1. 2008-2009 is the 5769th year of the Jewish calendar.
2. The Jewish calendar has 354 days or 12 lunar months per year with a whole leap month added periodically.
3. The Jewish day begins at sundown the day before.
4. BCE, Before the Common Era, is the Jewish term for BC (Before Christ). CE, Common Era, is equivalent to AD (Anno Domini). The year 0 is neither BCE nor CE.
5. Hebrew (derived from Aramaic), Yiddish (Hebrew and German) and Ladino (Hebrew and Spanish) are the main languages of Judaism. Hebrew is written and read from right to left.
6. There were 12 Tribes of Israel based on the children of Jacob.

  a. Ten tribes were lost with the destruction of Israel and exile of the Jews.
  b. The tribes of Judah and Levi were not lost and are the ancestors of today's Jews.
7. There are 3 main branches of Judaism: Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform.
     Hasidism, Chabad, Chaballah and Reconstructionist are groups or movements within Judaism.
8. Reform Jews accept Jewishness coming from either the mother or the father.
9. Jerusalem was established around 1000 BCE when King David, the first great king of Israel, selected it for the capital of the Jewish people.
10. The First Temple in Jerusalem was built by King Solomon around 970 BCE.
      a. Zion is the center of Jerusalem encompassing the area of the First and Second Temples.
      b. The everlasting light above the arc and Torah is called the ner tamid.
11. The Star of David is the primary symbol of Judaism.
12. The Maccabees fought against the Romans and could be called ‘hammer’ because of their strength, and that is a meaning of the name in Hebrew. The name is derived from the phrase Mi chamocha ba'elim adonai, which means Who is like you? (among gods).
13. Jesus of Nazareth and Paul of Tarsus are credited with founding Christianity.
14. Masada is a mountain fortress where Jewish Sicarii warriors and families held out against the Romans Legions. Rather than be killed or taken by the Romans, they committed suicide in 73 CE.
15. Jews put mezuzahs on their front door posts to show it is a Jewish house and to remember to obey commandments.
      a. The letter shin is commonly found on the mezuzah.
      b. The shin is believed to stand for shaddai – guardian (of Israel) or shema (for the prayer).
16. Most Jews donate money into a pushke or charity box in the home or synagogue. The Hebrew word for a pushke donation is kupat tzedakah.
17. The Hebrew word for a skull cap is a kipa or yamalkah in Yiddish.
18. The shawl worn over the shoulders is a tallis. The fringes of the shawl are called tzitit.
19. Sephardi refers to Jews from Spain. Ashkenazi refers to Jews from Germany and more generally Eastern Europe. Mizrahi are Jews from the Middle East. Sephardic and Mizrahic Jews are usually darker in appearance.
20. Ashkenazi Jews do not use the exact same name of a living relative as a name for new-born children.
21. Although in the 11th century they comprised only 3% of the world's Jewish population, Ashkenazi Jews accounted for (at their highest) 92% of the world's Jews in 1931 and today make up approximately 80% of Jews worldwide.
22. Jews number about 15-20 million worldwide, make up only about 0.25% of the world population and have won 18% of the Nobel Prizes -- 72 times their natural share.

1. The Hebrew word for the cutting ceremony for baby boys is brit (circumcision).
   
2. The weekly holiday is Shabbat.
     a. Shabbat means “rest”.
     b. Shabbat is on Saturday but begins on Friday night.
     c. On Shabbat many set the table with two candles, a Kiddush cup, a challah, and a pushke.
     d. One Shabbat candle is to remember and one candle is to practice.
     e. Challah is egg bread and is usually braided.
     f. At the end of the weekly holiday is the Havdallah ceremony.
     g. At Havdallah, some Jews smell a spice box to cheer themselves even though Shabbat is ending.
3. The new year holiday is Rosh Hashana.
     a. On Rosh Hashana many eat sweet foods to bring in a sweet year.
     b. The popular musical instrument for the high holidays is the shofar.
4. The holiday on which you repent or atone for your sins is Yom Kippur. Most people fast on Yom Kippur to help them focus their thoughts and on the holiday.
5. The holiday of booths is Sukkot (tents) to remember the 40 years in the Sinai desert. The most popular items that are shaken on Sukkot are the lulav and etrog.
6. The holiday that celebrates the harvest and the Ten Commandments is Shavuot.
7. Purim celebrates victory over Haman. The story of Purim is recorded in the Megilla.
8. The holiday that celebrates the Torah itself is Simchat Torah.
9. The holiday that remembers freedom from slavery is Passover.
     a. The 4 questions/answers of Passover are about: matza, maror, dipping greens in saltwater, and reclining.
     b. The main table decoration at a Seder is a seder plate.
     c. There are usually five things on a Seder plate: egg, bone, greens, maror, and charoses.
     d. Matza is kept on a separate plate on Passover.
     e. The matza that is hidden on Passover is the afikomon.
     f. The mixture of apples and walnuts for Passover is charoses. It symbolizes the mortar in the bricks of the Pyramids.
   
