Nomination

You are invited to nominate future honorees by emailing their names and accomplishments to directorjahf@yahoo.com.

Review the names of notable Jewish-Americans.

We offer the names of possible future honorees gathered from The Jewish Book of Lists (Citadel Press, 1998) by Joel Samberg and other sources. We thank Joel for including a section on Jewish-American Hall of Fame honorees in his informative book (pp. 67-68).

Public Service


Arthur Goldberg, from the collection of the Supreme Court
of the United States, artist: Lucien Le Breton.

Frankfurter, Felix: Supreme Court Justice
Goldberg, Arthur: Supreme Court Justice, UN Representative
Kissinger, Henry: Secretary of State
Koch, Edward: Mayor of New York
Rickover, Hyman: Admiral, Father of the Atomic submarine
Solomon, Adolphus: Publisher who helped found the American Red Cross
Yellen, Janet: First woman to hold position of Chair of the Federal Reserve

Literature

Annenberg, Walter: Publisher of TV Guide, etc. and great philanthropist
Asimov, Isaac: Science fiction writer of I, Robot, Foundation trilogy, etc.
Bellow, Saul: Author of Herzog; winner of Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes
Cahan, Abraham: Editor of the Jewish Daily Forward
Doctorow, E. L.: Author of Ragtime, World's Fair, etc.
Ferber, Edna: Author of Show Boat, So Big (winner of Pulitzer Prize), etc.
Friedan, Betty: Author of The Feminine Mystique, and a founder of the modern feminist movement
Mailer, Norman: Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Armies of the Night, The Executioner's Song, etc.
Malamud, Bernard: Pulitzer Prize winner for The Fixer
Parker, Dorothy: Writer for Vanity Fair and The New Yorker.

Portrait of Gertrude Stein by Picasso
Portrait of Gertrude Stein by Picasso (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Stein, Gertrude: Avant-garde writer and patron of modern artists

Business

Cohen, Ben and Greenfield, Jerry: Cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream
Handler, Ruth: Cofounder of Mattel and creator of Barbie
Karan, Donna: Founder of her namesake apparel firm
Klein, Calvin: Founder of his namesake apparel firm
Laemmle, Carl: Founder of Universal Pictures
Lauren, Ralph: Founder of his namesake apparel firm featuring the Polo brand
Paley, William: Founder of CBS Television
Rosenwald, Julius: Built up Sears, Roebuck and Company; major philanthropist for low-income African-American children

Portrait 
                  of Helena Rubenstein by Graham Sutherland (1959)
Portrait of Helena Rubenstein by Graham Sutherland (1959)

Rubenstein, Helena: Founder of namesake cosmetic business and beauty salons
Warner, Albert, Harry, Jack and Samuel: Founders of Warner Brothers Pictures

Science

Berliner, Emile: Inventor who improved the telephone, phonograph, airline engines and helicopters


Photo of Franz Boas (1901), Curator of Ethnography at the American Museum of Natural History, and raven mask, collected the same year at Kingcome (Victoria, British Columbia)

Boas, Franz: Anthropologist

Cooper, Martin: Engineer who is considered “Father of the Cell Phone”

Kleinrock, Leonard: Engineer who developed the mathematical theory of packet networks, the technology underpinning the Internet


Frequncy Hopping Lamarr Hedy
Lamarr, Hedy (born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler): Glamorous actress and co-inventor of “frequency hopping,” that was later incorporated into Wi-Fi, CDMA and Bluetooth technology.

Michelson, Albert Abraham: Nobel Prize winning physicist, who accurately measured the speed of light.

Waxman, Selman: Nobel Prize winning microbiologist who discovered streptomycin, which cured tuberculosis and other diseases.

Entertainment

Allen, Woody: Comedian turned motion picture director of Annie Hall, Zelig, etc.


