anecdote about New York City, that it has the largest number of Italians outside Italy; Irish outside Ireland; Jews outside Israel, and Puerto Ricans outside Puerto Rico.
Gertrude Stein was among those quoted about America: “In America there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is,” she said. “This is what makes America what it is.”
Henry Kissinger was another well-known Jew who was quoted : “For other nations, utopia is a blessed past never to be recovered; for Americans it is just beyond the horizon.”
And Justice Louis Brandeis had this to say: “America has believed that in differentiation, not in uniformity, lies the path of progress. It acted on this belief; it has advanced human happiness, and it has prospered.
There also are riddles, which though devoid of a Jewish connection, can’t help to make your elementary school student – and maybe even you – grin.
Q: If George Washington were alive today, what would he be famous for? A: Old Age.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com. Comments intended for publication in the space below MUST be accompanied by the letter writer’s first and last name and by his/ her city and state of residence (city and country for those outside the United States.)