Weekly Quiz - Pre 2019 

Shimon Peres, z”l

RASHI, RAMBAM and RAMALAMADINGDONG joins the world in mourning the passing of Shimon Peres, as we honor him with a bonus weekly quiz question.

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Shimon Peres, who died yesterday at the age of 93, was once featured in a film entitled So Now What? What was this video about?

President Shimon Peres by Chatham House is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

AThe video was made in 1995 following the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. In the film, Peres calls for unity and peace in the divided country, so that the country can focus on healing and on the external threats which face Israel.

BSo Now What? was actually a series of short videos made by the Israel Broadcasting Authority in 1967. Each of the 12 segments featured an interview with a leading public figure discussing the future of Israel, following the Israeli victory in the Six Day War and Israel’s newly-gained control over the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Besides Peres, others who were interviewed included Moshe Dayan, David ben-Gurion, and Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek.

CThe movie was made in 1994 by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, the group that awards the Nobel Peace Prize. The film, which presented a vision for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, was shown at the award ceremony when Peres, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize.

DIn 1996 Shimon Peres founded the Peres Center for Peace. The video was made at the time to introduce the Center to the public and to potential donors. In the film, Peres talks about the mission of the Peres Center, detailing its focus on such areas as agriculture, water and the environment; civil leadership; medicine and healthcare; and social media and technology.

EThe video follows Peres as he finds himself unemployed after the end of his term as President of Israel in 2014. In the film, we see him meet with a job counselor who tells him that his past experience as a shepherd is not useful because everyone is now vegan. Peres does eventually get work as a gas pumper, a supermarket check out clerk, and a pizza delivery guy, but sadly, he is not very successful at these jobs.

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National Museum of African American History and Culture 

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture opened this weekend in Washington, D. C. The museum, with more than 36,000 artifacts, tells the story of African American life, history, and culture. One display in the museum contains an item or items with a Jewish connection which is tied in some way to Michelle Obama. What is this item or items?

Photograph of the National Museum of African American History and Culture by Alan Karchmer/NMAAHC Copyright ©2016 National Museum of African American History and Culture

A. In the museum’s section on slavery in America, there is a Hebrew Bible which had belonged to a Jewish slaveholder named Solomon Davis, a South Carolina tobacco plantation owner. Michelle Obama’s great-great-grandfather, Jim Robinson, was enslaved on Davis’s plantation.

B. The museum contains a copy of the speech that Michelle Obama offered at the 2016 Democratic National Convention last July. In her remarks, Mrs. Obama said that the Republican convention had been sadly divisive, noting that “Peace will come when the Republicans love their children more than they hate us.” Mrs. Obama has since been accused by Melania Trump of plagiarizing Golda Meir’s statement about the Arabs, “Peace will come when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us.”A spokesman for the Obamas defended the First Lady. “Michelle Obama said, ‘Peace will come when the Republicans love their children more than they hate us.’ Twilight Sparkle of My Little Pony said, ‘Peace will come when Pinkie Pie loves Fluttershy and Applejack loves Rainbow Dash.’ There’s no cribbing of Golda Meir’s speech. These were common words and values. She cares about her family. To think that she’d be cribbing Golda Meir’s words is crazy.”

C. In an exhibit about the Obamas there is a letter of recommendation that was written by Rabbi J. H. Margolis of the South Side Hebrew Congregation (now the Central Synagogue of Chicago on the north side of town) on behalf of Michelle Obama’s father, Fraser Robinson, III. As a young man, Robinson had worked as a porter at the synagogue, eventually applying for and obtaining a job at the city water plant. Rabbi Margolis’s letter stated that “Mr. Robinson has shown himself to be a diligent young man, respectful of our people and our culture, and always dedicated to hard work.”

D. One of the major exhibits at the museum is about the Civil Rights movement. Included among the displays is the iconic picture of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. marching in Selma, Alabama in 1965, flanked by John Lewis, Ralph Abernathy, Ralph Bunche and other black leaders, along with Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Behind Rabbi Heschel is Pastor Kenneth B. Smith of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. This was the church that Michelle Obama’s family belonged to when she was growing up, as Pastor Smith was Michelle Obama’s uncle. This is also the church that she and President Obama later attended under the leadership of the controversial Pastor Jeremiah Wright.