10. The festival of lights is Hanukah.
      a. The 7-candle candleholder is called a menorah.
      b. The 9-candle candleholder is called a hanukiah.
      c. The center or highest set candle is the shamash. The shamash is used to light the other candles.
      d. Hanukah means rededication.
      e. The favorite toy on Hanukah is a dreidel.
      f. The letters on the dreidel are Hay, Shin, Gimmel and Nun.
      g. The letters on the dreidel stand for “Nes gadol hayah sham,” (nun gimmel hay shin) which means a great miracle happened there. In Israel, dreidels say “Nes gadol hayah poh,” (nun gimmel hay pay) which means a great miracle happened here.
    
11. The ceremony for coming of age for boys and for girls is Bar and Bat Mitzvah.
    
12. The Jewish wedding includes:
        1. The ketubah or marriage contract/license.
        2. Bride walks 7 circles around the groom.
            The circle created by the bride is the space the couple will now share as a new family.
            Symbolically, she is entering the seven spheres of her beloved's soul.

    3. The rabbi recites 7 blessings:
        The number seven represents the idea of seven heavens, seven days of creation, and seven wedding blessings.
   The seven Jewish wedding blessings praise Adonai for:
      a. Creating the fruit of the vine: the blessing over the wine, or kiddush
      b. Creating the earth and all that is in it
      c. Creating humanity
      d. Creating man and woman in Adonai's image
      e. The miracle of birth
      f. Bringing the bride and groom together to rejoice and live in harmony as did the first couple, Adam and Eve
      g. The joy of the couple and hope for a world filled with the joy of lovers and laughter of children
    4. Breaking of the glass is the final act of the marriage ceremony.

13. Yahrzeit is the anniversary of a loved one’s death. Jews light a special candle which burns for at least 24 hours on the day of the Yahrzeit as an act of respect for the deceased.
    
14. Yizkor is the prayer service and remembrance for the dead.
    
15. The Mourner’s Kaddish is a prayer for funerals, yizkors and yahrzeits.
    
16. A mitzvah is a rule of Torah of which there are 613. Mitzvah is also interpreted as a good deed and a blessing.
    
Examples of the 613 Mitzvot
  a. To honor the old and the wise.
  b. To honor your father and mother.
  c. To give charity according to one's means.
  d. To leave the unreaped corner of the field or orchard for the poor.
  e. To recite grace after meals.
  f. That a man should fulfill whatever he has uttered.
  g. To affix the mezuzah to the doorposts and gates of your house.
  h. To read the Shema in the morning and at night.
  i. Not to use the ornament of any object of idolatrous worship.
  j. Not to wrong anyone in speech.
  k. Not to carry tales.
  l. To sanctify Shabbat.
  m. To rest on Shabbat.
  n. Not to destroy fruit trees (wantonly or in warfare).
  o. To rejoice on the festivals.
  p. Not to do wrong in buying or selling.
  q. Not to commit fraud in measuring.
  r. Not to hear one of the parties to a suit in the absence of the other party.
  s. Not to stand by idly when a human life is in danger.

17. The 12th century philosopher Maimonides (Rambam) defined a hierarchy of tzedakah, which has come to be known as Rambam's Ladder. His hierarchy has 8 grades of charity.
     8. When donations are given grudgingly.
     7. When one gives less than he should, but does so cheerfully.
     6. When one gives directly to the poor upon being asked.
     5. When one gives directly to the poor without being asked.
     4. When the recipient is aware of the donor's identity, but the donor does not know the identity of the recipient.
     3. When the donor is aware of the recipient's identity, but the recipient is unaware of the source.
     2. When the donor and recipient are unknown to each other.
     1. The highest form of charity is to help sustain a person before they become impoverished by offering a substantial gift in a dignified manner, or by helping them find employment or establish themselves in business so as to make it unnecessary for them to become dependent on others.
    

• Moses (Moshe) 1272-1152 BCE, Jewish leader
  
• Jesus (Yehoshua) 0-32, Jewish rabbi and a founder of Christianity
  
• Saul of Tarsus (Paul the Apostle) 10-67, promoter of Christianity, author of 7 books of the New Bible
  
• Nostradamas 1503-1566, French philosopher and predictor of the future (Born Jewish, family converted to Catholicism)
  
• Winston Churchill 1874-1965, British Prime Minister (mother’s father was born Leonard Jacobson)

• Albert Einstein 1879-1955, physicist, theory of relativity, atomic energy
• Niels Bohr 1885-1962, physicist, sub-atomic physics
• Julius Robert Oppenheimer 1904-1967, physicist, leader of the development of the atom bomb

• Selman Waksman 1888-1973, developed antibiotics
• Gregory Pincus 1903-1967, developed the birth control pill
• Jonas Salk 1914-1995, developed the polio vaccine
• Gertrude Elion 1918-1999, Nobel Prize for medical research
• Baruch Blumberg, 1925-, developed hepatitis B vaccine

• Pancho Villa 1878-1923, Mexican Revolutionary leader, invaded the United States
• Leon Trotsky 1879-1940, facilitator of the Russian Revolution
• Karl Marx 1818-1883, philosopher, founder of Communism

