In the fall of 2022, Stephen Wise Temple’s artist in residence Mario M. Muller produced a set of striking black-and-white paintings depicting 36 Jewish heroes. Banners of those paintings now dot the Wise campus, inviting you to explore and to learn.

Some of them, you may know— Freud, Ginsberg, Gershwin, Meir, Zeldin—and others you may be discovering for the first time.

As you walk our campus paths, you will find activists and actors, photographers and philosophers, filmmakers and firebrands. They have entertained and inspired. They have re-framed the way we think (and some, the way we think about thinking). They have challenged norms, pushed boundaries, and forced difficult conversations. They have eased minds in times of tumult, and spurred action in times of necessity. Each in their own way, these 36 individuals helped shape not just the global Jewish community, but our entire modern world.

The Brooklyn-born daughter of Austrian immigrants, Florence Zeldin was dignified, strong, independent, and fierce. A talented writer and storyteller, a prolific author, and a passionate teacher, Florence was as much a part of building Stephen Wise Temple as her husband of 68 years, Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin.

She was one of the first women in an Orthodox congregation to be confirmed (in place of a bat mitzvah, which was exceedingly rare during her youth), reciting lines from the Book of Ruth entirely in Hebrew. After graduating from New York University and becoming a physical education teacher at a time when that was far from the norm for young women, Florence became the head counselor of the girls’ division of Camp Achvah, which hosted over 800 children. The athletic director of that camp? A teenage boy everybody called Shy.

She taught that boy from Brownsville – who had never seen a bow and arrow – the finer points of archery. She out-shot him on the basketball court. That young man – who would later become such a formidable force and such a towering figure in the Jewish community – had met his match.

She helped collect Jewish memorabilia that would become the foundation of the American Jewish Archives. She wrote children’s books and summer camp handbooks, and developed learning games for children. Through long distance, tiny apartments, tinier bank accounts, and a cross-country move, she never wavered. Florence was the Zeldin family’s rock.

One morning in 1964, a beleaguered Rabbi Zeldin, then a rabbi at Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills, told his wife: “If I were the kind who dreamed when he slept I would tell you that Stephen Wise appeared to me in a dream. He told me what to do to solve my dilemma. He said that I should leave the comfort and financial security and the ‘big business’ of this congregation and start again.”

Cutting to the heart of the matter, Florence told her husband: “Since I know you didn’t dream all this, please tell me what’s really on your mind.” That April, Stephen Wise Temple was born.

As she helped her husband grow the community, she wrote and published three books – “What’s the Big Idea,” “The Mouse in the Jewish House,” and “The Importance of One.” In the early years of the temple, she wrote every Shabbat and b’nai mitzvah service, often a different one every Friday night. She was a constant at Wise, always sitting three rows from the back for every service, and always keeping the community’s focus squarely on family.

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A German-born American sculptor known for her pioneering work in materials such as latex, fiberglass, and plastics. She is one of the artists who ushered in the post-minimal art movement in the 1960s.

Her early life was marked by hardship. As Nazis gained power and influence, her father Wilhelm was barred from his law practice, and her mother Ruth battled bouts of depression. After Kristallnacht, Ruth and Wilhelm sent Eva and her sister Helen to a Dutch children’s home to keep them safe. The family reunited in England, and made their way to New York. Despite the devastating loss of her mother to suicide when she was just 10, Eva excelled at the School of Industrial Art and found her calling. Though she was professionally trained as an abstract painter and commercial designer, she was among the first artists of the 1960s to experiment with fluid contours of the organic natural world. She created abstract and evocative works, many of which are thought of as poetic, three-dimensional montages suggesting moments of quiet reflection on the surrounding world. Read more about Eva Hesse HERE.

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A German-born American film director, producer, writer, and actor who developed the recognizable style of the romantic comedy. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood’s most elegant and sophisticated director; as his prestige grew, his films were promoted as having “the Lubitsch touch.” Among his best known works are “Trouble in Paradise,” “Design for Living,” “Ninotchka,” “To Be or Not to Be,” “Heaven Can Wait,” and his favorite (and most influential) picture, “The Shop Around the Corner,” an artful comedy starring Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. 

Film historian Richard Koszarski said of Lubitsch that he was “perhaps the most successful of all the European talent imported by Hollywood.” Shortly before his death, Lubitsch was awarded a Special Academy Award for his 25-year contribution to motion pictures. Learn more about Ernst Lubitsch HERE.

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An American author of poetry, prose, and translations, as well as an activist for Jewish and Georgist causes, Emma Lazarus’ words have welcomed immigrants to the United States for more than a century. Her 1883 sonnet, “The New Colossus” was written to raise money for the construction of the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal, and it has adorned that same pedestal since 1903. The last lines of the sonnet were set to music by Irving Berlin as the song “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor” for the 1949 musical “Miss Liberty,” based on the sculpting of the Statue.