EThe museum has a display about worship in the African American community that includes a Torah scroll, tallit and shofar which were donated to the museum by Rabbi Capers Funnye, spiritual leader of Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in Chicago. Rabbi Funnye is a cousin of Michelle Obama.

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Eight Days a Week

The Beatles: Eight Days a Week–The Touring Years, a documentary directed by Ron Howard, opened this past Friday. The film covers the years 1962-1966 as the Beatles performed more than 800 live concerts around the world. What Jewish-related event took place during the Beatles 1964 tour of America?

beatles 4 by roger is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

AThe Beatles performed a concert at the Milwaukee Arena on September 17, 1964. The band had arrived only hours before the concert as an early season snow storm had closed the highway from Indianapolis, where they had performed the night before. During the storm, one of their equipment trucks had slid off the road and overturned. While no one was hurt, a Hammond organ was destroyed. On short notice, calls went out to locate a replacement organ, and one was procured from Temple Menorah, a reform synagogue located only a mile from the Milwaukee Arena. The Beatles all autographed the organ, which is still in use at the temple to this day.

BLinda Eastman was majoring in Fine Arts at the University of Arizona, where she studied photography. On September 5, 1964, she received a phone call from one of her professors, telling her that a colleague who was a professional photographer needed a student who could assist with a bar mitzvah party shoot that night, as his assistant had taken ill. Eastman took the job and worked the bar mitzvah party. After the party, the photographer told Eastman that he had press access to the after-party following the Beatles concert that had taken place that night at the Rialto Theatre in Tucson. They attended the bash and Linda had the opportunity to meet and photograph Paul McCartney for the first time. This was the start of an on-going relationship between McCartney and Eastman, at first professional as her phototgraphy career grew, and eventually as a romantic relationship and marriage.

CBrian Epstein, the Beatles manager, was with the band during their 1964 American tour. When the band performed in New Orleans on September 16, Epstein reached out to Ivor Davis, a Jewish reporter who was covering the tour for London’s Daily Express and asked if he could arrange for tickets to Yom Kippur services, which were to be held the next day. Davis called the local Conservative Synagogue and secured the tickets, but Epstein ended up leaving New Orleans early the next morning and did not show up at services.

DThe Beatles were scheduled to perform in New York City on September 8 at Forest Hills Stadium. That night was in fact the first night of Rosh Hashanah, and as the concert approached, city officials became concerned that there would be an insufficient number of police, transit, and other critical workers available to ensure safety at the concert. Mayor Robert Wagner called a meeting of the city council, who approved overtime funds to enable non-Jewish city workers to put in the extra hours necessary to cover for Jewish employees who would be taking off for the holiday, thus preventing the cancellation of the concert.

E. The Beatles’ final concert on their 1964 American tour took place at the Paramount Theater in New York City on September 20. When the Beatles arrived in New York on the day before the concert, John Lennon gave an interview to the Jewish Week newspaper, where he said, “Judaism will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that. I’m right and I’ll be proved right. We’re more popular than Moses now. I don’t know which will go first, rock ‘n’ roll or Judaism. Moses was all right but the prophets were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.” The remarks led to threats and protests outside the theater by Jewish groups, a major reason why the Beatles decided not to tour in America again (or ever in Israel).

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Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo Bank has just been fined $185 million for fraudulently opening credit card and checking accounts in the names of people who were not aware and did not approve. The original Wells, Fargo & Company provided express delivery and banking services in California. In 1905 the company separated its delivery and banking services, followed by the merger of the bank with the Nevada Bank which was operated by Isaias W. Hellman, forming the Wells Fargo Nevada National Bank. Following additional mergers and name changes, the bank became the Wells Fargo Bank in 1954. How did Isaias Hellman, a Jewish immigrant from Bavaria, become a banker in the first place?