Photograph of Milton Berle and Mel Wacks, Founder of the Jewish-American Hall of Fame

Berle, Milton: Comedy star, "Mr. Television" (Milton Berle was inducted into the Jewish-American Hall of Fame in 2008)
Benny, Jack: Radio and television comedian
Berg, Molly: Creator and star of The Goldbergs on radio and television


Jack Benny and Fanny Brice commemorative stamps by Al Hirschfeld

Brice, Fanny: Ziegfeld Follies star, and star of Baby Snooks on radio
Caesar, Sid: Brilliant television comic on Your Show of Shows, etc.
Cantor, Eddie: Vaudevillian, star of Ziegfeld Follies, radio and television
Lewis, Jerry: Comedian and philanthropist (head of the Muscular Dystrophy Association)
Marx Brothers - Groucho, Chico, Harpo and sometimes Zeppo: Stars of stage, motion pictures and television
Picon, Molly: Yiddish theater and motion picture star
Spielberg, Steven: Oscar winning director of Schindler's List, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws, Jurassic Park, etc.
Thomashefsky, Boris: Pioneer Yiddish theater actor and director
Three Stooges - Moe, Shemp and Curly: Slapstick comedians
Tucker, Sophie: Entertainer, Last of the Red Hot Mammas
Ziegfeld, Florenz: Legendary Broadway showman

Religion

Kaplan, Mordecai: Founder of Reconstructionist movement
Leeser, Isaac: Conservative leader who founded the first Hebrew School in America
Schecter, Solomon: Presided over the Jewish Theological Seminary and established the United Synagogues of America


Photograph of the Lubavitcher Rebbe

Schneerson, Menachem: The Lubavitcher Rebbe, who helped establish Chabads (synagogues) and Hebrew Day Schools throughout the world
Wise, Isaac Meyer: Founded the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and Hebrew Union College Wise, Stephen: Zionist rabbi and dynamic leader; founder of the American Jewish Congress, and helped establish the NAACP and the ACLU

Sports

Copland, Lillian: Won gold and silver Olympic medals for discus throw; held records for shot put and javelin throw

Holman, Nat: Considered greatest guard in professional basketball history, and championship-winning coach

Sandy Koufax
Sandy Koufax’s Baseball Hall of Fame plaque

Koufax, Sandy: Legendary pitching star of the Brooklyn (later Los Angeles) Dodgers
Leonard, Benny: World Lightweight and welterweight boxing champion


Photograph of football great Sid Luckman

Luckman, Sid: All-American quarterback who introduced the T-formation
Spitz, Mark: Swimmer who won 7 gold medals at the 1972 Olympics

Music


Aaron Copland

Copland, Aaron: Composer of American classics - Rodeo, Billy the Kid, El Salon Mexico, etc.
Dylan, Bob: Grammy winning folk-rock singer
Getz, Stan: Jazz saxophonist; won Record of Year Grammy with Girl from Ipanema
Heifitz, Jascha: Violin virtuoso
Horowitz, Vladimir: Piano virtuoso
James, Harry: Trumpet player, music arranger, and band leader
Jolson, Al: Broadway star who was star of the first talkie motion picture, The Jazz Singer
Peerce, Jan: Metropolitan Opera star and cantor
Peters, Roberta: Soprano with the Metropolitan Opera
Piatigorski, Gregor: Cellist virtuoso


Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr in scene from Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I

Rodgers, Richard: Composed the music for Broadway musical hits South Pacific, The King and I, The Sound of Music, etc. with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein (whose father was Jewish but was raised Episcopalian).
Rubenstein, Artur: Piano virtuoso who was the world's foremost interpreter of the music of Chopin
Shaw, Artie: Clarinet player, big band leader
Shore, Dinah: Popular singer who hosted successful variety and talk shows on television
Sills, Beverly: Opera diva and Director of the New York City Opera
Simon, Paul and Garfunkel, Art: Folk singing superstars

Art

Arbus, Diane: Avant-garde and documentary photographer
Baskin, Leonard: Sculptor and printmaker


Self portrait by Solomon Nunes Carvalho

Carvalho Solomon Nunes: Painter, photographer and explorer
Fleisher, Max: Creator of Popeye and Betty Boop animated motion pictures
Goldberg, Rube: Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, famous for his wild inventions


Self portrait by Al Hirschfeld

Hirschfeld, Al: The most famous theatrical caricaturist in history
Krasner, Lee: Expressionist artist, wife of Jackson Pollock
Leibovitz, Annie: Photographer of the stars
Lichtenstein, Roy: Pop artist
Lipchitz, Jacques: Cubist sculptor
Nevelson, Louise: Sculptor and painter, known for her large scale wooden assemblages
Ray, Man: Avant-garde artist, photographer and film maker
Rivers, Larry: Pop artist
Sendak, Maurice: Children's book illustrator and author of Where the Wild Things Are, etc.
Shahn, Ben: Social realist painter and illustrator


 
 
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