Curated playlist
American Zionists
- Frank SinatraFrank Sinatra was dropped by his record label in 1952. A movie role then brought him back to the top.
- Steven SpielbergSteven Spielberg walked into Universal Studios without a pass, and the guard waved him in.
- Chuck SchumerBob Dole once joked that the most dangerous place in Washington was between Charles Schumer and a television camera. Schumer, a Democrat from Brooklyn, has been a United States senator from New York since 1999. Along the way he has led his…
- Nancy PelosiOn the 4th of January 2007, Nancy Pelosi defeated Republican John Boehner of Ohio by 233 votes to 202 in the election for speaker of the House. Standing in the chamber afterward, she declared, "today, we have broken the marble ceiling."…
- Marco RubioThe New York Times dubbed Marco Rubio the "Secretary of Everything," a nickname earned by holding several government posts at the same moment. Few American officials have ever carried that kind of workload. Fewer still arrived by a road as…
- Ivanka TrumpIvanka Trump, an American businesswoman born on the 30th of October 1981, once described her own position in two short sentences. In October 2015 she said: "As a citizen, I love what he's doing. As a daughter, it's obviously more…
- Ayn RandWhen Ayn Rand died in New York City on the 6th of March 1982, her funeral included a six-foot floral arrangement shaped like a dollar sign. The tribute suited a woman who had turned self-interest into a moral code. She was born Alisa…
- Meyer LanskyShortly after The Godfather Part II reached theaters in 1974, Meyer Lansky picked up the telephone and called the actor Lee Strasberg. Strasberg had played Hyman Roth, a gangster based on Lansky, and had earned an Oscar nomination for it.…
- Bari WeissBari Weiss, an American political commentator born in 1984, has collected an unusually long list of labels. Vanity Fair called her a provocateur. In a 2019 interview with Joe Rogan, she described herself as a left-leaning centrist. At…
- Edward TellerEdward Teller stood and watched the Trinity test while nearly everyone else lay face-down.
- Gene SimmonsGene Simmons was born Chaim Witz in Haifa, Israel, on the 25th of August 1949. He grew up to become the bassist and co-lead singer of the hard rock band Kiss, where he plays a stage character called the Demon. Rock stardom has a reputation…
- Noah SchnappNoah Schnapp's professional career began with a cartoon voice. In 2015, he gave the lead voice to Charlie Brown in the animated film The Peanuts Movie. That same year, he also won a part in a film directed by Steven Spielberg. A New York…
- W. E. B. Du BoisW. E. B. Du Bois died in Ghana the day before the March on Washington. He was 95 and had renounced his U.S. citizenship.
- Steve BannonSteve Bannon still earns money every time Seinfeld airs. His bank took a stake in five shows instead of a fee.
- Hannah ArendtHannah Arendt's name is printed on journals, schools, scholarly prizes, humanitarian prizes, think-tanks and street signs. It also appears on stamps and monuments. She was born Johanna Arendt, and she grew into one of the most influential…
- Hans KohnHans Kohn resigned from a Zionist fundraising body in 1929 with a letter titled "Judaism is Not Zionism."
- Alan DershowitzAlan Morton Dershowitz is an American lawyer and law professor, and by his own account his career began as a joke at the expense of his teachers. He later recalled that they steered him toward work that "requires a big mouth and no…