The Jewish Americans

A guest post by TikunOlam

I've been watching a PBS series entitled "The Jewish Americans." It is a very well done series and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about Jewish-American history. I have only watched two of the episodes so far but have already learned a lot. How much of the below did you know?

1. Jewish song writer, Irving Berlin, wrote Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, God Bless America and White Christmas

2. Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company, had his own paper, The Dearborn Independent, where he spouting his anti-Semitic rhetoric through a series of articles entitled "The International Jew" The World's Foremost Problems. It circulated as many papers a year as the New York Daily News. He received an award from Hitler.

3. Under President Woodrow Wilson, Justice Brandeis became the first Jew to serve on the Supreme Court. Justice McReynolds, who served during the same time period, was an overt anti-Semite who would at times walk out of the room when Justice Brandeis would speak.

4. Hank Greenberg, professional Jewish baseball player, during the 1934 pennant race, with a rabbi's blessing, played baseball on Rosh Hashanah and hit two home runs. He did not play on Yom Kippur. His team lost on Yom Kippur but went on to win the pennant that year

5. Leo Frank, a Jewish man of Georgia was accused of killing a young girl named Mary Frank. He was tried by a Jewish Prosecutor, defended by a Jewish attorney in front of a Jewish judge. Despite lack of evidence, he was convicted of the murder and sentenced to death. In 1915, John Slater, governor of Georgia, commuted the death sentence because of the lack of evidence. Less than two months later, 25 men who called themselves the "Knights of Mary Fagan," broke into his jail and lynched him. The Knights of Mary Fagan quickly evolved into what is now known as the KKK.

6. In 1945, Bess Meyerson was the first Jewish American crowned Ms. America.

7. Stand Up Comedy originated by Jews in the Catskills such as Mel Brooks, Sid Caesar and Carl Reiner

8. The Conservative movement is understood to have developed in part as a way to keep Jews shul going once they moved to the Suburbs.

9. The public celebration of the Bat Mitzvah originated in the United States

10. Rabbi Joachim Price, originally from Berlin, was the only Jewish leader who spoke at the famous march on Washington with Martin Luther King Jr.