Tag Archives: American Jews

Jew of the Week: Idina Menzel

Let it Go!

Idina Menzel in ‘If/Then’ (Photo Credit: Joan Marcus)

Idina Kim Menzel (b. 1971) was born in New York to a Jewish family with grandparents from Russia and Eastern Europe. At 15, she began singing at weddings and bar mitzvahs, which later helped her get through Tisch School of Arts at New York University. Shortly after, she auditioned for the hit Broadway musical Rent, landing the role of Maureen Johnson, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She also starred in other hit shows like Hair and Aida, while releasing her first solo music album. Her greatest Broadway success began in 2003 when she started playing Elphaba in the musical Wicked, winning a Tony Award for Best Leading Actress. When the show opened in London, she became the city’s highest-paid female performer, earning $30,000 per week. Since 2008, she’s starred in Chess, Nero, and her latest, If/Then. The latter has now moved to Broadway, and Menzel has been nominated for another Tony for Best Leading Actress. Aside from her tremendous stage success, Menzel has also played roles in television and film, including a role on Glee. Most popularly, she lent the voice of Elsa in Disney’s Frozen, helping to make it the highest-grossing animated film of all time, and winning its theme song “Let it Go” an Academy Award. It also made Menzel the only Tony Award winner to ever hit the Billboard Top 10. Her most recent album, Holiday Wishes, hit the Billboard Top 10, as well. Menzel is heavily involved in charity work, and her ‘A BroaderWay Foundation’ helps disadvantaged youth make it in the arts through summer camps, scholarships, and workshops.

Words of the Week

…contrary to those who misunderstand or misrepresent this in terms of privilege, which smacks of chauvinism, this ‘chosenness’ [of the Jewish people] is primarily a matter of duty, and obligation to be a model people for the whole world to emulate; a people where form takes precedence over matter, the spiritual over the material, and the soul over the body, a people which was destined to be a “light unto the nations” (Isaiah 42:6).
– Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe

Jews of the Week: Naomi Kutin & Scot Mendelson

The World’s Strongest People

Naomi Kutin, “Supergirl”
(courtesy: www.jewpop.com)

Naomi Kutin (b. 2001) was born in New Jersey to a Modern Orthodox family. Her father is a former professional weightlifter (with a number of records under his belt), and introduced his daughter to the sport when she was just eight years old after noting her incredible strength. A few months later, Naomi went to her first competition, and broke a national record. At age 10, she set a world record in women’s powerlifting, breaking an earlier record set by a 44-year old woman! Two years later, she squatted over 231 pounds to set a new women’s world record, despite being just 12 years old. She has earned the nickname “supergirl”, and is often described as the world’s strongest young lady. Naomi doesn’t let her weightlifting get in the way of religious observance; she still goes to an Orthodox school and never competes on Shabbat.

Scot Mendelson
(courtesy: Powerlifting USA)

Meanwhile, the world’s greatest bench-presser is also Jewish, Brooklyn-born Scot Mendelson (b. 1969). Growing up playing sports, Mendelson progressed from ball games to wrestling, boxing, bodybuilding, and finally powerlifting. In 2003, he set the all-time world record (regardless of weight class) by bench pressing 713 pounds. All in all, he has broken over 60 records in his career, winning four World Championships. He currently resides in California, where he operates a gym, and also runs a wellness centre together with actor Eric Roberts.

Words of the Week

Those who are born are destined to die, and those who die are destined to live again.
– Pirkei Avot 4:22

Jew of the Week: Meir Kahane

Meir Kahane

Meir David Kahane (1932-1990) was born in Brooklyn to an Orthodox Ashkenazi family. From a very young age, he was involved with Zionism, and was arrested as a fifteen year old for throwing eggs at the British Foreign Secretary who restricted Jewish immigration to Israel. At 22, he was the director of the New York division of Bnei Akiva – the largest religious Zionist youth organization in the world. Highly educated, Kahane received his rabbinic ordination from the Mir Yeshiva, followed by a political science degree, then a law degree, and a Master’s in international studies. In the late 1950s and 60s he served as a rabbi of a synagogue in Queens. After angering parents because he made their children more religiously observant, he was let go of his post, and took to writing. He went on to write many articles under various pseudonyms, such as David Sinai and Martin Keene, as well as a number of books, and was also the editor of The Jewish Press. Meanwhile, Kahane took a hard-line anti-communist stance, and began to infiltrate left-wing groups as a secular man named Michael King. He even shaved his beard to play the part. This earned him a role with the FBI, for which he worked for several years. Ironically, in 1968 Kahane founded an organization which was listed as a terrorist group by the FBI: the Jewish Defense League (JDL). This group was formed with the goal of protecting Jews from antisemitism (coining the term “Never Again”), while also assisting the plight of Soviet Jewry. On the one hand, it was praised for changing the stereotypical image of Jews as “weak and vulnerable”, and for protecting Jews from assault, particularly the young and elderly. On the other hand, it was heavily criticized for its violent tactics. Kahane himself was arrested on a number of occasions, and served a short prison term. In 1971 he made aliyah to Israel, where he continued his work, being arrested over sixty times in the Holy Land. He served a prison sentence there, too, for planning revenge attacks against Palestinians that killed Jewish settlers. Kahane soon founded the Kach political party. After many years of unsuccessful campaigns, he finally won a Knesset seat in the 1984 elections. However, many of Kahane’s speeches in parliament were boycotted. Despite projections that he would win many more seats in the 1988 elections, the government banned his party for being racist. Kahane opened a yeshiva where he taught for the last few years of his life. In 1990, after giving a speech in New York, Kahane was assassinated by an Egyptian-American terrorist. The terrorist was acquitted of the murder, but later charged for being involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings and sent to jail for life. Kahane was buried in Jerusalem, and 150,000 came to the funeral, making it among the largest in Israel’s history. Kahane was an extremely controversial figure. He has been accused, convicted, and suspected of just about everything from adultery to sedition and terrorism. At the same time, he was also described as a “nice, patient teacher”, and by Bob Dylan as “a really sincere guy”. Kahane was driven by witnessing the cruel injustices suffered by Jews, and seeing time after time how Israel was never treated fairly or equally by the international community. One of his best-known sayings was: “It is better to have an Israel that everyone hates, than an Auschwitz that everyone loves.” Yesterday was his yahrzeit.

Words of the Week

Quotes from Meir Kahane:

“The question is as follows: if the Arabs settle among us and make enough children to become a majority, will Israel continue to be a Jewish state?”

“I don’t think that we can sit back and watch Arabs throwing rocks at buses whenever they feel like it. They must understand that a bomb thrown at a Jewish bus is going to mean a bomb thrown at an Arab bus.”

“The Jew is upset because the nations of the world – the United Nations – lash him, brand him as racist and evil, hate him and openly demonstrate their desire to destroy him.”

“For so long as the Jew has even one ally, he will be convinced – in his smallness of mind – that his salvation came from that ally. It is only when he is alone – against all of his own efforts and frantic attempts – that he will, through no choice, be compelled to turn to God.”