Sherry Lansing (born July 31, 1944)

Born Shelly Lee Duhl, Lansing was raised Jewish in Chicago. Her mother fled from Nazi Germany in 1937 at the age of seventeen. Lansing is a former CEO of Paramount Pictures, and when she was the president of 20th Century Fox, she was the first woman to head a Hollywood movie studio. In 1996, she became the first woman to be named Pioneer of the Year by the Foundation of Motion Picture Pioneers, and she was the first female studio head to recieve a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2001, she was named one of the thirty most powerful women in America's Ladies Home Journal, and The Hollywood Reporter named her fourth on its power 100 list in 2003.

Arnold Henry Glasow

(1905 – 1998) was an American businessman who published a humor magazine that he marketed to firms nationally, which firms would turn it into their “house organ” to send to their customers. A real American thinker, self-effacing and generous of spirit, he shunned the national spotlight.

Carl Gustav Jung

(26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) A Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of analytical psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as “by nature religious” and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and symbolization. 

Lao Tzu Laozi

(Chinese: also Lao Tse, Lao Tu, Lao-Tzu, Lao-Tsu, Laotze, Lao Zi, Laocius, and other variations) was a philosopher of ancient China, and is a central figure in Taoism (also spelled “Daoism”). Laozi literally means “old master”, and is generally considered honorific. Laozi is revered as a deity in most religious forms of Taoism…Source

Simon Baruch (July 29, 1840-June 3, 1921)

Baruch was a physician and a pioneer of hydrotherapy in th U.S. His medical work in New York included supporting the establishment of public baths as a hygene measure and investing the effects of medical springs, as well as the treatment of appendicitis and malaria.

Paul "Magic Bullet" Ehrlich (March 14, 1854-August 20, 1915)

Dr. Paul Ehrlich was a German physician and scientist who worked in the fields of hematology, immunology, and antimicrobial chemotherapy.  He invented the precurser technique to Gram staining bacteria. The methods he developed for staining tissue made it possible to distinguish between types of blood cells, which led to the capability to diagnose numerous blood diseases. In 1908, he recieved the Nobel Prize in Physiology of medicine for his contribubtions to immunology.

Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879-April 18, 1955)

Albert Einstein was a German-born physicist who developed the general theory of relativity, and in 1921, won the Nobel Prize for Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect. An outspoken pacifist eho was publicly identified with the Zionist movement, in 1932 Einstein emigrated from Germany to the United States--Prinston, New Jersey, specifically--when the Nazi's took power before WWII. Einstein is generally considered to be the most influential physicist of the twentieth century, with his work also having a major impact on the development of atomic energy.

Al Jaffee (born March 13, 1921)

Born Abraham Jaffee, Al Jaffee is an American cartoonist. He is notable for his work on the satirical Mad magazine, including his iconic trademark feature the Mad Fold-in, which began in 1964 as a satire of the triple fold-outs that were appearing in glossy magazines such as Playboy, National Geographic and Life. Jaffee won the National Cartoonists Society Advertising and Illustration Award in 1973, its Special Feature Award in 1971 and 1975, and its Humor Comic Book Award in 1979. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Society of Illustrators' Hall of Fame in 2014.

Roy Lichenstein (October 27, 1923-September 29, 1997)

Painter Roy Lichtenstein was born in New York and grew up on the Upper West Side. In the 1960s, he became a leading figure of the new Pop Art movement, which also included Andy Warhol, James Rosenquest and Claes Oldenburg. Inspired by advertisements and comic strips, Lichtenstein's bright, graphic works parodied American popular culture and the art world itself. In addition to paintings, he also made drawings, prints, and sculpture; his work is the most important museum collections worldwide.

Sidney Lucman (November 21, 1916-July 5, 1998)

Sid Luckman was born to German Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn, NY. He was a Quarterback for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) from 1939 to 1950. During his twelve seasons with the Bears, he led them to four NFL championships. He is one of the greatest long-range passers of his time. He was named the NFL's Most Valuable Player in 1943, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965, and, in 1988, he was declared a joint winner of the Walter Camp Distinguished American Award.

Giddy Lee (1953)

Born Gary Lee Weinrib in Onterio, Canada, Geddy Lee is a musician, singer, and songwriter, best as the lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboadist for the Canadian rock group Rush. He joined the band in 1968, and they went on to be a seminal band with wide influences on other musicians. Rush was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. Geddy Lee's parents were Holocaust survivors who were imprisoned in concentration camps during WWII before they were liberated and immigrated to Canada.

