In 1927 Lecache founded the League Against Pogroms, which the following year, became the International League Against Antisemitism, and in 1979, became the International League against Racism and Antisemitism. He was the president from 1927 to 1968. [Alex Gordon]
His poems were enjoyed by all Soviet children. Marshak’s poetry for children is a world of goodness, fun, fairy tales, original images and ringing, beautiful rhymes. He was an innovator, the creator of energetic, major, fast, inventive, cheerful and witty children’s verse. [Alex Gordon]
Jewish Biography: Samuel Marshak, Soviet Children’s Writer Read More »
Alex Gordon, Antisemitism, Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Holocaust, International, Israel, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, Staff and Bylined Contributors
Jacques Offenbach was born on June 20, 1819, in Cologne. He was the second son and seventh of ten children of Isaac Yehuda Eberst, later Offenbach, a bookbinder, an itinerant cantor who sang in synagogues, a violinist who played in cafes. [Alex Gordon]
Jewish Biography: Jacques Offenbach, Musical Satirist Read More »
Alex Gordon, Antisemitism, International, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Staff and Bylined Contributors
Hofstein wrote poetry from the age of nine in Hebrew, later also in Russian and Ukrainian, from 1909 in Yiddish. His first poems and essays were published in 1917 in Yiddish in a Kiev newspaper. Hofstein perceived the October Revolution of the Bolsheviks as the realization of biblical ideals of justice, as the deliverance of Jews from national oppression. [Alex Gordon]
Jewish Biography: David Hofstein, an Executed Soviet Poet Read More »
Alex Gordon, Antisemitism, Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Israel, Jewish History, Staff and Bylined Contributors
In 1819 the Society for the Culture and Science of the Jews was organized in Berlin, whose president from 1821-1824 was the lawyer Dr. Eduard Gans. The Society published the journal Zeitschrift für Wissenschaft des Judenthums (Journal of the Science of Judaism), in which the purpose of the union was formulated as “the dissemination among the Jews of European education and scientific knowledge of Judaism in order to prepare in this way a painless transition from the Middle Ages to modernity, especially in order to avoid mass conversions to Christianity.” [Alex Gordon]
Jewish Biography: Eduard Gans, Judaism’s Defender Then Defector Read More »
Alex Gordon, Antisemitism, International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Staff and Bylined Contributors
The only philosopher in Soviet Russia who spoke in defense of quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity and proved that the new theories do not contradict Marx’s philosophy, was Semyon Semkovsky, Doctor of Philosophy, Academician of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. [Alex Gordon]
Jewish Biography: Semyon Semkovsky, Ukrainian Philosopher Read More »
Alex Gordon, Antisemitism, International, Jewish History, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors
Stanisław Jerzy Lec, a prominent Polish satirist of Jewish origin, said: “The tragedy of an epoch is best conveyed by its laughter.” Lec, Yiddish for “jester, clown, mocker,” lived a short life full of suffering, during which he made people laugh. Sholom Aleichem said: “a Jew laughs to keep from crying.” Lec suffered a lot and, in order to endure this suffering with honor, he laughed a lot. He wrote: “When people do not have time to laugh – satire is born.” [Alex Gordon]
Jewish Biography: Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, Satirist who Survived the Shoah Read More »
Alex Gordon, Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Holocaust, International, Israel, Jewish History, Staff and Bylined Contributors
Paul Ehrlich performed pioneering research work in chemistry, medicine, physiology, histology, bacteriology, hematology and oncology and became the founder of immunology and pharmacology and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on immunology (1908). He invented the first effective drug against syphilis. [Alex Gordon]
Jewish Biography: Paul Ehrlich, Discoverer of a Drug to Battle Syphilis Read More »
Alex Gordon, International, Jewish History, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors
After the Nazis came to power, Schoenberg emigrated to the United States. On his way there, in 1933, he underwent a rite of conversion to Judaism in a synagogue in Paris. [Alex Gordon]
Jewish Biography: Arnold Schoenberg, Composer and Latter-Day Jew Read More »
Alex Gordon, Antisemitism, California, Holocaust, International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors
Richard Martin Wilstätter was born in Karlsruhe on August 13, 1872. His father was a cloth merchant. In From My Life Wilstätter writes about his origins: “My forefathers were Jews. They had made their home in Karlsruhe since 1720. […] Rabbis, teachers, and a physician were among my ancestors.” Since childhood, he has been fascinated by the natural sciences: “At the age of twelve, I had decided on chemistry and natural sciences in general.” [Alex Gordon]
Jewish Biography: Richard Wilstätter, Nobel Prize-Winning Chemist Read More »
Alex Gordon, Antisemitism, Holocaust, International, Jewish History, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors
Halévy’s seminal work is the opera The Jewess (La Juive), which became one of the cornerstones of the French repertoire for a century. It was a grand opera in five acts, including ballet, choruses, spectacular processions and festivities. The premiere of the opera, based on a libretto by the famous French playwright Eugène Scribe, was a colossal success at the Grand Opera House in Paris on February 23, 1835. [Alex Gordon]
Jewish Biography: Fromental Halévy, Composer of Operas and Jewish Sacred Music Read More »
Alex Gordon, International, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Staff and Bylined Contributors
His main areas of research were function theory and analytic number theory. Landau became world famous for his two-volume course Foundations of Analysis (1930), written with impeccable logical rigor. As a professor he enjoyed great success, doctoral students came to him from all over the world. [Alex Gordon]
Jewish Biography: Edmund Landau, Mathematician Hounded by Nazis Read More »
Alex Gordon, Holocaust, International, Israel, Jewish History, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors
Meyerbeer’s vast fortune and the great success of his operas, as well as his observance of the laws of the Jewish religion, set him apart from many musicians. He was a sponsor of many young composers, including Wagner, who “thanked” him with an antisemitic article, “Jewry in Music.” [Alex Gordon]
Jewish Biography: Giacomo Meyerbeer, Opera Impresario Read More »
Alex Gordon, Antisemitism, International, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Staff and Bylined Contributors
In a small book Four Years of Political Murders (1922), Emil Julius Gumbel, who became professor of mathematics and statistics at the University of Heidelberg, gave the following data: after the end of World War I, 376 political murders were committed in Germany, among them 22 were committed by left-wing extremists, 354 by right-wing extremists. [Alex Gordon]
Jewish Biography: Emil Julius Gumbel, Pacificist Statistician Read More »
Alex Gordon, Antisemitism, International, Jewish History, Staff and Bylined Contributors