• Sigmund Freud 1856-1936, psychiatrist
• Frederick “Fritz” Perls 1893-1970, psychiatrist
• Abraham Maslow 1908-1970, sociologist
• Stanley Milgram 1933-1984, sociologist

• Joseph Pulitzer 1847-1911, established the Pulitzer Prize
• Franz Kafka 1883-1924, author
• Boris Pasternak 1890-1960, novelist, poet
• Gertrude Stein 1874-1946, author
• Marcel Proust 1871-1922, novelist
• Isaac Asimov 1920-1992, science fiction author
• Ayn Rand 1905-1982, author and philosopher
• Arthur Miller 1915-2005, playwright
• J. D. Salinger 1919- author

• William Sidis, 1898-1944, possibly highest IQ recorded at 200+, wrote and published 4 books between ages 4 and 8
• Camille Pisarro 1830-1903, father of Impressionism
• Emma Lazarus, 1849-1887, wrote: "Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”
• Marc Chagall 1887-1985, painter
• Man Ray 1890-1976, painter
• Frank Gehry 1929-, architect
• Gary Kasparov 1963-, chess grandmaster

• Arnold Rothstein 1882-1928, was the founding father of American organized crime
• Meyer Lansky 1902-1983, gangster
• Bugsy Siegel 1906-1947, gangster
• Dutch Schultz 1902-1935, gangster

• Mayer Rothschild 1744-1812, dominant international banker, richest man in Germany in his time
• Levi Strauss 1829-1902, denim clothier to California Gold Rush
• Beatrice Alexander, 1895-1990, a top female entrepreneur
• Walter Annenberg, 1908-2002, donated over $2 billion, built over 100 libraries
• Milton Friedman 1912-2006, economist
• Alan Greenspan 1926-, economist, longest-standing chairman of the US Federal Reserve
• George Soros 1930-, billionaire financier, donated $4 billion
• Donna Karan 1948-, fashion designer, clothier
• Calvin Klein 1942-, fashion designer, clothier
• Ralph Lauren (Ralph Lifshitz), 1939-, fashion designer
• Howard Schultz 1952-, founder of Starbuck’s

• Charles Adler, 1899-1980, inventor of traffic lights
• Charles Ginsburg, 1920-1992, inventor of videotape recorder
• Andy Grove 1936-, co-founder and chairman of Intel
• Stanley Mazor, 1941-, early inventor of microprocessor
• Larry Ellison 1944-, CEO of Oracle
• Steve Ballmer 1956-, CEO of Microsoft
• Michael Dell 1965-, CEO of Dell Computers
• Sergey Brin 1973-, co-founder of Google

• Felix Mendelssohn 1809-1847, musician
• Gustav Mahler 1860-1911, classical composer
• George Gershwin 1898-1937, composer
• Leonard Bernstein 1918-1990, musician
• Isaac Stern, 1920-2001, classical violinist
• Andre Previn 1929-, classical conductor, composer, pianist
• Irving Berlin 1888-1901, songwriter
• Yitzak Perlman, 1945-, classical violinist

• Harry Houdini (Eric Weiss) 1874-1926, magician, illusionist
• Louis B. Mayer (Eliezer Mayer) 1885-1957, motion picture pioneer
• Jack, Harry, Sam, Albert Warner, founders of Warner Brothers Studios
• Sam Goldwyn (Schmuel Gelbfisz) 1882-1974, founder of Goldwyn Studios which became part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• Al Jolson 1886-1950, jazz singer
• Groucho Marx 1890-1977, Harpo Marx comedians
• George Burns (Nathan Birnbaum) 1896-1996
• The Three Stooges
  • Moses (Moe) Horwitz 1897-1975, Samuel (Shemp) Horwitz 1895-1955, Jerome (Curly) Horwitz 1903-1952, Louis Feinberg (Larry) 1902-1975
• John Houseman 1902-1988, actor
• Benny Goodman 1909-1986, jazz clarinetist and bandleader
• Mel Brooks (Melvin Kaminsky) 1926-, writer, producer
• Elvis Presley, 1935-1977, King of Rock & Roll
• Dustin Hoffman 1937-, actor
• Zsa Zsa Gabor (Sara Gabor) 1918-, actress
• Ringo Starr 1940-, (Richard Starkey) drummer for the Beatles
• Bob Dylan (Robert Zimmerman) 1941-, musician
• Steven Spielberg 1946-, filmmaker
• Barbra Streisand 1942-, singer
• Tina Louise (Tina Blacker) 1934-, actress
• Tony Curtis (Bernard Schwarz) 1925-, actor
• Paul Newman 1925-, actor
• Woody Allen (Allen Konigsberg) 1935-, actor
• Ben Kingsley 1943-, actor
• Richard Dreyfus 1947-, actor
• Billy Crystal 1947-, actor
• Raymond Teller 1948-, magician
• Jerry Seinfeld 1954-, comedian, actor
• Michael Bolton 1954-, country singer
• Bruce Willis (Walter Willison) 1955-, actor
• David Copperfield (David Kotkin) 1956- magician, illusionist

Examples of Tzedakah by Individuals