Suzan-Lori Parks

(born May 10, 1963) is an American playwright, screenwriter and novelist. Her 2001 play Topdog/Underdog won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2002; Parks is the first African American woman to achieve this honor for drama.

Leon C. Megginson

(July 26, 1921 – February 22, 2010) was a business professor at Louisiana State University. While at LSU, he published some 100 articles and won numerous awards for teaching and research. He also authored or co-authored over 40 editions of 18 textbooks (including Personnel: A Behavioral Approach to Administration).

Woody Harrelson

Did you know...
... that today is the Birthday of Woody Harrelson (1961)? Harrelson, an American actor, activist and playwright, is a two-time Academy Award nominee and winner of one Emmy Award out of seven nominations. His breakout role came in 1985 as bartender Woody Boyd in the television sitcom Cheers. Happy birthday, Woody!

Art Spiegelman (born February 15, 1948)

Born Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev, Art Spiegelman is an American author and illustrator whose Holocaust narritives, Maus I: A Survivors Tale, My Father Bleeds History (1986) and Maus II: A Survivors Tale--And Here My Trouble Began (1991), helped establish comic storytelling as a sophisticated adult litrary medium. Maus was based on his relationship with his father, a holocaust survivor. This postmodern book depicts Nazis as cats, Jews as mice, and ethnic Poles as pigs. It won a special Pulitzer Prize and was a New York Times bestseller.

Walter Blum (born September 28, 1934)

Born in Brooklyn, Walter Blum is a retired Hall of Fame jockey. A horse racing fan from boyhood, in his teens Blum began working as a racetrack hot-walker. Despite being blind in his right eye from the age of two, in 1953 he embarked on a career as a jockey, riding his first winner on July 29 at Saratoga Race Course. During the better part of his twenty-two-year career, Blum rode mainly at East Coast tracks from New England to Florida and is one of four jockeys to ever win six races on a single card at Monmouth Park. Blum was inducted in the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1986 and the following year in the United States Racing Hall of Fame.

Selman Abraham Waksman (July 22, 1888-August 16, 1973)

Waksman was a Russian-born Jewish American inventor, biochemist, and microbiologist whose research at Rutgers University over four decades led him to discover over twenty antibiotics (a word that he coined) and introduced procedures that led to the development of many others. In 1952, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine  in recognition "for his discovery of 'streptomycin,' the first antibiotic active against tuberculosis."

Victor K. Kiam

(December 7, 1926 – May 27, 2001) was an American entrepreneur and TV spokesman for Remington Products, and the owner of the New England Patriots football team from 1988–1991.

Ruth Bador Ginsburg (born March 15, 1933)

Born Ruth Joan Bador to Russian Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn, Ginsburg is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Ginsburg was appointed by President Bill Clinton and took the oath of office on August 10, 1993. She is the second female justice (after Sandra Day O'Conner) and the first Jewish female justice. She is generally veiwed as belonging to the liberal wing of the court. Before becoming a judge, Ginsberg spent a considerable portion of her legal career as an advocate for the advancement of women's rights as a constitutional principle.

Jon Faverau (born October 19, 1966)

Jon Faverau's parents (his mother was of Russian Jewish decent) raised him in Queens, New York. In his early twenties, he gained notoriety when he starred in and wrote a screenplay for the indie hit Swingers. He has gone on to be recognized as a writer, director, producer and actor, and most notably directected the films Made, Elf, Cowboys & Aliens, Chef, and the blockbuster Iron Man and its sequals.

Epictetus

(AD c. 55 – 135) was a Greek sage and Stoic philosopher.Philosophy, Epictetus taught, is a way of life and not just a theoretical discipline

Matthew Joseph Thaddeus Stepanek

(July 17, 1990 – June 22, 2004), known as Mattie J.T. Stepanek, was an American poet (or as he wanted to be remembered as “a poet, a peacemaker, and a philosopher who played”) who published seven best-selling books of poetry. Before his death (at the age of 13) he had become known as a peace advocate and motivational speaker

Haim G. Ginott

(originally Ginzburg) (1922 – 1973) was a school teacher in Israel, a child psychologist and psychotherapist and a parent educator. He pioneered techniques for conversing with children that are still taught today. His book, Between Parent and Child set out to give “specific advice derived from basic communication principles that will guide parents in living with children in mutual respect and dignity.”

