1 3. The Bird That Never Dies

girl-next-door kind of toy. The result was that
thin-waisted, ever-glamorous doll known as
Barbie, a name the Handlers did indeed call
their daughter, Barbara. Son Kenneth was
the inspiration for Barbie's suave beau, Ken.

Do you imagine that the phoenix is a mysti-
cal bird contained in Greek mythology?
Think again.
While the bird is indeed based on a
Greek legend, many scholars believe that
the mysterious creature called the hol, men-
Honed in Job 29:18, is in fact the phoenix.
There's no doubt when it comes to the
I Midrash, where the phoenix is clearly cited
I as a bird that "lives for 1,000 years. At the
end of 1,000 years, fire comes out of its
• nest and consumes it, and leaving behind of
itself about the size of an egg, it reproduces
limbs and lives again."

7. What Is Schauder?

4. Whom Did Prince Jerome Love?

The French prince, Napoleon Bonaparte's
nephew, loved Eliza Rachel Felix (1 821-
1 858). She was a French-Jewish actress,
who also was the beloved of poet Alfred
de Musset.
The daughter of a peddler, Rachel, as she
was known, was born in Switzerland and

Sigmund Freud was inspired by Max Planck.

began her career singing with her sisters in the
street.
Famed voice master Etienne Choron discov-
ered her there and gave her free music
lessons. She also studied drama and became
a popular actress.
Though Rachel never married, she had two
children, including one by Count Colonna
Walewski, Napoleon's illegitimate son.
Rachel died soon after her tour of the United
States, where an early case of tuberculosis
reappeared and worsened.

5. Before Einstein, the Wright Brothers
and Freud, there was ...

Twenty years before Einstein's Theory of Relativi-
ty, someone was doing serious research into ma t-
ter and energy.
Twenty years before Max Planck's groundbrea k-
ing quantum theory, this same person designed a
system to electrically transmit energy. He sent a
report on his work to the Vienna Academy of
Sciences — but, for reasons unknown, insisted
the material could not be opened for 20 years.
In 1888, he proposed using steam engines to
power flying machines.
And in 1899, this man wrote a book about the
hidden meanings of dreams — a work Sigmund
Freud said was the inspiration for his own work.
But chances are you never even heard of this
strange figure.

4/7
2000

Who was he?
His name was Josef Popper (1838-1921), an
Austrian Jew. He preferred to go by the name
Lynkeus, a mythological Argonaut.
In his lifetime, Popper was best known for his
writings on social issues — he eschewed religion
and capitalism. He advocated a society where
each individual would have his basic needs met
by the government. (But it wasn't quite Marxism,
because Popper believed that common sense, not
revolution, would bring about the changes he envi-
sioned.)
Although Popper had little interest in Judaism, one
of his closest friends was Albert Einstein. In 1886,
Popper added author to his credits when he wrote
a book accusing of antisemitism Prince Otto
Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, the creator and first
chancellor of the German Empire.

I 6. A Real Doll

It's a black township in South Africa,
named for a white Jewish merchant.
So what's the story?
Adolph Schauder was an industrialist
and a 40-year member of the city council
in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. He began
serving his first term in 1923, and also
worked as mayor from 1940-1942.
Schauder was active in Jewish organiza-
tions, including the Orthodox Hebrew Con-
gregation of Port Elizabeth. He also was a
longtime supporter of increased rights and
benefits for the black residents of the area,
which is how the township came to bear
his name.

8. Not The Write Thing To Do
Before the Talmud was completed, Jewish
prayers were never written down, but rather
recited by heart.
In fact, the rabbis were so opposed to hav-
ing prayers set down on paper that one com-
pared those who write prayers to "those who
burn the Torah." •

9. This Will Move You

The founder of Ex-Lax, in 1907, was Israel
Matz. He was just 27 years old when he started
the company.

10.Music To Your Ears

Tchaikovsky dedicated his famous violin concerto to
a Jewish friend, Adolf Brodsky (1851-1929).
Brodsky was the founder of the Brodsky Quartet
which, while virtually forgotten today, was once
extremely popular. Brodsky, a violinist, played with
the quartet and as a solo artist.

Barbie is real, and so is Ken.
The two are the children of Elliot and Ruth Han- 111. We Bet You Didn't Know ...
; dler, who created the Mattel Co. and its very
Everyone knows about the Ten Commandments,
popular, not to mention lucrative, toy — the Bar-
and most everyone knows there are 613 mitzvot, or
i bie doll.
I commandments, in the Tanach. Likely you know that
The Handlers opened a little store in 1939, then
we may not kidnap, violate the Sabbath, dishonor
brought in Elliot's former business partner named
our parents or worship idols.
Harold Matson (the three combined the names
But here are a few mitzvot we bet you didn't
Matson and Elliot to come up with Mattel).
know:
While in Germany, Ruth came across a doll
• Jews may not muzzle an animal, so that it should
1 whose attire she regarded a bit too racy, but
not be able to eat, while it is at work in the field.
which she realized could be reworked into a more
(Deuteronomy 25:4)

