Jews in the News: RIP Tony Curtis

The famed actor, born Bernard Schwartz, passed away at the age of 85.

Wait, we haven't profiled Tony Curtis yet? We did profile his daughter...

Profile: Joel Stransky

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=899

Joel was suggested by Maxim from Israel, Mark from London, and "B" from Pennsylvania. That's right, three suggestions for a South African rugby player. Go figure.

Profile: Irma Langinstein

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=898

Marc from California "was wondering if you could touch on whether [the] Turtles can be Jewish and/or trained in the art of ninJewtsu". Sorry, Marc. We're truly truly sorry.

Profile: Lip Pike

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=897

Yes, I actually wrote another baseball profile. Go figure.

For those who don't know, a haberdasher is "a retail dealer in men's furnishings, as shirts, ties, gloves, socks, and hats."

Profile: Lady Gaga

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=896

Fine. Fine. Fine! Here's your Lady Gaga profile, Emily from Chicago, Joe from Rhode Island, Jessy from Denver, Jenni from San Francisco, Rossen from Bulgaria, Chris from Virginia, and the mysterious Mr. X from not-so-mysterious New Jersey. Fine!

Jews in the News: The smartest athletes

"Smart athlete". An oxymoron? Not according to the Sporting News, which put out a list of who they consider the 20 smartest athletes. #9 is Brad Ausmus. But #1 is another Jew, Yale graduate Craig Breslow of the Oakland A's, who we haven't profiled yet...

Profile: Wilhelm Steinitz

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=895

Reading about 19th Century chess players is much like reading about 19th Century anarchists: Jew City.

And yes, this means that we've profiled FIVE world chess champions (although one was only rumored to be Jewish). Their own category, perhaps?

Profile: Harry Connick Jr.

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=894

Yakov is back (I'm sure you haven't noticed), but yet again he can't be bothered to blog his own profiles. Oh well. Such is life. I'm not complaining. Much.

Connick Jr was suggested by... too many people: Richard from Long Beach, NY, Susie from Beverly Hills, Anna from Dallas, Louis from New Orleans, "Gentle Muse" from Connecticut, Loren from Las Vegas, and someone who calls themselves "Oy Vey NY" from... New York.

Profile: Dorrit Moussaieff

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=892

Dorrit was suggested by Stephen from California, who writes, "Now, HERE'S a woman for you..." That she is, Stephen. That she is.

Profile: Danny Kaye

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=893

Kaye would make an excellent profile for our non-existent sister site, GayOrNotGay.com (mentioned here, here, and here), for he is rumored to be Lawrence Olivier's lover. No conclusive proof exists.

Kaye was recommended by Sally from Israel and Christina from New York.

Profile: Tim Roth

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=891

Roth was suggested by Vladimir from Vladikavkaz, Joanne from Sonoma, CA, Teri from Sarasota, and Ramona from Boulder, CO. Big thanks to Ramona for pointing us to the name change story.

Profile: Jonathan Brandis

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=890

Oh, Jonathan, we hardly knew ye. If you're feeling particularly sad now and would like to wallow even further into the depths: here you go. Yup, it' the JONJ blue period. Pour out your drops of Maneshewitz and then go read about Optimus Prime or something to cheer yourself up, K?

Settling the Score: George Michael

So, a genealogy blog debunks that George Michael is (part) Jewish... Sort of. We previously read that he had a Jewish grandparent, but the blog concludes:

[L]ikely there is a maternal ancestor on George Michael's family tree who was indeed Jewish, so it was the case that his grandmother Daisy Angold Young was of Jewish descent some way back.^[1]

So we docked George an I point (he's down to a 2), but Barely a Jew he stays...

Update, 2016 (RIP George): Not a Jew.

There have been various claims on the internet, some perhaps originating with George Michael himself, that George’s maternal grandmother was Jewish. These claims are not accurate. George’s maternal grandmother was of non-Jewish English ancestry.^[2]

Thanks to Dave from New York for alerting us.