She helped establish the Hebrew Technical Institute in New York to provide vocational training to assist destitute Jewish immigrants to become self-supporting. Lazarus volunteered in the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society employment bureau; she eventually became a strong critic of the organization In 1883, she founded the Society for the Improvement and Colonization of East European Jews. Read more about Emma Lazarus HERE.

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“I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody’s right to beautiful, radiant things.”

A Russian-born political activist and writer, Emma Goldman played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe during the first half of the 20th century. 

Born in the Russian Empire to an Orthodox Lithuanian Jewish family, Goldman emigrated to the United States in 1885. After the Haymarket Massacre killed at least 11 people at a peaceful Chicago labor demonstration in 1886, Goldman became a writer and lecturer on anarchist philosophy, women’s rights, and social issues. Insisting on the right to express herself, she became a prominent figure in the fight for freedom of speech in America. After she and lover Alexander Berkman attempted to assassinate industrialist Henry Clay Frick, Goldman was imprisoned several times for “inciting to riot,” for illegally distributing information about birth control, and for conspiring to “induce persons not to register” for the newly-instituted military draft. 

Deported to Russia during the First Red Scare, she was initially supportive of the Bolsheviks’ October Revolution, but later denounced the Soviet Union for its violent repression of independent voices and left for Latvia. She lived the rest of her life as an expatriate in Germany, England, Canada, and France. Read more about Emma Goldman HERE.

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Stephen Wise Temple’s Senior Rabbi Emeritus spent nearly his entire rabbinical career at Wise. Born in what was then Palestine to parents who fled their native Germany during Hitler’s rise to power, Rabbi Herscher and his family moved to the United States in 1954. After taking his Bachelor’s Degree in English from the University of California at Berkeley, he entered the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Hardly a year after his ordination in 1975, Rabbi Herscher was invited by Wise founder Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin to become his associate during a period of enormous growth for the temple. 

When Rabbi Zeldin stepped down as Senior Rabbi in 1990, he tapped Rabbi Herscher as his successor. As Senior Rabbi from 1990 to 2015, Rabbi Herscher created much of Wise’s educational programming as the temple more than doubled its membership. He created and guided the Outreach Program to Intermarried Couples, created supplementary and full-time school programs for families with children as young as three months, and started Wise’s Scholar in Residence program. Read more about Rabbi Eli Herscher HERE.

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As George Washington is to the United States, so David Ben-Gurion is to the State of Israel. Israel’s first prime minister (1948-53, 1955-63) and first defense minister (1948-53, 1955-63), he united the various Jewish militias into what is now the Israel Defense Forces, leading them during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. On May 14, 1948, he delivered Israel’s declaration of independence (which he helped write) in Tel Aviv, and was the first to sign it. Charismatic and passionate, he is revered by Israel as the “Father of the Nation,” and after his death was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century. 

Born David Grün in what is now central Poland, Ben-Gurion was the son of an ardent Zionist inspired by Herzl’s “Der Judenstaat” pamphlet. In 1905, he followed in his father’s footsteps and became involved in Zionist politics, leading his home town’s “Lovers of Zion,” a movement that disseminated among the oppressed Jews of eastern Europe the idea of a return to the land of Israel. He left Poland a year later to emigrate to Palestine. 

After working as a farmer in the Galilee for several years and adopting a new Hebrew surname, he pushed the Zionist socialist party, Poale Zion (“Workers of Zion”) to include the following declaration in its platform: “The party aspires to the political independence of the Jewish people in this land.” Following the Balfour Declaration, Ben-Gurion enlisted in the British Army’s Jewish Legion and fought against the Ottoman Turks. After he was demobilized, Ben-Gurion and his friend Berl Katznelson led the centrist faction of the Labor Zionist movement. He assisted in the formation of the Histadrut, the Zionist Labor Federation in Palestine, and served as its general secretary for 14 years. As he helped shape Labor Zionism into the dominant faction in the World Zionist Organization, he rose to become chair of the executive committee of the Jewish Agency, the de facto leader of the Jewish population even before the State of Israel was declared.

During the 1936-39 Arab revolt, he instituted a policy of restraint, in which the Haganah and other Jewish groups would not retaliate for Arab attacks against Jewish civilians. It was his view that Arabs should be allowed to remain in and become citizens of Israel, enjoying the same wages and rights as their Jewish neighbors, including the right to be elected head of state. Read more about David Ben-Gurion HERE.

