Tag Archives: American Jews

Jew of the Week: Joseph Pulitzer

The Nobel of Literature

Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911) Son of a very wealthy Hungarian-Jewish family, he immigrated to New York in 1864, immediately enlisting in the Lincoln Cavalry and fighting in the American Civil War for 8 months. Being dirt-poor after the war, living on the streets, he gave up all the money he had ($5) for a promise of a job at a plantation, but it turned out to be a scam. He wrote an article about this scam and gave it to a newspaper printer. It was written so amazingly that he was nicknamed “Shakespeare” (he was also later nicknamed “Joey the Jew”). He became the first ever investigative journalist. At age 22, he joined the Republican Party, quickly gained prominence, and won a seat in the state legislature – despite being legally too young! Long story short: he became super rich (and powerful), bought a bunch of newspaper companies and forever changed both politics and the media. He left much of his wealth to the renowned Pulitzer Prize – the “Nobel of literature”.

 

 

Words of the Week

Every Jew, no matter how insignificant, is engaged in some decisive and immediate pursuit of a goal… It is the most perpetual people of the earth…

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German dramatist, novelist and poet (1749 – 1832)

Jew of the Week: Haym Solomon

America’s Founding Father?

Haym Solomon (1740 – 1785) One of the major financiers of the American Revolution, he was born in Poland to a family of Sephardic Jews, and later immigrated to New York. (His father was the rabbi of the Sephardic community in Lezsno, Poland.) At one point imprisoned and sentenced to death by the British for being a member of the revolutionary Sons of Liberty, Solomon ultimately died in poverty for his incredible devotion to the founding of the United States. He single-handedly raised the equivalent of $100 million (in today’s value) to pay for the Americans’ final campaign against the British at Yorktown, which turned out to be the last battle of the war. Later, he lent what some estimate to be the equivalent of $40 billion to establish the United States and keep it from going bankrupt in its early years – money which he was never repaid. Many believe that the United States would not exist were it not for his efforts.

Words of the Week

It is a special kindness that God made man to walk upright, so that he looks upon the Heavens; unlike beasts that go on all fours and see only the earth.
– Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch (1789-1866)