Happy Birihday,

erica!

A look at 50 fun, important and curious contributions
Jews have made to the United States.

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR

ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHARLIE BEYL

BUSINESS

Raymond Firestone was a man who re-
ally knew how to get things rolling in
America. When he took over the family
business in the 1960s, the company wasn't
exactly struggling (bringing in about $1
billion a year). But in less than 10 years,
he nearly quadrupled the annual sales,
and firmly established the future of the
Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. A
leading philanthropist, Firestone also was
a flying ace during World War II.

A Connecticut native, born in 1909, Ed-
win Land created the Polaroid Land
Camera in 1948. It was the first camera
to produce a picture within moments.
According to legend, it was actually
Land's daughter who is responsible for the
camera. As a little girl, she reportedly
asked her father why the photo he had
just taken wasn't available immediate-
ly, inspiring Land to create the Polaroid.

Imagine, if you
dare, lugging a hard-
back book around
with you everywhere.
This terrifying sce-
nario might have
proved true were it
not for publisher Max
Schuster. The Aus-
trian-born Schuster
was co-founder of the
publishing giant Si-
mon and Schuster,
which opened its doors in 1924. Schus-
ter was the first to mass market paper-
backs through the company's Pocket
Books division. He also started the pop-
ular Golden Books series for children.

Long before scientists began exploring
the relevancy of genes, there was Levi
Strauss. Born in Germany in 1829, he
came to the United States in 1848, and
two years later opened his own dry-goods
store in California. Working under the

trademark "Levis," he created a long-last-
ing, rugged pair of pants made of den-
im. Miners loved them, and Strauss
quickly learned there was gold in them
thar pants. He brought his brothers, then
his brother-in-law David Stern and
Stern's four sons into the business, and
named it Levi Strauss & Co.
By mid-life, Strauss was a millionaire
who also headed a bank, a mill, an in-
surance company and the San Francisco
Board of Trade. A member of Congrega-
tion Emanu-El in San Francisco, he also
was a philanthropist whose favorite cause
was orphanages of all religious denomi-
nations.

Harry Block was a taxing kind of
man. So was his brother, Richard Block.
The two founded H&R Block, the tax-
preparation agency.

WOMEN

Author and psychologist Phyllis Chesler
has been at the center of controversy since
her first book was published. A native of
New York, she contends in her study
Women and Madness that psychiatrists
often are responsible for female mental
disorders.
Born in 1940, Chesler worked at Yeshi-
va University, New York Medical College,
Metropolitan Hospital's psychiatric ward
and the City University of New York be-
fore publishing her famed book, which
was first serialized in Ms. Her theory was
that psychiatrists encourage women to
continue to play passive roles — and la-
bel "insane" those who fail to do so.
She continued her study of women and
society in two subsequent books Women,
Money and Power and About Men, both
of which sold well but received, pre-
dictably, a great deal of criticism.
At 38, Chesler became a mother for the
first time. Her life took a dramatic turn
as she settled to a quiet life as a domes-
tic goddess. While no longer a leading fern-

H