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screen shot from https://www.lillianvernon.com/

“I Am My Customer”: The Shopping Empire That Lillian Vernon Built With Her Own Two Hands

If you Google Lillian Vernon’s name, the first thing that pops up is a garment bag, which is used to transport clothing without leaving them creased. The item is made of lightweight, but durable, polyester, that can be monogrammed. If it’s not out of stock, you can order one on Amazon for $32.99. This simple item aptly illustrates the fundamental nature of the business empire built by Lillian Vernon, whose family fled from Nazi Germany to the United States when she was a young girl. The garment bag is a practical, yet essential, product. It’s not expensive, but has an[]

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She Treated All of Jerusalem’s Children: Wonder Physician Helena Kagan

Starting from the end of the Ottoman period, continuing through the entire British Mandate, and in the first decades following the establishment of the State of Israel, there was an extraordinary woman who worked in Jerusalem. Her name was Dr. Helena Kagan, and she was the first pediatrician in pre-State Palestine. Kagan laid the foundations of pediatric medicine and socialized medicine in the country, making her a legendary figure. In the 1960’s, the Hebrew daily Maariv described her as “the woman who treated all of Jerusalem’s children – Jews and non-Jews alike, children who lived in the aristocratic neighborhood of[]

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‘A Product of Miracles’ : The Jewish Boy Who Hid From the Nazis in a Hole and Became a Huge Inventor

13 years have elapsed since Dr. Felix Zandman passed away, but his story continues to resonate. There are innumerable accounts about the Holocaust, as well as a host of stories dealing with the Holocaust and rebirth. But the unbelievable story of Felix Zandman is truly extraordinary and beautiful because it embodies a victory against all odds, the importance of education and knowledge, a moving plot about friendship, mutual assistance, and readiness to sacrifice for others – in addition to miracles and wonders. Zandman is also the epitome of a rare human combination: a scientist with a remarkable entrepreneurial spirit, who[]

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Narrative Hope Resilience banner

Webinar: Hope, Resilience and A New Jewish Narrative

Webinar: Hope, Resilience and A New Jewish Narrative November 16, 1pm EST \ 8 PM IL Jewish professionals, leaders and educators from around the world are invited to engage in how to generate internal hope and resilience with ANU’s Naama Klar, director of The Koret International School for Jewish Peoplehood, and Tracy Frydberg, director of the Andrew H. and Ann R. Tisch Center for Jewish Dialogue, along with Emory University psychologist, Dr. Marshall Duke. The online event will offer a new framing of the post-October 7 period and its global Jewish implications. The event will conclude with useful tools and[]

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Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway Visits ANU – Museum of the Jewish People

On Tuesday, 12.9.23, Norway’s Foreign Minister, Anniken Huitfeldt began her official tour of Israel with a visit to ANU – Museum of the Jewish People. The visit was accompanied by the Ambassador-designate of Norway to Israel, Per Egil Selvaag, the Ambassador of Israel to Norway, Avi Nir, and a delegation of dignitaries from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Norwegian Embassy in Israel. The tour was led by Dan Tadmor, CEO of the Museum; Adi Akunis, CEO of the Friends Association and head of the foreign relations division at ANU; and  Enia Zeevi Kupfer, director of the international[]

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New immigrant children from Yemen in the Meir Shfeya Youth village, Israel, 1950s (The Oster Visual Documentation Center, ANU - Museum of the Jewish People, courtesy of the Meir Shfeya Youth Village)

The Comeback of Yere’im Shelahuni: A Yom Kippur Liturgical Poem

Just like in the different categories of popular culture, where there are big and widely known names, including creators, writers or performers – the very mention of whose name is enough to spark interest or cause people to take out their credit card – there are also the small names. Needless to say, great works have been created by people belonging to both groups. But quite often the small and unfamiliar names are the most interesting ones because their path in the world of culture, which transcends periods and places, is surprising, elusive and baffling. That holds true for the[]

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Shai Agnon, in his house 1966 (photo: Yachin Hirsh, the Dan Hadani collection, National Library)

Days of Awe: Shai Agnon’s Anthology for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and the Days In Between

Everyone knows who Shai (Shmuel Yosef) Agnon is thanks to the fiction he wrote. But one of his best-known books, and perhaps his greatest and most ambitious undertaking, was actually an anthology – a compendium as that genre was called at the time – which was published in 1938. Agnon compiled and edited the anthology Days of Awe: A Treasure of Jewish Wisdom for Reflection, Repentance, and Renewal on the High Holy Days, whose Hebrew title is Yamim Noraim – High Holy Days – which can also be translated as ‘terrible days.’ It contains stories and commentaries dealing with Rosh[]

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Dawood's translation of the Quran (Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center)

Dawood’s Life Project: The Jew From Iraq Who Introduced the Quran to the West

Nessim Joseph Dawood, who translated the Quran into English in the middle of the 20th century, was not, of course, the first to translate the Holy Book of Islam into English. But he is responsible for its most widely read and popular translation. Interestingly enough, one of the people who deserves the most credit for introducing Islamic culture to the West was a Jew. The Jew in question was born in Baghdad, Iraq to the Yehuda family – a longstanding and highly respected Jewish family that left the Land of Israel prior to the destruction of the First Temple. However,[]

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Ben Zakai Synagogue, Jerusalem, 1897

Viva Dineros: The Telenovela That’s the History of the First Banking Family in Pre-State Israel

“The bank was located on El-Batrak Street (present day David Street) in the Old City, near the vegetable stalls and the grocery stores, which also sold fish. The bank itself was situated between two vegetable stalls, whose crates took up a large part of the street. You would enter via a narrow passageway, at the end which there were two spacious rooms, where Aharon Valero ran his banking business.” That’s how Gad Frumkin described Jacob Valero & Company, the first private bank in pre-State Israel, in his book Derech Shofet B’Yerushalayim – The Path of a Judge. The bank’s founder,[]

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From left: Isaac Bashevis Singer, Esther Kreitman, Israel Joshua Singer

Queen Esther: The Tragic Story of the Female Trailblazer Sister of Bashevis Singer

The Forgotten Singer: The Exiled Sister of I.J. and Isaac Bashevis Singer, written by Maurice Carr, was recently published by White Goat Press, the imprint of the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts. Carr has already been dead for 20 years, but only now has this biography come out, in which the author seeks historical justice for his mother, Esther Kreitman. The forgotten author, who only in recent years has begun to receive recognition as one of the first Jewish feminist writers, was overshadowed by her famous brothers. They did not support her literary career and gave her no financial[]

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