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George Gershwin called him “the greatest songwriter who has ever lived.” Walter Cronkite said he “helped write the story of this country, capturing the best of who we are and the dreams that shape our lives.” From ballads to dance numbers to novelty tunes and love songs, Irving Berlin placed an indelible stamp on American popular culture.

Born Israel Beillin in Tyumen in the Russian Empire, Berlin had few memories of his childhood, but those he had were the stuff of nightmares: lying on a blanket by the side of the road, watching his house burn to the ground. His family immigrated to the United States to escape crushing poverty, discrimination, and brutal pogroms, not unlike the families of George and Ira Gershwin, Al Jolson, Louis B. Mayer (the second ‘M’ in MGM), and the Warner brothers.

Fate would bring many of those names into collaboration with Berlin, who wrote an estimated 1,00 songs, including the scores for 20 original Broadway plays and 15 original Hollywood films. His songs were nominated eight times for Academy Awards. A short catalogue of some of his greatest hits: “Puttin’ On the Ritz,” “Cheek to Cheek,” “White Christmas,” “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better),” “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “God Bless America,” “Blue Skies,” “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” and “How Dry I Am.” His songs reached the top of the charts 25 times and have been covered by artists from Perry Como, Al Jolson, Fred Astaire, Louis Armstrong, the Rat Pack, Elvis and Judy Garland to Jerry Garcia, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Lady Gaga and Christina Aguilera. Not bad for the son of an itinerant cantor from Siberia. Read more about Irving Berlin HERE.

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The son of a poor immigrant tailor, bandleader Benny Goodman became known as the “King of Swing,” and helped bring jazz music into the mainstream with his 1938 concert at Carnegie Hall, described as “the single most important jazz or popular music concert in history” by critic Bruce Eder. Goodman won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame in 1957, and helped pave the way for desegregation by leading one of the first integrated jazz groups. His vibraphonist Lionel Hampton said: “As far as I’m concerned, what he did in those days—and they were hard days in 1937—made it possible for Negroes to have their chance in baseball and other fields.”

When someone asked Goodman why he played with African American musicians (referring to them using a slur that does not bear repeating), Goodman replied, “If you say that again to me, I’ll take a clarinet and bust you across your head with it.” Read more about Benny Goodman HERE.

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A lawyer, politician, social activist, and women’s movement leader, “Battling” Bella Abzug beat a seven-term incumbent to represent Manhattan in Congress in 1970. Her campaign slogan: “This woman’s place is in the House – the House of Representatives.”

Her determination and self-assuredness came from her Jewish upbringing. When her father passed, she was told that her Orthodox synagogue did not allow women to say the mourners’ Kaddish, since that was a rite reserved for sons of the deceased. Just 13, she resolved to go to synagogue every morning to recite the prayer.

During her legislative career, she joined with Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm, and Betty Briedan to found the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971. She was one of the first members of Congress to support gay rights, introducing the first federal gay rights bill in 1974. She was the sponsor for the Equality Credit Opportunity Act, which made it unlawful to discriminate against any credit applicant on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, or age. Though she would lose both races, the three-term congresswoman later became the first woman to run for mayor of New York City, and the first woman to run for New York’s U.S. Senate seat. 

An avowed Zionist, Abzug challenged the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379, which determined that “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.” Zionism, she countered, “is a liberation movement.” In 1997, one year before her passing, the U.N. honored her as a leading female environmentalist, bestowing upon her its highest civilian recognition, the Blue Beret Peacekeepers Award. Read more about Bella Abzug HERE.

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Despite such a short life, Baruch Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa) was one of the seminal thinkers of the Enlightenment, and is considered one of the most important philosophers of the early modern period. A Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, Spinoza was one of the foremost exponents of 17th-century Rationalism, and introduced modern conceptions of the self and the universe to modern biblical criticism.

His approach to biblical criticism broke with prevailing Jewish dogma at the time, earning him the label of “heretic” for insisting that the Torah was not written by Moses. While that position is now almost unanimously accepted by biblical scholars today, it did not achieve that level of consensus until the late 19th century, and prompted the Jewish community of Amsterdam to ostracize and expel him at the age of 23. Attacked by a knife-wielding assailant shouting “Heretic!” on the steps of his synagogue, Spinoza kept the torn cloak he wore that day as a reminder for years.

It can truly be said that Spinoza was a polymath ahead of his time. He wrote and spoke Latin, Portuguese, Hebrew, and Dutch. His philosophy touched on metaphysics, epistemology, political philosophy, ethics, and science. His work in ethics stood opposed to Rene Descartes’ philosophy of mind-body dualism. He worked as an optical lens grinder, collaborating on microscope and telescope lens designs with Constantijn and Christiaan Huygens. It was this work that led to his death from lung illness, likely due to silicosis as a result of breathing in glass dust. Read more about Baruch Spinoza HERE.