Hyman Judah Schachtel

(1907–1990) was Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel of Houston from 1943 to 1975. From 1975-1990 He served as Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Beth Israel of Houston He also served the Houston Jewish community as “rabbi-at-large” for the remainder of his life. On January 20, 1965, Rabbi Schachtel delivered the inaugural prayer for President Lyndon B. Johnson in Washington, D.C.

William James

(January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism. He was the brother of novelist Henry James and of diarist Alice James.

Louis B. Mayer (July 12, 1884-October 29, 1957)

Louis Burt Mayer was an American film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios (MGM) in 1924. Meyer was skilled at developing star actors, including child actors, then placing them in consistently slick productions, such as musicals or comedies, for which MGM became famous. Under Meyer's management, MGM accumulated the largest concentration of leading writers, directors, and stars in Hollywood.

Sidney Franklin (July 11, 1903-April 26, 1976)

Born Sidney Frumklin to Orthodox Jewish parents, Franklin went on to  become the first Jewish American bullfighter. He studied in Mexico for several years before making his debut in Spain in 1929. In August of that year he met Ernest Hemingway, who wrote of Franklin's work in his book Death in the Afternoon. Franklin's autobiography, Bullfighter from Brooklyn, was published in 1952.

Douglas Adams

(11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English writer, humorist and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a “trilogy” of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television series, several stage plays, comics, a computer game, and in 2005 a feature film. Source

Jeffrey Tambor (July 8, 1944)

Jeffrey Tambor, an actor, grew up in a conservative Jewish family in San Fransico, CA. He became well known for his roles as Hank Kingsley on the Larry Sanders show as well as George Bluth Sr. and Oscar Bluth on Arrested Development. Most recently, he has portrayed Maura Pfeffman on Transparent, for which he recieved an Emmy and a Golden Globe in 2015.

Napoleon Hill

(October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970) An American author who was one of the earliest producers of the modern genre of personal-success literature. His most famous work, Think and Grow Rich, is one of the best-selling books of all time.

Ringo Starr

Did you know...
... that today is the Birthday of Ringo Starr (1940)? Born Richard Starkey, Ringo Starr - English drummer, singer, songwriter and actor - first gained worldwide fame as the drummer for the Beatles. In 2011, Rolling Stone readers named Starr the fifth-greatest drummer of all time. Starr, who was previously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a Beatle in 1988, was inducted for his solo career in 2015, making him one of 21 performers inducted more than once. Happy birthday, Ringo!

Marc Chagall (July 6, 1887-March 28, 1985)

Marc Zakharovich Chagall was a Belorussian-born French artist whose work was generally based on emotional association rather then traditional pictoral fundementals. As early modernist, he was associated with several basic artistic style and created work in virtually every artistic medium, including painting, his primary medium; book illustrations; stained glass; set designs; ceramics; and fine art prints.

Harry S. Truman

(May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the 33rd President of the United States (1945–53), assuming that office upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt during the waning months of World War II.

Moshé Pinchas Feldenkrais

(May 6, 1904 – July 1, 1984) was an Israeli engineer and the founder of the Feldenkrais Method, which is claimed to improve human functioning by increasing self-awareness through movement; it is not supported by medical evidence.Feldenkrais’ theory is that “thought, feeling, perception and movement are closely interrelated and influence each other.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

(May 25, 1803  – April 27, 1882) was an American philosopher, lecturer, essayist, and poet, best remembered for leading the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thought through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.

Larry David (1947)

Born Lawrence Gene "Larry" David in Brooklyn, David started his carreer as a stand-up comedian in the 1970s. He is a writer, actor, and producer best known for co-creating and writing the Seinfeld and later for the HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, which he starred in as a semi-fictional version of himself. He was voted by fellow comedians and comedy insiders as No. 23 of the greatest comedu stars ever in a poll to select Comedian Comedians in 2004.

John Ruskin

(February 8 1819 – January 20 1900) was an English author, poet and artist, most famous for his work as art critic and social critic.

Sun Tzu or Sunzi

He was a Chinese military general, strategist, and philosopher during the Zhou dynasty’s Spring and Autumn Period. Sun Tzu was born as Sun Wu and known outside his family by the style name Changqing. He is traditionally credited as the author of The Art of War, an extremely influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy.

John Gilbert Winant OM

(February 23, 1889 – November 3, 1947) was an American politician with the Republican party after a brief career as a teacher in Concord, New Hampshire. John Winant held positions in New Hampshire, national, and international politics. He was the first man to serve more than a single two-year term as Governor of New Hampshire, winning election three times. Winant also served as US Ambassador to the United Kingdom during most of World War II.