Virtual Tour
INDEX
People
Abravanel, Don Isaac
Berg, Gertude (Molly Goldberg)
Berg, Moe
Berle, Milton
Berlin, Irving
Bernstein, Leonard
Brandeis, Louis D.
Cardozo, Benjamin
Einstein, Albert
Elion, Gertrude
Frankel,Jacob
Gershwin, George
Ginsburg, Ruth Bader
Gompers, Samuel
Goode, Alexander
Goodman, Benny
Gratz, Rebecca
Greenberg, Hank
Hillman, Sidney
Hoffman, Jeffrey
Houdini, Harry
Jefferson, Thomas
Karpeles, Leopold
Lamarr, Hedy
Lazarus, Emma
Lehman, Herbert H.
Levy, Asser
Levy, Uriah P.
Magnes, Judah L.
Meir, Golda
Miller, Arthur
Myerson, Bess
Noah, Mordecai.
Ochs, Adolph
Pulitzer, Joseph
Resnik, Judith
Rose, Ernestine
Rosenthal, Robert
Ross, Barney

Salk, Jonas
Salomon, Haym
Santangel, Luis de
Sarnoff, David
Schick, Bela
Seixas, Gershom M.
Singer, Isaac B.
Stern, Isaac
Straus, Isidor & Ida
Strauss, Levi
Streisand, Barbra
Szold, Henrietta
Torres, Dara
Torres, Luis de
Touro, Judah
Wacks, Mel

Wald, Lillian
Washington, George
Wiesel, Elie
Wise, Isaac Mayer
Zacuto, Abraham

  

Irving Berlin (1888-1989)

The son of a cantor, Irving Berlin was born Israel Baline on May 11, 1888 near the Siberian border in the Russian village of Tyumen. An anti-Semitic pogrom in 1893 persuaded his father to bring the entire family, including eight children, to New York.

In 1924, songwriter Jerome Kern observed "Irving Berlin has no place in American music. He is American music." Berlin songs include America's unofficial national anthem "God Bless America," as well as perennial standards "Easter Parade" and "White Christmas," plus about 1,500 more for which he wrote both music and lyrics.

Irving Berlin was honored in 1944 by the National Conference of Christians and Jews for "advancing the aims of the conference to eliminate religious and racial conflict." Five years later, he was honored by the New York YMHA as one of "12 outstanding Americans of the Jewish faith." And in recognition of the song "God Bless America," Mr. Berlin was presented with a special Congressional gold medal in 1954 by President Eisenhower. Earlier, the composer had assigned the copyright to the God Bless America Fund, which has raised millions of dollars for the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.


Congressional Gold Medal presented to Irving Berlin by President Eisenhower. ©2018 Jewish-American Hall of Fame.

Following a gala 100th birthday celebration concert at Carnegie Hall, Morton Gould, president of ASCAP, said that "Irving Berlin's music will last not for just an hour, not for just a day, not for just a year, but always." Not bad for a poor immigrant who had only two years of formal schooling and who never learned to read or write music!



Click Here to Take Irving Berlin Quiz

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