Tag Archives: Lithuanian Jews

Jew of the Week: Gertrude Elion

The Woman Who Saved Millions of Lives

Gertrude Elion

Gertrude Belle Elion (1918-1999) was born in New York to Lithuanian- and Polish-Jewish immigrants. She excelled at school, and when her grandfather passed away from cancer, was determined to find the cure. She went on to volunteer as an assistant in a chemistry lab, and was eventually hired for just $20 a week. She used that money to pay for school, earning her Master’s in chemistry in 1941. Unfortunately, Elion was rejected for all fellowships and post-graduate positions because of her gender. Instead, she went to work for a supermarket, testing food quality. From there, she got a job as an assistant in a New York pharmacology lab (now owned by GlaxoSmithKline). Working under the supervision of George Hitchings, she developed two new anti-cancer drugs by 1950. Elion continued to work at the lab, and eventually became the head of its Experimental Therapy department. Despite never formally earning a Ph.D, she was a professor of pharmacology at Duke University between 1971 and 1999. Among the drugs that Elion developed are Purinethol (the first leukemia medication), Daraprim (to treat malaria), and Acyclovir (the first and most common antiviral medication, used to treat herpes, chicken pox, and shingles). Azathioprine, a drug to prevent organ transplant rejection which Elion discovered in 1963, has since been used to ensure successful kidney transplants for over 500,000 people. She also developed drugs to treat meningitis, gout, urinary, and respiratory infections. While Elion officially retired from drug-making in 1983, she was inspired to continue working due to the then-recent outbreak of HIV/AIDS. She continued working full time until the successful release of AZT, the first drug to treat AIDS. For all of this tremendous work, which saved the lives of countless thousands, Elion was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1988. She received a National Medal of Science in 1991, and in that same year became the first woman ever inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. (Elion holds 45 patents.) She finally received an honourary Ph.D from New York University in 1989, and another doctorate from Harvard when she was 80 years old. She is recognized as one of the greatest pharmacologists and biochemists of all time.

Red Sea or Reed Sea: Where is Mount Sinai?

Words of the Week

If you wait until you find the meaning of life, will there be enough life left to live meaningfully?

– Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe

Jew of the Week: Richard Feynman

Revolutionary Physicist 

Richard Phillips Feynman (1918-1988) was born in Queens to Lithuanian Jewish immigrant parents. Before his birth, his father had decided that his son should be a scientist, and raised Feynman from an early age to question everything. Feynman did not speak his first word until he was three years old. In childhood, he loved to take things apart and even set up a lab in his home, hiring his little sister for 4 cents a week to be his assistant. (He would later inspire and encourage her to become a renowned astrophysicist in her own right.) At 15, he taught himself advanced algebra, calculus, and trigonometry. He applied to Columbia University but was rejected because the quota for Jewish students had been filled. Feynman went to MIT instead, first majoring in math, then electrical engineering, and finally physics. He published his first two papers as an undergrad, and his senior thesis (putting forth what would become the Hellmann-Feynman theorem) brought him a great deal of recognition in the scientific community. Feynman then applied to grad school at Princeton, and got an unprecedented perfect score on the physics exam. Again, he was initially brushed aside for being Jewish before the dean was convinced not to miss out on the young genius. (Feynman was admitted only on the condition that he wouldn’t get married!) At 23, he defended his Ph.D, and was already being compared to Einstein (he would win the Albert Einstein Award in 1954). Meanwhile, Feynman was working on the Manhattan Project, leading a team developing the isotron (to isolate uranium-235), then developing what’s now called the Bethe-Feynman formula for fission bomb yield. At Los Alamos, he was one of the “human computers”, and helped to develop better machinery for some of the world’s first digital computers. Towards the end, he spent time lecturing on the dangers of nuclear power, and put together a safety manual for uranium enrichment.

