Humans of Judaism: Everyone Has a Story. What’s Yours?

“’Whether it’s “God Bless America” or blessing God in synagogue, Shulem is always singing.’”

Everyone has a story. . . .

The term “Humans of Judaism” is a brand that “shares positive Jewish community content on social media and online.” The goal is to highlight the community’s positive contributions and its rich history. Even through the dark periods which Jews have experienced, they remain resilient . . . “yet amid the challenges, I found strength in the legacy of resilience that defines us as Jews. . . . This book is another link in the chain of Jewish ancestry and expression of who we are.”

This history is expressed with rich colorful photographs and moving personal stories. There are writers, actors, inventors, artists, sports celebrities, fashion icons and many others who not only made a difference to the Jewish community but only to society in general.

There was Sam Saltz, the only known the first Orthodox Jew to play in the NCAA football. Tamir Goodman became a basketball hero even though he continued to observe the Jewish holidays.  Thelma “Tiby” Eisen, raised in an Orthodox home, was an outfielder in the All-American Girls Professional baseball league from 1944–1952. Eventually, she was featured in Jewish Women in America: A Historical Encyclopedia, and was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

Several stories from Holocaust survivors are especially poignant. Simon Wiesenthal, famed Nazi hunter, wanted to celebrate his 90th birthday in the same Imperial Hotel in Vienna as Hitler’s home during the war. Why? “Let the record read that Hitler is no longer here, but in the Imperial Hotel Jews are still alive and singing.”

Diane von Furstenberg is a fashion icon today and the daughter of an Auschwitz survivor. When liberated, she was told that she was too sick to have children. However, she married and gave birth to Diane. “She always told me that God saved her so she could give me life. I was born of nothing.”

The reader may be surprised to learn that the engraving on the base of the Statue of Liberty, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free” was taken from the American poet, Emma Lazarus. In addition, she was actively involved in helping refugees fleeing pogroms from Europe.

Meet the fashion icons: Levi Strauss, the blue jeans; Anne Klein, who revolutionized by selling tops and bottoms separately; Ralph Lauren; Michael Kors and Calvin Klein. Many are born to poor parents but their imaginations and ambitions led them to fame.

One of the memorable stories is of Judith Love Cohen, a NASA engineer who helped create the Abort Guidance System, “a backup computer that used in the event of primary function failure.” It was used to bring home the Apollo 13 to safety. Nine months pregnant, she had to solve a problem. She took her notes to the hospital. When she phoned her boss to tell him that she had solved the problem, then she gave birth to Jack Black!

There is Dr. Ruth Westheimer, psychologist and sex therapist. She was the first one who dared to talk publicly about the taboo topic of sexual health. Dr. Ruth had an enormous following who phoned the radio station about their sexual problems, and she suggested possible solutions.

There are Holocaust survivors devote their time to educate Jewish and non-Jewish students about the dangers of hate. But Corey Fleishman, a Montrealer, is also erasing hate graffiti from the walls. He drives a truck with his own equipment and locates hate-speech graffiti and at no cost gets rid of it. “Erasing Hate aids all communities, ethnicities, and religions, promoting empathy and assistance among neighbors. We are the pioneering movement that specifically targets, locates, and eliminates hate-speech graffiti globally . . .”

“I am a Jew.” Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks was the Chief Rabbi in the United Kingdom from 1991–2013, an esteemed rabbi and author of several books on Judaism. He tells the story of the sufferings of his people through the generations. “And yet I must, for the sake of my children and theirs, not yet born. I cannot build their future on the hatreds of the past . . . I honor the past not by repeating it but learning from it . . . That is why we must answer hate with love, violence with peace, resentment with generosity of spirit and conflict with reconciliation.” 

A most interesting is the story about an Orthodox man, Shulem Lemmer, who became a Hassidic American singer. He had an extraordinary voice but was content to sing prayers in synagogue on the Jewish High Holidays. But that changed when he was asked to sing at weddings. He became so well-known as a singer that he performed with Andrea Bocelli, famed Italian blind singer, and also at the White House Hanukkah party in 2023. “Whether it’s “God Bless America” or blessing God in synagogue, Shulem is always singing.”

Now I invite the reader to experience the history of Jewish foods. “Challa,” the braided bread, is the centerpiece of the Sabbath table’s rituals. “I like to think of Challa as a microcosm of Judaism as a whole. We may all practice our faith a little differently, but we are all connected by this common thread . . . And that connection is truly the most delicious of them all.”

Has anyone tasted a smoked meat sandwich or other delicatessen? Delicatessen was brought by immigrants who came to United States. They missed Jewish foods. Another food which they pined for was the knish, a potato puff full of onion. And, of course, the bagel, which has become a staple for all peoples. “They changed the city’s food landscape, imbuing it with the now iconic foods that happen to be Jewish.”

Everyone has a story . . . so does the reader.