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Adrienne Rich was a poet and literary activist. A strong supporter of feminist principles and a tireless fighter of racism. Winner of MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, The Wallace Stevens award and the National Medal of Arts which she refused in 1997 protesting the vote by House Speaker Newt Gingrich to end funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. Read more about Adrienne Rich HERE.

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“If you will it, it is no dream.” In 1902, Austro-Hungarian Jewish lawyer, journalist, playwright, and political activist Theodor Herzl, wrote these words in his book, “The Old New Land.” They soon became the animating slogan behind the Zionist movement. The spiritual father of the State of Israel, Herzl formed the World Zionist Organization in 1897 and promoted Jewish immigration to what was then Palestine in an effort to form a Jewish state. 

In his momentous “Der Judenstaat” pamphlet (“The State of the Jews”), he wrote: “Therefore I believe that a wondrous generation of Jews will spring into existence. The Maccabeans will rise again. Let me repeat once more my opening words: The Jews who wish for a State will have it. We shall live at last as free men on our own soil, and die peacefully in our own homes. The world will be freed by our liberty, enriched by our wealth, magnified by our greatness. And whatever we attempt there to accomplish for our own welfare, will react powerfully and beneficially for the good of humanity.”

A day before his death, Herzl told Rev. William H. Hechler: “I gave my blood for my people.” His will stipulated that he was to be buried beside his father, and that he wished to lie there “till the Jewish people shall take my remains to Israel.” His remains were brought to Israel in 1949, and he is now interred on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. Read more about Theodor Herzl HERE.

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The Brooklyn-born journalist is one of the most incisive interviewers of her generation. Best known for her role as host and co-executive producer of “Fresh Air,” an interview-based radio show produced in Philadelphia and distributed nationally by NPR, Gross has interviewed thousands of guests, including Mel Brooks, Ray Charles, Sacha Baron Cohen, Nancy Reagan, President Bill Clinton, Barbara Bush, Bill O’Reilly, Gene Simmons, Johnny Cash, Etta James, and Robin Williams.

Known for her empathy, warmth, genuine curiosity, and sharp intelligence, Gross’s smart, thoughtful questioning pushes guests in unlikely (and sometimes uncomfortable) directions. The Radio Hall of Famer has won two Peabody Awards, the National Humanities Medal, the Columbia Journalism Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award, and the Literarian Award, a lifetime achievement award given by the National Book Foundation. Read more about Terry Gross HERE.

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Wildly controversial in her lifetime, Diane Arbus was only fully recognized for her contributions to the world of photography after her tragic suicide in 1971. She pushed boundaries and forced viewers out of their comfort zones. She broke down barriers between private and public lives, a propensity that was not appreciated by many of her subjects.

A transformative artist, Arbus began work as a fashion photographer with her husband. Dissatisfied with the commercial nature of the work, she sought out unconventional subjects such as Coney Island freak shows and gay bars. With the publication of “The Vertical Journey” in Esquire in 1960 – her first photo essay – Arbus captured a unique view of New York nightlife. Over the next 11 years, she would publish over 250 photos in more than 70 magazine articles across Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, the Sunday Times Magazine, and Nova. Her work appeared in the New York Times, Holiday, the Saturday Evening Post, Essence and Sports Illustrated.

Arbus, though, was not universally accepted. Critics called her work everything from “highly gratifying” to “grotesque” and “bizarre.” Suffering from depression and feeling overwhelmed by expectations of her work, Arbus committed suicide in 1971, but her work has continued to influence photographers for decades. Read more about Diane Arbus HERE.

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American writer, philosopher, and political activist, Susan Sontag is considered one of the most influential critics of her generation. She wrote extensively about photography, culture and media, AIDS and illness, human rights, fascism, the Vietnam War and the Siege of Sarajevo. She wrote and directed four feature-length films (including 1974’s “Promised Lands,” filmed in Israel during the war of October 1973), wrote and directed stage plays, and led a number of human rights campaigns on behalf of persecuted and imprisoned writers. 

She won the 2003 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the 2003 Prince of Asturias Prize, the 2001 Jerusalem Prize, the National Book Award for “In America” (2000), and the National Book Critics Circle Award for “On Photography” (1978). In 1992 she received the Malaparte Prize in Italy, and in 1999 she was named a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government (she had been named an Officier in the same order in 1984). Between 1990 and 1995 she was a MacArthur Fellow. Read more about Susan Sontag HERE.

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The namesake of our community, a teacher to our founder Rabbi Zeldin, a liberal activist, one of the fathers of the Reform movement in the United States, and an ardent and active Zionist, Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise was a towering figure in the American Jewish community in the first half of the 20th century.