After the war, Feynman joined the faculty of Cornell University, and there developed his famous (and revolutionary) “Feynman diagrams” to solve and explain quantum problems more easily. After a sabbatical in Brazil, Feynman moved to Caltech, working on superconductivity, superfluidity, nuclear decay, and quantum gravity, among many other subjects. He is credited with being the first scientist to conceive of both nanotechnology and quantum computers. In the 1960s, he began writing books on physics, many of which went on to become bestsellers and university textbooks. In 1965, he won a Nobel Prize for his theory on quantum electrodynamics, and in 1979 won the National Medal of Science. Feynman became even more famous in 1986 when he lead the team that investigated the crash of the space shuttle Challenger. Feynman was voted by scientists as one of the 10 Greatest Physicists of All Time, and Bill Gates recently wrote an article (titled “The Best Teacher I Never Had”) about how it was Feynman that served as his greatest inspiration. Feynman was famous for his sense of humour and his rebellious nature. He rejected his religion (though at a later age encountered the Talmud and said it was “a wonderful book”), resisted his superiors (he was sought out by Niels Bohr because all the other physicists were too fearful to argue with the great Bohr), and even derided his Nobel Prize (saying the real prize was the scientific discovery). Feynman also loved biology and poetry, and was an avid painter and musician. Last Friday would have been his one hundredth birthday.

Words of the Week

As they set out from their place above, each soul is male and female as one. Only as they descend to this world do they part, each to its own side. And then it is the One Above who unites them again. This is His exclusive domain, for He alone knows which soul belongs to which and how they must reunite.

– Zohar (I, 85b)

Jew of the Week: Eddie Jacobson

The Man Who Made Israel Possible

Eddie Jacobson with Harry Truman

Edward Jacobson (1891-1955) was born in New York City to Jewish-Lithuanian immigrants. The family was extremely poor, and soon set out for new opportunities in the Midwest. As a teenager, Jacobson worked in a Kansas City factory and became good friends with one Harry Truman. The two eventually parted ways, with Truman enlisting in the National Guard and Jacobson working as a salesman. Years later, at the outbreak of World War I, Jacobson enlisted in the army and happened to be placed in the 129th Field Artillery – where Truman was first lieutenant. Over the course of the war, Truman and Jacobson ran a unit canteen (where soldiers can buy goods), starting it off by collecting $2 from their fellow soldiers to get their initial stock. While most canteens inevitably lose money, Truman’s and Jacobson’s canteen actually turned a huge profit. They were able to return the $2 to all the soldiers, and eventually raised $10,000 in profits. After the war, they used some of this money to try their hand at a number of business (including the Truman & Jacobson Haberdashery), all of which ultimately failed. Truman would go into politics, while Jacobson remained a travelling salesman. Whenever he happened to be in Washington, Jacobson would make sure to visit his old friend. In 1945, Jacobson founded Westport Menswear in Kansas City and finally found success in business. Meanwhile, in 1944, President Roosevelt was running to be re-elected for an unprecedented fourth term. He realized that to win he would have to replace his increasingly unpopular vice president, and the party eventually settled on the likeable and devout Truman. The duo won the election, and were sworn in on January 20, 1945. However, Roosevelt was in failing health, and would often get severe headaches or suddenly fall unconscious. Just 82 days later, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage, leaving Truman with the presidency. Throughout this time, Jacobson and Truman retained their strong friendship, and some report that Jacobson had open access to the Oval Office. In early 1948, the Zionists were campaigning for support of their hopeful state. While Truman sympathized with the Jews, the US State Department was vehemently opposed to the creation of a Jewish state. So many Jews were petitioning Truman that he refused to hear any more of it. When Chaim Weizmann made a last-ditch effort trip to the US, Truman wouldn’t meet him. It was then that Jacobson, though reluctant and afraid to damage his lifelong friendship with Truman, approached him and said: “Your hero is Andrew Jackson. I have a hero too. He’s the greatest Jew alive. I’m talking about Chaim Weizmann. He’s an old man and very sick, and he has traveled thousands of miles to see you.” Truman relented, and Weizmann managed to convince him to support a Jewish state. While the State Department warned Truman that he would risk losing the support of Arabs, and more importantly, their oil supply, Truman replied that he would decide “on the basis of justice, not oil.” Less than two months later, Ben-Gurion declared independence, and Truman was the first to recognize the State of Israel just 11 minutes later. When Truman left the presidency, he intended to take a trip to the Holy Land, and Jacobson was planning to be his guide. Unfortunately, Jacobson died of a sudden heart attack before it could happen. The Truman Library maintains a huge collection of documents and correspondence between Jacobson and Truman (available here), and there is now a play, called ‘Eddie’, based on their warm relationship.

The Spiritual Significance of Israel Turning 70

15 Reasons to be Proud of Israel

Words of the Week

Hitler had been murdering Jews right and left. I saw it, and I dream about it even to this day. The Jews needed some place where they could go. It is my attitude that the American government couldn’t stand idly by while the victims of Hitler’s madness are not allowed to build new lives.
– President Harry S. Truman