We're Glad To Know
Why Are
You Proud
To Be Jewish?
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM EDITOR
ybe you like lighting
the menorah best, or
erhaps preparing
shalach manot on Purim is your
favorite part of being Jewish, or
maybe it's the State of Israel that
makes you most proud.
The AppleTree wants to
know why you celebrate your
heritage.
Please make your response
no more than one page (try to
type, if possible, though we will
accept handwritten submissions
if they are clear). All essays will
run in The AppleTree. In addi-
tion, The Jewish News staff will
select one to win a prize of $15.
Please include a photo of your-
self to run with your essay. The
deadline is Sept. 15. Send to
Celebrate, The AppleTree,
27676 Franklin Road, South-
field, MI 48034, fax (248) 354-
6069.
Meanwhile, here are some in-
teresting facts about Jews which
may inspire you.
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And Best Of All
They're From Michigan:
Samuel Baiter (Detroit): basketball star.
•
Herman Cohen (Detroit): produced numerous horror films,
cluding I Was a Teen-gge Werewolf.
Edna Ferber (Kalamazoo): author.
Gisela Gresser (Detroit): chess champion.
Edward Israel (Kalamazoo): explorer.
Byron Krieger (Detroit): fencing champion.
Philip Levine (Detroit): poet.
Harvey Mandel (Detroit): jazz musician.
Morton Mintz (Ann Arbor): journalist
Harry Newman (Detroit): football star.
Melvin Pregulman (Lansing): football great
David Pressman (Detroit): cancer researcher.
Edward Reulbach (Detroit): basketball star.
William Seidman (Grand Rapids): economic adviser to President
Gerald Ford.
Herbert Stein (Detroit): chairman of the Council of Economic
Advisers to President Richard Nixon.
Allan Tolmich (Detroit): volleyball champion.
Jerome Wiesner (Detroit): adviser to President John Kennedy
and president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Barry Zweig (Detroit): jazz guitarist
• One of the most important
maps used by Christopher
Columbus was designed by
Abraham ben Samuel Zacu-
to (1450-1525). An astronomy
professor, he wrote a book
filled with navigational maps
used not only by Columbus but
by explorers Vasco da Gama
and Alfonso de Albuquerque.
Horovitz of The Beastie Boys,
there was his father, playwright
Israel Horovitz.
• If you've ever watched an
infomercial for an oldies collec-
tion, no doubt you've heard
that fabulous "Teen Ager In
Love." It was written by Doc
Pomus and Mort Shuman.
• Jewish celebrities who
hold a law degree include:
sports commentator Howard
Cosell, Jewish Defense League
founder Rabbi Meir Kahane,
playwright
Murray Schis-
Where did the
gal and TV host
Geraldo
Cabbage Patch Rivera.
• The Reuter's News Agency
was founded by Paul Julius
Reuter (1816-1899), a Ger-
man-Jewish immigrant who
started his career by using
homing pigeons.
• Among the
Jews who fought
and died at the
Alamo was
Abraham Wolf.
• If your par-
ents or grand-
parents ever liked Ike, then you
should know about Henry D.
Spalding. The editor of Holly-
wood Talent News, he was the
man behind the famous
phrase, "I Like Ike," which
helped catapult Dwight D.
Eisenhower to victory
Kids come from?
• So Elvis' films were a little,
well, awful. Mike Stoller was
the man who wrote the music
for many of them.
• The first professor of pedi-
atrics in the United States was
Dr. Abraham Jacobi (1830-
1919).
• The first person to win the
Pulitzer Prize was journalist
Herbert Bayard Swope
(1882-1958).
• Actor Zero Mostel and
author Erich Segal both are
the sons of a rabbi.
• If you love Haagen-Dazs
ice cream, you have Reuben
Mattus to thank. The Polish-
born immigrant is the man be-
hind this rich, delicious treat
• The first woman to be
named a recorder (judge in a
criminal court) in England was
Rose Heilbron.
• Before there was Adam
• The first woman to teach
law at Harvard University was
Soia Mentschikoff.
• The youngest man to re-
ceive an Academy Award was
Richard Dreyfuss, who was
29 when he won for The
Goodbye Girl in 1977, and the
oldest man to receive an Acad-
emy for best-supporting actor
was George Bums, who was
80 when he won for The Sun-
shine Boys in 1975.
• The 1954 and 1955 Euro-
pean Champion in auto racing
was Sheila van Damm of
England (thank goodness, no
relation to he-man Claude van
Damme).
• The first woman to win
the Iron Cross was Louise
Manuel Grafemus. Born in
1785, she enlisted not as a
woman but as a man, disguis-
ing herself as she went in
search of her missing husband.
While serving with the Pruss-
ian Army, she was promoted to
sergeant major.
• Eleanor Roosevelt and
John D. Rockefeller might have
been complete klutzes on the
dance floor if not for Arthur
Murray, whose classes they
both attended.
• The Cabbage Patch Dolls
were born thanks to the genius
of the Greenberg brothers,
founders of the international
toy company COLECO.
• In addition to being a car-
toonist, Jules Feiffer is a play-
wright whose works include
Carnal Knowledge and Little
Murders.
• Aarao Steinbruch, born
in 1915, was president of the
Labor Party of Brazil.
• For many years, Victor
Barna -(1911-1972) was the
leading table tennis player in
the world. He won 22 world
championships.
• In addition to having
Jewish manager Brian
Epstein, The Beatles found
fame with Richard Lester,
who directed their film A Hard g;
Day's Night
• The 1963 U.S. Trampoline
c
Champion, and the 1964
World Trampoline Champion K4
was Daniel J. Millman.