Born in Budapest, Rabbi Wise was the son of the Chief Rabbi of Eger, Hungary and immigrated to New York as a child.

Wise earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1901 and received his rabbinical training from private teachers. After serving as rabbi to congregations in New York City (1893–1900) and Portland, Ore. (1900–06), he was invited to become rabbi of Temple Emanu-El (New York City), then the most influential Reform congregation in the country. He declined the appointment, however, after receiving inadequate assurances of free speech in the pulpit, and he founded the influential Free Synagogue (1907) instead, which he led until his death. Wise became a noted civic reformer in New York City politics in subsequent decades and was famous for his brilliant and timely sermons, which he preached to large audiences at Carnegie Hall for many years. In 1922, he founded the Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City, which later merged with Hebrew Union College in 1950.

Wise was one of the first Jewish leaders in the United States to become active in the Zionist movement. He attended the Second Zionist Congress in Basel, Switz., in 1898, and that same year he helped found the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), of which he served as president in 1936–38. He also helped found and led the permanent American Jewish Congress and the World Jewish Congress (1936). As a prominent member of the Democratic Party and an acquaintance of President Woodrow Wilson, Wise influenced the U.S. government toward approval of the Balfour Declaration. He was a leader in the struggle to marshal American public opinion against Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. Read more about Rabbi Stephen Wise HERE.

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The Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis may justly be called the most influential intellectual of his age. In his creation of psychoanalysis, he created a theory of the human psyche, a therapy (evaluating and treating pathologies through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst), and a way to interpret culture and society, all rolled into one. His theories on child sexuality, libido, and the ego were some of the most influential academic concepts of the 20th century. Read more about Sigmund Freud HERE.

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A lawyer, jurist, trailblazer, pioneer, and feminist icon, Ruth Bader Ginsburg served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1993 until her death from pancreatic cancer in September of 2020. She championed women’s rights, gender equality, and reproductive freedom as the second woman to serve on the nation’s highest court.

The Brooklyn-born Ginsburg battled a lifetime of sexism and adversity to reach the pinnacle of the American justice system. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Cornell, she began working for the Social Security Administration at 21, but was demoted when she became pregnant with her first child. After giving birth in 1955, she enrolled at Harvard Law in 1956 as one of only nine women in a class of about 500 men. The dean of the school reportedly asked her why she took the place of a man. That same dean denied Ginsburg’s request to complete her third year at Columbia Law School when her husband took a job in New York. She later transferred to Columbia, became the first woman to be on two major law reviews (Harvard and Columbia), and graduated second in her class.

She went on to become a professor at Rutgers Law School and Columbia Law School, teaching civil procedure as one of the few women in her field and becoming the first female professor at Columbia to earn tenure. She led the fight against gender discrimination as co-founder of the Women’s Rights Project of the ACLU, successfully arguing six cases before the Supreme Court.

After 13 years as a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, she was nominated to the highest court in the land in 1993 by President Bill Clinton. She wrote notable majority opinions in United States v. Virginia (1996), Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services, Inc. (2000), and City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York (2005), and wrote passionate and forceful dissents. Her dissent in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (2007) inspired the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, signed into law in 2009. Read more about Ruth Bader Ginsburg HERE.

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Rebecca Gratz was a Jewish American educator and philanthropist in 19th-century America. She grew up in the wealthy society of Philadelphia, and was significantly influenced by the highly political atmosphere of post-Revolutionary America. She believed that with an “unsubdued spirit,” she could overcome all of life’s difficulties. In 1801, at the age of 20, she helped establish the Female Association for the Relief of Women and Children in Reduced Circumstances, which helped women whose families were suffering after the American Revolutionary War. In 1815, after seeing the need for an institution for orphans in Philadelphia, she was among those instrumental in founding the Philadelphia Orphan Asylum.

Over time, however, the evangelical efforts of many Christians involved in charity work convinced Gratz that Jewish children needed a religious education to maintain their cultural identity. The first to apply the Sunday school format to Jewish education, she created lesson plans and materials, taught classes, and raised funds for schools that would teach both boys and girls, in English, about Jewish religion, history, and culture. Her model for Jewish education quickly spread to other cities, becoming the standard for the modern Jewish Sunday school. Read more about Rebecca Gratz HERE.

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Author, educator, scholar, and visionary—all words used to describe this temple’s founder, who led Stephen Wise Temple as Senior Rabbi for 26 years. When he moved to Los Angeles in 1954, he established the California branch of Hebrew Union College. From 1958 to 1963, he served as the senior rabbi of Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills. 