Wells Fargo Stagecoach by FotoGuy 49057 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

AHellman’s father was a banker in Bavaria, and Hellman began working in the bank as a young man. The family fled Germany in 1839 following a pogrom in their town in which the Hellman Bank was broken into, robbed, and set on fire. When the family arrived in California in 1840, Isaias Hellman and his father borrowed money from the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and established a bank in Los Angeles.

B. Isaias W. Hellman had emigrated from Germany in the mid-1800’s with his family and they settled in California. Every month the Hellman family and all of their neighbors would await the arrival of the Wells Fargo wagon, delivering packages to the residents. In December 1853, the Wells Fargo Wagon was a-comin’ down the street. One resident got a delivery of a box of maple sugar on his birthday. Another got a gray mackinaw, while a third got some grapefruit from Tampa and a fourth person got a bathtub and a cross-cut saw from Montgom’ry Ward. Little Isaias got a present that his father had ordered for Chanukkah–a piggie bank. Isaias told his father that this present was “thump’n thpethyul just for me,” and it became his inspiration to eventually become a banker.

C. Isaias Hellman had immigrated to Los Angeles in the mid-1800’s, where he established a dry goods store. His store was located in an area that was largely populated by Mexicans, the majority of whom were members of the Catholic church. Hellman was approached by the local bishop and asked if he would consider providing loans for the members of the church, as church rules forbid the charging of interest on loans by Catholics. Hellman consented to do so, and eventually opened a bank next door to his store, the first official bank to be opened in Los Angeles.

D. Mayer Amschel Rothschild established a banking business in Frankfurt, Germany in the 1760’s, and this bank went on to become an international banking institution as members of the family established Rothschild Banks throughout Europe. Isaias Hellman worked for the Rothschild Bank in Bavaria in the mid-1800’s, before deciding to emigrate to America. Upon arriving in California, Hellman partnered with Francisco Temple to established Hellman, Temple and Co., Los Angeles’s first official bank, with funding from the Rothschild family.

E. Hellman arrived in California in 1859 and worked as a clerk in his cousin’s dry goods store. He eventually opened his own store, where as a courtesy he would store his customers’ valuables in the store safe. One customer who kept gold in the safe would often come in while drunk and withdraw some of his gold. At one point, this customer went to retrieve some of the gold when he was sober, and upon discovering much of the gold gone, he wrongly accused Hellman of theft and attacked him. Hellman realized that this informal storage system was not a good idea, so he printed business cards reading “I.W. Hellman, Banker” and began providing deposit books to customers.

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Gene Wilder, z”l

The great Gene Wilder, star of such wonderful movies as Blazing Saddles, The Producers, The Frisco KidWilly Wonka & the Chocolate Factoryand Young Frankenstein, passed away last week. How did Wilder describe the role of Judaism in his life?

Gene Wilder

WONKA making some magical MEDICINE by Joe Madonna is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

AI’m not at all religious, although I am certainly Jewish–which, to me, means that my mother showed up at my Hebrew school in the afternoon and brought me a piece of kugel or a bialy so I wouldn’t starve before dinner.

B. I’m not at all religious, although I am certainly Jewish–which, to me, means that my parents stopped talking to me when I married my first wife, who wasn’t Jewish, and continued not to talk to me when I married my second wife, who also wasn’t Jewish (though they did speak to my wives.) Only when I married my third wife, Gilda, who of course was Jewish, did my parents finally start speaking to me again.

COf course, The Producers was brilliantly written by Mel Brooks. But I did contribute a few lines, including when my character, Leo Bloom, said: “I’m hysterical! I’m having hysterics. I’m hysterical. I can’t stop when I get like this. I can’t stop. I’m hysterical. Oh my god. Ah-la-la-la.” That basically summed up my world view on being Jewish.

D. I’m not at all religious, although I am certainly Jewish–which, to me, means that my father, who came from a shtetl in Poland would sing niggunim on Friday night. So my Judaism was just a feeling I got from that music. I can still hear him now. “Ay, di di di die die die.” “Bum diddy dum dum bim bum bum bum.” Oy yoy, oy. Yoy diddly doy.” Oompa loompa doom-pa-dee doo.”

EI’m not at all religious, although I am certainly Jewish–which, to me, means that my parents hugged and kissed me a lot as I was growing up.

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