Tag Archives: Romanian Jews

Jew of the Week: Bill Goldberg

World Champion of Wrestling

Bill Goldberg

William Scott Goldberg (b. 1966 ) was born in Oklahoma to a Jewish family of Romanian and Russian heritage. He grew up going to Tulsa’s Temple Israel, where he had his bar mitzvah, and playing football from a young age. Goldberg studied at the University of Georgia on a football scholarship, and was drafted into the NFL by the Los Angeles Rams in 1990. He played for several teams over the next five years, but his career was cut short with a serious abdominal injury. While doing rehab for this injury, Goldberg started mixed martial arts training. He was soon spotted by some wrestlers who suggested he take up the sport, so he began training at the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) school, called the Power Plant. Goldberg had his first match in the summer of 1997, and went undefeated for nearly 80 matches before winning the US Heavyweight Championship. By the summer of 1998, he defeated Hulk Hogan for the World Heavyweight Championship. Goldberg continued to mesmerize audiences around the globe, and became the world’s highest-paid wrestler, making $2.5 million a year. In 2001, while he was recovering from another injury, the WCW was bought out by WWF, and the new company did not take on his contract. Goldberg went on to wrestle in Japan, then came back to the US and joined the WWE. He had his last match in 2004 at WrestleMania XX, which he won. In 2006, Goldberg began working as a commentator for various mixed martial arts events. Meanwhile, he has starred in eleven films, and made appearances on 26 television shows. Goldberg is also a big advocate for animal rights and welfare, and has even addressed Congress on behalf of this cause. Goldberg has always been proud of his Jewish heritage, and refused to wrestle on Yom Kippur. Today, he runs a mixed-martial arts gym in California, and visits sick children in the hospital in his spare time.

Words of the Week

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.
– Aldous Huxley

Jew of the Week: Janet Rosenberg Jagan

President of Guyana

Janet Rosenberg Jagan

Janet Rosenberg (1920-2009) was born in Chicago, the granddaughter of Jewish immigrants from Romania and Hungary. As a young nursing student she met a Guyanese dentist, Cheddi Jagan. The two got married less than a year later, and moved to Guyana, where Rosenberg worked as a nurse in her husband’s dental clinic. Meanwhile, the couple joined the British Guianese Labor Union and were very active in the political scene. Rosenberg founded Guyana’s Women’s Political and Economic Organization, and its Political Affairs Committee. Shortly after, she and her husband co-founded the Marxist-Leninist People’s Progressive Party (PPP), with Janet serving as its General Secretary. Soon, she was elected to the City Council of Guyana’s capital, Georgetown. From there, she moved up to the House of Assembly, and was appointed Deputy Speaker. However, for vocally opposing British colonial rule over Guyana, the Jagans were both jailed for 5 months, then kept under house arrest for another 2 years. After finally being freed, Rosenberg won back her seat in the Assembly and was appointed Minister of Labour, Health and Housing. In 1973, she was elected to the national parliament, and was re-elected three more times, making her the longest serving parliamentarian in the country’s history. In 1992, her husband became Guyana’s president, and after he passed away in 1997, Janet became the country’s prime minister and vice president. She won the national elections later that year and became president herself, making her just the third woman (and coincidentally, the third Jew) to head a nation in the Western Hemisphere. At age 79, the popular Rosenberg resigned her post due to health problems. She continued to serve in the government, and was still on the PPP’s Central Committee until shortly before her passing, at age 88. Aside from government, Rosenberg worked hard to expand the Guyanese literary world, and to make books available for Guyana’s children. She wrote several of her own books, and was the editor of the PPP’s newspaper for over 20 years. Rosenberg received Guyana’s highest honour, the Order of Excellence, along with a UNESCO award for her efforts on behalf of women’s rights.

Words of the Week

Greater is hospitality to wayfarers than receiving the Divine Presence.
– Talmud, Shevuot 35b

Jew of the Week: Zohar Dvir

The Real Zohan

Zohar Dvir (Credit: Gil Eliyahu/Flash90/TimesOfIsrael)

Zohar Davidovich (b. 1965) was born in Israel to a Romanian-Jewish family. He grew up in Rishon Lezion and studied at an IDF boarding school that trains future army officers. He was accepted to Israel’s prestigious flight academy, but ultimately failed to make the cut. Now going by the last name “Dvir”, he moved to the famous Golani Brigade. During 12 years of service with the unit, he rose through the ranks, eventually becoming deputy commander, and then head of reconnaissance. Dvir left the IDF in 1995 to work in private security, then joined Yamam, the “SWAT” division of Israel Police (in Israel, there are no local or municipal police forces, but rather a national police headquartered in Jerusalem). Yamam has been ranked among the top 5 special forces units in the whole world, and is famous for its daring raids, undercover police work, and counter-terrorism activity. (Click here to see Yamam in action.) Dvir was soon Yamam’s commander, and was in charge throughout the difficult Second Intifada. Once, he was on his way to inform a family of an officer’s death when he spotted a flipped-over car. While helping the injured driver, a truck crashed into them, killing the driver and leaving Dvir with critical injuries, including multiple broken bones and brain hemorrhaging. He woke up after five days in a coma. Yet, less than three months later, Dvir was back on the force. Under his command, the unit thwarted over 50 terror attacks, and neutralized several hundred terrorists, all without losing a single officer. In the past several years, Dvir has served as major general in the Israel Police, and chief of the Northern District, and Coastal District. Last week, he was promoted to deputy commissioner of Israel Police. It is said that Adam Sandler’s secret agent character “Zohan Dvir”, in the film You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, was based on Zohar Dvir.

Tonight is the 4th Night of Chanukah. Chag Sameach!

Words of the Week

The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.
– J.M Barrie