In 1964, Rabbi Zeldin, his wife Florence, and 35 families decided to leave Emanuel to form their own congregation. Rabbi Zeldin had a vision of a temple on a hill, one that could serve the Jewish communities of West Los Angeles and the burgeoning San Fernando Valley. He envisioned a temple built on democracy, social justice, and community. He envisioned a temple dedicated to lifelong education, from the youngest learners through the end of life’s journey. In 2024, Rabbi Zeldin’s vision—a vibrant, diverse, welcoming community with early childhood education, a full elementary school, robust adult learning opportunities, and a thriving Center for Tikkun Olam will turn 60, a testament to one of the pioneers of the Reform Movement. Read more about Rabbi Zeldin HERE.

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Guston worked in a number of artistic modes, from Renaissance-inspired figuration to formally accomplished abstraction. He is now regarded as one of the most important, powerful and influential American painters of the last 100 years. He frequently depicted racism, antisemitism, fascism, and American identity, as well as—especially in his later, most cartoonish and mocking work—the banality of evil. Read more about Philip Guston HERE.

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Moishe Dayan became a global symbol of Israel’s fighting spirit as the new country’s Defense Minister during the Six-Day War in 1967, but that was not the beginning or the end of his long and decorated military and political career. In the 1930s at the age of 14, he joined Haganah, the pre-state Jewish defense force of Mandatory Palestine. Fighting in World War II, he lost an eye in a raid on Vichy forces in Lebanon, which left him with his trademark eye patch. After Israel declared its independence, he commanded the Jerusalem front in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War; he served as Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces from 1953 to 1958; served as Minister of Agriculture from 1959-1964; and joined David BenGurion and Shimon Peres to found the Rafi Party in 1965. In 1977, he was expelled from the Labor Party and joined the Likud-led government as Foreign Minister, playing a key role in negotiating the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. Read more about Moshe Dayan HERE.

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Metuka Benjamin has spent nearly five decades as a visionary, innovative education leader, and worked side-by-side with Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin to establish what was then a revolutionary new Jewish day school program at Stephen Wise Temple.

A Tel Aviv native, Benjamin moved to the United States at 15. She took her bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, earning Master’s degrees in education from both institutions. She began her educational career as a Hebrew teacher at Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills, where she first met her ideological twin in Rabbi Zeldin. She helped him establish what would later become Stephen Wise Temple in 1964.

Under her leadership, Wise Schools grew to encompass an early childhood center, an elementary school, a religious school, and Milken Community Schools, the nation’s largest non-orthodox Jewish secondary school. When Milken Community Schools became fully independent in 2012, she was appointed its President, a post she held until 2018.

Benjamin served as a member of the Jewish Federation Partnership program, serving on its steering committee; she is the recipient of numerous awards – Tel Aviv University, Hebrew Union College; the Milken Family Foundation Educators Award; was named Teacher of the Year by the Los Angeles Bureau of Jewish Education; received the highest honor from the State of Israel for her contribution to Jewish education in the diaspora; she lit the Massuah (Torch) on Mt. Hertzl on Yom Ha’Atzmaut; she is International President of American Friends of Assaf Harofeh Medical Center; she is an active advocate and fundraiser for a number of Israeli causes, including the Israeli Air Force, Atidim, Ayalim, and the education system of the city of Ariel.

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Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo, and Zeppo Marx were a family comedy act that sat atop the American entertainment industry for more than four decades, achieving success in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures during a period of rapid transformation and innovation.

Born in New York to Jewish immigrants from Germany and France, the Marx Brothers owe much to their mother Minnie Marx. Coming from a family of performers, her mother was a yodeling harpist and her father a ventriloquist; both were funfair entertainers. Minnie helped her younger brother Abraham Elieser Adolf Schönberg (stage name: Al Shean) enter show business, where he became a highly successful vaudeville and Broadway performer. While Shean gave the brothers an entrée to musical comedy, it was Minnie who served as her sons’ manager for more than 20 years until her death in 1929.

The Marx Brothers’ wordplay, slapstick, musical comedy, and deadpan humor earned them induction into the Motion Picture Hall of Fame in 1977. They inspired generations of comics, satirists, filmmakers, and authors, including Woody Allen, Alan Alda, Judd Apatow, Mel Brooks, John Cleese, Monty Python, and Carl Reiner. Their admirers ranged from The Beatles to Alice Cooper to Salvador Dali to George Gershwin to Kurt Vonnegut and J.D. Sallinger. Widely considered to be among the greatest and most influential comedians of the 20th century, five of the brothers’ 13 films rank among the American Film Institute’s top 100 comedies, with two in the top 15. Read more about the Marx Brothers HERE.