Profile: Gregory Pincus

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=889

Pincus was suggested by... this list of The 100 Most Influential Jews of All Time. A few bones to pick with this list, but... whatever.

Profile: Delilah

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=888

An astute reader might have noticed a new category that popped up recently: Religious Figures. Here you will find a bunch of Biblical profiles and as well as some wacky characters previously listed in [Uncategorized].

Profile: Emma Goldman

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=887

It's amazing about reading these turn-of-the-century anarchists: Jew, Jew, Jew, Jew. Well, except for Czolgosz. No wonder he wasn't accepted...

Profile: Charlotte York

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=886

I'm BACK, baby! Oh right, no one cares. Anyway, Charlotte was suggested by Cristela from Lima, Peru (two in a row for her!). Thanks Cristela, and please send our best to Paddington Bear.

Profile: Tommy Pickles

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=885

Another one long time coming... Curtis from Arizona requested a Rugrats profile in February of 2009. Will from California and Cristla from Peru (we have fans in Peru!) have asked for it since.

JONJ on Egotastic!

So, yesterday we got an email from Egotastic.com. What's Egotastic.com, you ask? Well, we had no idea. Apparently, it's a hugely popular site (top 600 in the US, top 1000 in the world). So we clicked. Oh, did we ever. Be careful: it's Not Safe For Work. But somewhat tasteful. We'll leave it at that.

So what did Egotastic want to do with us? Well, they wanted our expertise on this, one of the holiest days of the Jewish calendar. And expertise we provided. Because we can't say no to porn we're such media whores hogs...

So here it is, in all its glory.

Profile: Keith Bulluck

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=884

Just like last year, we go with a NFL profile for opening day. And just like last year, Not a Jew. Hmmm. Do we have any Jewish NFLers left to profile? There's Adam Podlesh of the Jaguars, but he is a lowly punter. Other than him... There are a few, but no one of significance. Hmmmm.

Profile: Billy Wilder

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=883

The epitaph:

Wilder was suggested by Jason from Allentown, Bernhard from Germany, and Peter from NYC.

Profile: Arnold Rothstein

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=882

Don't worry, dear readers: we expect Yakov back soon. Yes, he is still not in action. Last I heard he was somewhere in New Guinea, explaining the Jewishness of Superman to a tribe of cannibals. Godspeed, Yakov. Godspeed.

Rothstein was suggested by Sofia from Florida and returning suggester Bruce from Cambridge, IL.

Profile: The Spanish

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=881

So, in theory, we can claim 1/5 of the Spanish World Cup-winning team... So that 23 / 5 = 4.6 World Cup champions. Not bad. Not bad at all...

Update: Rosenfels!

Oh how we cry for our once-patron-saint, Sage Rosenfels. A year ago, he was traded to the Vikings, and didn't take a snap behind Brett Favre.

And now, who comes to the rescue? Yakov's own New York Giants! Rosenfels has been traded to New York and will backup Eli Manning. Wait, we have also profiled Eli Manning? Wow, we get around.

Profile: Julio Iglesias

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=879

Thanks to one of our favorite readers, Mila from Alexandria, VA, for the initial email. Iglesias was also suggested by Juan from Texas and Sam from Indiana.

Profile: Debi Mazar

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=880

A year ago, I wrote the Ari Gold profile in defense of "Entourage". But this season... ugh. Just ugh.

Mazar was suggested by Meghan from Queens and Miriam from Burbank.

Profile: Robert Wuhl

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=878

When I told Yakov I'm gonna profile Robert Wuhl, his response was, "sure, but... who cares about Robert Wuhl?" He's got a point.

Top 10 Profiles: August

1. Sandra Bullock (0)
2. Mel Gibson (0)
3. Adolf Hitler (+2)
4. Charlie Chaplin (-1)
5. Steve Carell (+2)
6. Bill Clinton (NEW)
7. Kevin Bacon (+3)
8. Scarlett Johansson (-2)
9. Harrison Ford (-1)
10. Robert De Niro (+4)