Settling the Score: Rachel Maddow

We had Rachel Maddow marked as "Not a Jew", but she did admit to having some "distant" Jewish ancestry. So she gets an I Point and a "Barely a Jew" verdict. We like to be consistent, after all.

Profile: Kaka

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=846

Kaka... make that Kaká, belongs to Jesus, of course:


Why the Jewish rumors then? Well, his real name is Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, so Izecson is the Portuguese version of Isaacson, so... Yeah, we're not buying it. Besides, Izecson appears to be his middle name, not his last name.

Profile: Fred Astaire

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=845

Astaire was suggested by... wait? No one? Really? I was sure... nope, no one.

Anyways, "Ask Jew or Not Jew" is back! Here are the previous installments:

Dustin Hoffman
Phoebe Cates
Jeff Goldblum
Golda Meir
Orlando Bloom

Profile: The Khazars

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=843

This post may seem a little random, but it makes perfect sense to us since Moishe and I both just finished reading Jews with Swords by Michael Chabon. It's pretty good overall (though a little bit show-y in places). I actually preferred it to Yiddish Policeman's Union and Final Solution in Chabon's recent run of genre works, though I'm pretty sure Moishe would disagree.

In any case, the Khazars are fairly important to the novel (novella? novel-ette?) and so, became fairly important to us to profile. Sometimes it really is as simple as that.

Profile: Dan Gilbert

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=844

Yes, the font choice is intentional. Here's Gilbert's open letter.

He's also a hothead, getting into a fight... at a bar mitzvah.

Gilbert was suggested by Jim from Tampa, Nason from Ohio (of course), and Shawn from Ohio (of course!)

Profile: Nell Carter

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=842

Carter's Tony and Emmy came for the same role, in the Broadway musical "Ain't Misbehavin'" and its TV reprisal.

Carter was suggested by Miriam from California and Suzanne from Washington, DC.

Profile: Joanna Angel

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=840

We get a lot of suggestions on our website. And sometimes, we have no idea who the person being suggested is. And often in those cases, that suggestion goes by the wayside. But... not today.

Joanna was suggested by Henk from Switzerland and Ajit from Canada, who says "I'm a fan of hers". That you are, Ajit. That you are.

Profile: Johan Cruyff

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=841

We were so sure that Brazil was going to make the World Cup final, we planned a Brazilian soccer profile for today and the upcoming weekend. Well, the Netherlands beat Brazil in the quarters and then topped Uruguay in the semis, putting them into the final for the first time since the 1970s.

Cruyff, of course, is a Dutch all-time great, who was so close to winning the title in 1974.

And who was the Brazilian profile? Stay tuned, we'll deal with him soon.

Profile: Camille Pissarro

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=839

Hey look! The Artists category is almost at 20! Who said there are no Jewish artists?

Oh.

Well, to be fair, not all of the ones we profiled are Jews...

Pissarro was suggested by Frederick from NY, Aaron from Asheville, NC, Val from Redmond, WA, and Steve from California.

Profile: Johnny Weir

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=838

I'm back baby! OK, I was never really gone. But I have been errant from the blog, I know. Thanks to Moishe for covering for my (admittedly few and far between) profiles in the interim. Where did I go? Oh, a strange and wondrous place beyond the veil of imagination... Oh, who am I kidding. I got a new job and I got super busy getting settled. Hopefully this is a sign that I'll be back to the blog for the foreseeable future. I know it's been extra super hard for everyone to live without my many witticisms. What's that? You didn't even notice I was gone? Oh whatever....

Anyway, we're a little late on the whole Winter Olympics thing, we know, but Johnny was just too Weir-d for us to wait till the next go 'round. So here he is in all his...glory?

Weir was suggested by Lisa from Maryland. Thanks, Lisa?

Profile: Wendy Kaufman

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=836

Never a big fan of Snapple myself. Or ice tea as a concept altogether. The Snapple juices are not bad, except... well, they're not really juices, they got something like 5% fruit juice. So, overall, Snapple: bleh.

Profile: The Wandering Jew

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=837

For those not familiar with the tale of The Wandering Jew, it's an antisemitic legend from Christian folklore. Stupid Christians.

Profile: Fritz Haber

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=835

Believe it or not, Haber is the first Nobel Chemistry laureate we've profiled. We also haven't done Medicine yet. Because Jonas Salk was robbed, of course.

Haber was suggested by Aalis from Germany.

Profile: Schlitzie

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=834

We get a lot of suggestions from our readers. A LOT. There is not enough hours in a day to write them all up. Thankfully, a lot of suggestions are repeated. That helps.

But some suggestions, like this one from Bernard from Norway, are so... unique.

Top 10 Profiles: June

1. Sandra Bullock (0)
2. Mel Gibson (+1)
3. Adolf Hitler (+1)
4. Scarlett Johansson (-2)
5. Joseph Stalin (+10)
6. David Beckham (+28)
7. Harrison Ford (+3)
8. Jesus Christ (-1)
9. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (+9)
10. Charlie Chaplin (-2)