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“Lili Von who?” A gifted and versatile actress, comedian, and singer, Madeline Kahn is regarded as one of the funniest women in the history of show business, and was posthumously inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 2003. Perhaps best known for her collaborations with Mel Brooks, Kahn’s turn as “The Teutonic Titwillow” Lili Von Shtupp in Brooks’ 1974 Western send-up “Blazing Saddles” was tabbed by Premiere Magazine as the 74th greatest performance of all time, and earned Kahn the second of her two Academy Award nominations and the third of her four Golden Globe nominations. 

Kahn won two Drama Desk Awards in her career, along with a People’s Choice Award, a Daytime Emmy, and a Tony Award. From her start as a singing waitress while a student at Hofstra, she went on to appear in eight Broadway shows, two concerts at Carnegie Hall, 154 television episodes, and 28 feature films. Read more about Madeline Kahn HERE.

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Lillian D. Wald’s vision of a unified humanity guided her life’s work. Believing it her responsibility to bring affordable health care to the Lower East Side, Wald founded the Henry Street Settlement, and in 1902 she initiated America’s first public-school nursing program. Wald passionately dedicated herself to the causes of immigrants, working women, and children. A New York commission to investigate the living and working conditions of immigrants was founded at her behest in 1908, and she spearheaded the successful campaign to create a national Children’s Bureau within the Department of Labor. A staunch pacifist, Wald vigorously opposed American involvement in WWI as president of the American Union Against Militarism. A talented administrator and activist who believed unceasingly in the power of her ever-expanding “neighborhood,” Wald’s pathbreaking work continues to be memorialized. Read more about Lilian D. Wald HERE.

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The Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, and novelist is a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, a member of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, and No. 103 on Rolling Stone’s 200 Greatest Singers of All Time list.

Born to an Orthodox family in Westmount, Quebec, Cohen’s paternal grandfather was Canadian Jewish Congress founding president Lyon Cohen. He was told throughout his childhood that as a kohen, he was descended from Aaron.

Though he was a prolific poet and writer (earning the Prince of Asturias Award for literature), Cohen’s most notable work, “Hallelujah”—the now-iconic song inspired by a deep-cut biblical reference to King David—was initially a failure and misunderstood when it was released in 1964. His record label rejected the album and passed on putting out a project that would have introduced the song to the world. It wasn’t until 37 years later that it gained a foothold in popular culture, first as the backing music to a 9/11 first responders memorial video, and then on the soundtrack to the hit animated feature “Shrek,” thanks to a soulful cover by Rufus Wainwright. A regular subject of academic and critical analysis, interpretations of its lyrics range from triumphant to romantic to spiritual to inspirational to melancholic. The song has since become one of the world’s most famous songs, alongside John Lennon’s “Imagine,” and Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” Read more about Leonard Cohen HERE.

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One of the most important musicians of the 20th century, Leonard Bernstein was a lifelong humanitarian, a champion of civil rights, and a vocal fundraiser for HIV/AIDS research and awareness. Best known for “West Side Story,” the musical which he created alongside Stephen Sondheim and Jerome Robbins, Bernstein is the first conductor to share and explore music on television with a mass audience. The first American-born conductor to lead a major orchestra on his own as the director of the New York Philharmonic, he is arguably the most famous Jewish musician of the last 120 years. 

Throughout a career of international renown marked by seven Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, 16 Grammys, and the Kennedy Center Honor, the Massachusetts-born Bernstein bore a deep and abiding passion and dedication to the State of Israel. In 1947, he conducted in Tel Aviv for the first time, and in 1948, he conducted an open-air concert for Israeli troops at Beersheba in the middle of the desert during the Arab-Israeli war. To celebrate the reunification of Jerusalem, he conducted “Hatikvah” at a concert on Mt. Scopus in July of 1967—just weeks after the end of the Six Day War. Read more about Leonard Bernstein HERE.

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The first woman Justice in New York. An outspoken activist and a “fighting judge,” for 38 years, she used her position on the Family Court bench to fight for the rights of the poor and disempowered. 

Justice Wise Polier promoted the rights of children inside and outside of the judiciary. Espousing an activist concept of the law and a rehabilitative rather than a punitive model of judicial process, she pioneered the establishment of mental health, educational, and other rehabilitative services for troubled children. She also took a leading role in opposing racial and religious discrimination in public and private facilities. As a committed Jewish leader, she spoke out against antisemitism, urging Jews to lead the battle for human rights for all minorities. Learn more about Justice Wise Polier HERE.

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Henrietta Szold was an educator, essayist, editor, social and communal worker, and Zionist organizer. After studying at the Jewish Theological Seminary, she served as executive secretary of the Jewish Publication Society’s publications committee, editing and publishing many important works of Jewish history. But her greatest accomplishment was the creation of Hadassah, the women’s Zionist organization of the United States. Under her direction, Hadassah became the largest and most powerful Zionist group in the United States, fundraising and setting up hospitals, food banks, nursing schools, and social work programs. Szold’s work helped create the medical, educational, and social service infrastructure that helped turn the dream of a Jewish state into a workable reality. During the 1930s, she spearheaded Youth Aliyah, helping Jewish children leave Nazi Germany for Palestine. Read more about Henrietta Szold HERE.

