A Jewish tailor, Jacob W. Davis of Reno, Nevada, invented a way to strengthen work pants with rivets and partnered with Strauss to mass produce them. The riveted denim pants, today known as Levi’s or simply as jeans, were patented in 1873. [SDJW staff]
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After moving back in 1905 to Palestine, where he settled in Jaffa, he formed a partnership with the Ahuzat Bayit company to develop land on the outskirts of Jaffa. Sixty six families drew lots for housing locations along the beach from which the city of Tel Aviv would grow. The Dizengoffs were among those first families, and he served as head of town planning from 1911 to 1922. When Tel Aviv was recognized as a city, Dizengoff was elected as its first mayor. [SDJW staff]
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Arison moved to New York approximately in 1954. In 1966, he moved to Miami, Florida, where with Knut Kloster he co-founded Norwegian Cruise Lines. The partners split in 1971 and the following year Arison founded Carnival Cruise Lines, which he took public in 1987, one month before a stock market crash that left potential competitors without sources of financing. [SDJW staff]
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Over nearly four decades she recorded 22 albums, enriching the Jewish liturgy with such compositions as “The Aleph Bet Song,” “Miriam’s Song,” “Not By Might,” “I Am a Latke,” and “Mi Shebeirech,” co-written with her partner Drorah Setel. “Mi Shebereich,” a song for healing, is used by hundreds of congregations throughout North America. Her songs were gender sensitive and inclusive. [SDJW staff]
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His painting “Shylock and Jessica” won the Gold Medal at the Munich Academy. Later, he returned to Vienna to study under Heinrich von Angeli, and produced paintings on biblical themes. Meeting in Rome, Matejko urged him to return to Krakow to work on a series of monumental paintings including scenes depicting the history of the Jews in Poland. [SDJW staff]
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He was on the prosecution team that convicted Julius and Ethel Rosenberg of espionage, leading to their execution. His work on that case prompted Senator Joseph McCarthy, R-Wisconsin, to appoint Cohn as the chief counsel on the Communist-hunting Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. [SDJW staff]
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Meyer helped to found Barnard College for women in 1889 across the street from Columbia. Barnard became one of the Seven Sisters of women’s colleges in America. Meyer became an associate editor of Broadway Magazine and also edited Women’s Work in America. She also authored such works as Robert Annys: A Poor Priest (1901); The Dominant Sex (1911); The Dreamer: A Play in Three Acts (1912); Black Souls (1932) which dealt with lynchings in the South; Barnard Beginnings (1935) and It’s Been Fun: An Autobiography. (1951) –SDJW staff
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In 1975, Forman had his first big hit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, about life in a psychiatric ward, which won him an Oscar as best director. In 1979, he directed Hair, based on the Broadway musical but it did not do well financially. In 1981, he directed Ragtime, based on a novel by E.L. Doctorow, and in 1985, he won another Academy Award for directing Amadeus, about the life of Mozart. [SDJW staff]
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In 1967 Potok published The Chosen, and in 1969 a sequel The Promise, which helped delineate differences between Orthodox and Hasidic Jews. The Chosen was made into a film in 1981. In the interim, the Potoks moved to Jerusalem in 1970, returning to the states in 1977. Potok’s My Name is Asher Lev was published in 1972. [SDJW staff]
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Following advice to “study your own,” Myerhoff began fieldwork on the elderly Jews at the Israel Levin Center in Venice, California, resulting in a 1977 Oscar-winning short documentary film, Number Our Days, and in 1979 a book of the same title. [SDJW staff]
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Sketch comedy on The Carol Burnett Show, where he appeared for ten years as a regular with Burnett, Vicki Lawrence, and Lyle Waggoner, and with frequent guest Tim Conway, brought Korman four Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe. [SDJW staff]
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Bernstein and Woodard became journalistic heroes, recounting their experiences in the book All the President’s Men, which later became a movie starring Dustin Hoffman as Bernstein and Robert Redford as Woodward. A follow up book, The Final Days, chronicled Nixon’s last days in office. [SDJW staff]
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Blumenthal worked in all three branches of the U.S. government before winning elective office himself. He was an aide to U.S. Sen. Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut, an assistant to Daniel Moynihan during his time in the Nixon White House, and a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun. [SDJW staff]
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Blume’s fight against the book banners, led to her becoming active in the National Coalition Against Censorship. Her treatment of menstruation, masturbation, teen sex, and birth control in different books have prompted calls for their banning. In 2000, the Library of Congress named her a “Living Legend.” [SDJW staff]
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