Tag Archives: Brooklyn

Jews of the Week: Sandy Koufax & Ryan Braun

Best Baseball Players in the World

Sandy Koufax

Since the very beginnings of baseball, the sport has been dominated by great Jewish players: Hank Greenberg, Buddy Myer, Al Rosen, Ken Holtzman and many more. Perhaps most famous of all is Sandy Koufax, the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time, who actually started out as a basketball player in Brooklyn. The first person to win the Cy Young Award (for best pitcher) three times, he was also the league MVP in 1963. Koufax’s shining moment was when he refused to play the first game of the World Series because it was on Yom Kippur. He came back to lead his trailing team to the World Series victory, which earned him the Sportsman of the Year Award. Forced to retire at the young age of 30 due to arthritis, he became the youngest player ever to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Interestingly, Koufax’s last name at birth was Braun, like this year’s baseball MVP Ryan Braun, nicknamed “The Hebrew Hammer”. The son of an Israeli, he has recently said, “I am Jewish… I’m extremely proud to be a role model for young Jewish kids.”

Words of the Week

Ryan Braun

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.
– Gandhi

Jew of the Week: Adam Sandler

A Very Funny Person

Adam Sandler

Hailing from Brooklyn, Adam Sandler (b. 1966) started his acting career on the Cosby Show in the 1980s, but made a real name for himself on Saturday Night Live, alongside Mike Myers and David Space. After starring in some of the most successful comedies in recent history, Sandler created Happy Madison Productions in 1999. The first movie he released under this label was the classic Deuce Bigalow (with proud half-Jew Rob Schneider, who recently said he’d never work with Mel Gibson, even if offered the lead role in Passion of the Christ 2). Sandler has produced and starred in some of the highest-grossing comedies of all time (both Big Daddy and The Waterboy are in the Top 20!) His favourite holiday is, not surprisingly, Chanukah.

Jewish Wisdom

Humour uplifts the mind from a state of constricted consciousness to a state of expanded consciousness.
– Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov

Jew of the Week: Gene Simmons

Gene Simmons, Family Jew

Chaim Witz, aka Gene Simmons

Gene Simmons (b. 1949) Born Chaim Witz in Haifa, Israel to Hungarian Holocaust survivors, he emigrated with his mother to New York when he was 8 years old. Witz attended Yeshiva Torah V’Daat in Brooklyn. Later, he took up his mother’s maiden name and was known as Eugene Klein. After having played in several bands, he formed a new one called Kiss, a Hungarian translation of his last name, which means “small”. Due to their love of Purim, the band has become famous for their flamboyant costumes and make-up. Simmons has since starred in multiple films and TV shows, has published 5 books and several science fiction magazines (he is a fan of the genre). On a recent visit to Israel, he said “I’m Israeli. I’m a stranger in America. I’m an outsider”.

Chaim Witz, aka the Demon

Words of the Week

One whom people are pleased with, G-d is pleased with him; but one whom people are not pleased with, G-d is not pleased with him
– Pirkei Avot 3:10