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A political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor, the German-born Hannah Arendt is widely considered one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century. While her work covered a broad range of topics, she is best known for her work on the nature of power and evil, as well as politics, democracy, authority, and totalitarianism. She is best known for her series in The New Yorker –  “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil” – which analyzed the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the self-styled architect of Hitler’s “final solution,” and sought to uncover the origins of the Holocaust. Her series positioned Eichmann as little more than an ordinary man trying to advance his career in a bureaucracy that rewarded the abrogation of morality.

Her subtitle for the Eichmann series – “the Banality of Evil” – has been considered controversial, but “banality,” in the sense she wrote it, did not mean that Eichmann’s or any Nazi’s actions were in any way ordinary. The Holocaust was not, she argued, perpetrated by a nation full of or even possessing a plurality of sadists and psychopaths. It was more terrifyingly perpetrated by ordinary, unremarkable people whose actions were motivated by a sort of complacency which was wholly unexceptional – they justified their actions by claiming they were “just following orders” or “just doing my job.” Her work partially inspired the famous Stanford Prisoner Experiment in 1971. Read more about Hannah Arendt HERE.

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An Israeli politician, teacher, and kibbutznikit who served as Israel’s fourth prime minister, Golda Meir was the first woman to become the head of Israel’s government. She did so during the turbulent period of the Yom Kippur War. A passionate, no-nonsense leader and stateswoman, she was a pioneer and visionary known for her willfulness and eloquence. Born in Kyiv, Meir and her family immigrated to Milwaukee, Wisc. in 1905. In high school, she worked part-time at a library before moving in with her married sister in Denver. Around her sister’s dinner table, she was exposed to debates on Zionism, literature, women’s suffrage, trade unionism and more, shaping her future convictions.

Her passion for Labor Zionism drove her and her husband to make aliyah and join a kibbutz in 1921. In 1938, she served as the Jewish observer from Palestine at the Evian Conference, where delegates from 32 nations discussed the Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. Only one country from that conference – the Dominican Republic – pledged to accept refugees. Meir said afterwards, “There is only one thing I hope to see before I die, and that is that my people should not need expressions of sympathy anymore.”

She became secretary of Histradut’s Mo’etzet ha-Po’alot, the Women Workers Council, and later head of Histradut’s political department. In 1949, she was elected to the Knesset and became Minister of Labor before becoming Foreign Minister in 1956 and Prime Minister in 1969. While Israel was able to regain the offensive after the Yom Kippur War, the massive casualties of the were seen as Meir’s failure, and she resigned from office in 1974. However, over time her accomplishments as a stateswoman have been recognized again. Read more about Golda Meir HERE.

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An American social activist involved in a wide range of progressive/leftist and often controversial causes, including women’s suffrage, labor reform, and civil rights. Born to German Jewish immigrants in post-Civil War North Carolina, this niece of a Confederate veteran brought social justice to the South in a time when the social landscape was a tinderbox of sexism and racism. Learn more about Gertrude Weil HERE.

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A Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry and Medicine for a lifetime of work in immunology, Gertrude Elion’s name appears on 45 patents for life-saving and life-changing drugs. Despite lacking a doctorate, she developed some of the most important medicines of the 20th century. Her new research techniques have helped scientists study abnormal cells and pathogens. Her effective antiviral drugs have targeted leukemia, Epstein-Barr, chickenpox, and shingles, and her research eventually led to AIDS-fighting AZT. Read more about Gertrude Belle Elion HERE.

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George Gershwin and his older brother Ira are integral to the great American songbook. Born Jacob Gershwine and Israel Gershovitz, George and Ira collaborated on more than a dozen shows and four films. Some of their more famous works include “The Man I Love,” “Fascinating Rhythm,” “Someone to Watch Over Me,” “I Got Rhythm,” and “They Can’t Take That Away From Me.”

Though he passed at the age of 38 after surgery for a brain tumor, George is considered one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. His most famous works include “Rhapsody in Blue,” “Porgy and Bess,” and “An American in Paris.” Though Ira was the creative engine behind the pair’s lyrics, it took him nearly three years to begin writing again after George’s sudden passing. When he came out of his temporary retirement, Ira wrote lyrics for many film scores and Broadway shows, including the Academy Award-nominated song “The Man That Got Away,” for the 1954 film “A Star is Born,” starring Judy Garland. Read more about the Gershwins HERE.

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