Question of the Week: What Yiddish author gained fam e
thanks to his biographical novels of Christian figures?

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LIGPASUVI

helping Jewish families grow

IN HONOR OF THE SECOND MONTH OF

bat candies

2001, AND THE ONLY ONE WITH 28 DAYS,

COOL FACTS WITH THE NUMBER 2.

Elizabeth Applebaum
AppleTree Editor

#1) What country has the second-
largest]ewish population in the world?
Israel, with about 4,847,000 resi-
dents. The United States comes in first
with 5,800,000, with France in third
place, then Russia, Ukraine, Canada,
the United Kingdom, Argentina and
Brazil. Statistic-3 from JSOURCE, the
Jewish Student Online Research Center:
www.us-israel.org/jsource/

#2) Albert Einstein won the Nobel
Prize for physics in 1921. He was pre-
ceded by two other Jewish scientists:
Albert Michelson of the U.S., who won
for physics in 1907, and Gabriel Lipp-
mann of France, who was honored in
1908.

You can learn a lot by learning a little. In Fact-A-Day, Apple-
Tree provides you with fascinating tidbits about any Jewish
subject, past or present. This month, you'll find a collection
of 28 — one for each day of February — facts about the

number 2.
Do you have a suggestion for Fact A Day? If so, please
drop us a line at AppleTree Facts, 27676 Franklin Road,
Southfield, MI 48034; fax: (248) 354-6069; call: (248)
354-6060 ext. 308 (voicemail only); or e-mail:

-

philapple@ewililinluiet

-

#3) Halachic (Jewish) law requires that
burials be held within 24 hours of
death, unless there
are extenuating
circumstances.
Why? Deuterono-
my 21:23 pro-
vides two
mitzvot, or com-
mandments, that
direct Jews:
1. "You shall sure-
ly bur/ him the
same day."
2. "His body shall
not remain all
night."

A casket

On occasion, Jewish funerals are
delayed (to allow distant relatives to
I attend, for example), but rarely do they
take place after more than three days.

#4) Actress Ellen Barkin was relatively
old when she made her film debut at
age 28. Her first role was as "Beth" in
Barry Levinson's Diner (where she finds
her marriage in crisis after she misfiles
her husband's record albums). Barkin
made Diner in 1982, the same year
she appeared in her second movie,
Tender Mercies, with Robert Duvall.

Ellen Barkin

2/23
2001

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