Tag Archives: Ukrainian Jews

Jews of the Week: Nathan & Jeffrey Swartz

Jeffrey Swartz

Hailing from a town near Chernobyl, Nathan Swartz was one of many Russian immigrants to the US in the early 20th century. In 1918 he started working as a shoemaker in Boston. After more than 30 years of hard work, Swartz saved enough to invest in a small shoe company (initially purchasing just half a share!) By 1955 he bought the company outright, and turned it into a family business with his sons. In 1960, the Swartz family released a new shoe made with their patented injection-molding technology that bound leather without using stitches, creating a perfectly waterproof and durable shoe. One shoe model was called Timberland, and became so incredibly popular worldwide, that the company changed its name to the Timberland Shoe Company. Timberland soon became a household name and expanded to clothing, backpacks, and other products. Today, it is a multi-billion dollar company which was run, until recently, by Jeffrey Swartz, grandson of founder Nathan Swartz. Jeffrey has become renowned for pushing corporate responsibility, green initiatives and worker’s rights. His employees receive 40 hours of pay every year to do charity work, and $3000 stipends to buy hybrid cars. