8 June marks the birthday of Frank Lloyd Wright in 1867. Wright was one of America’s most honored and recognized architects. Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin, attended Madison High School and …
Arts
Sidney Lumet – This Week’s Profile in Jewish American Heritage
When Sidney Lumet died in 2011, he had directed 14 films that were nominated for Academy Awards. Born in 1924, his parents were both veterans of the Yiddish language theater. Lumet himself would take to …
Irving Berlin – This Week’s Jewish American Profile in History
After his family fled the anti-Jewish pogroms of Russian Tsar Nicholas II, Irving Berlin was raised in a cold-water basement apartment on the lower east side of New York City. He would go from saloon …
The Battle is Joined
In 1920, in West Virginia, tensions were high between coal company operators and organizers of the United Mine Workers labor union. A number of incidents preceded the bloody gun battle of 19 May, including the …
San Antonio Rose
13 May marks the day musician Bob Wills died in 1975. Wills fronted a band called, ‘The Texas Playboys’ that combined traditional hillbilly dance tunes with swing jazz music, developing a style called, ‘Western Swing’. …
Put Ons and Take Offs
12 May marks the day in 1937 on which George Carlin was born in New York to an Irish immigrant father and an Irish-American mother. He is widely viewed as one of America’s most influential …
Barbara Streisand – This Week’s Jewish American Heritage Profile
Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1942, her mother was a soprano singer and her father a high school teacher who was a highly respected educator with a focus on helping underprivileged and delinquent youth. …
The Sands of Oxus
27 April marks the birth of Tajik poet, Sadriddin Ayni, in 1878. Sadriddin Ayni was born in a peasant family in the village of Soktare. He became an orphan at the age 12 and moved …
Lara’s Theme
It was on 18 April, 1966, that the film, ‘Dr. Zhivago’ won five of the 10 Academy Awards it was nominated for. The film follows the life and love of a medical student who gains …
Eavesdropping
It was on 7 April, 1974 that the film, ‘The Conversation’ opened in theaters. The film starred Gene Hackman as an electronic surveillance expert, proud of his technical accomplishments in the field, but internally conflicted …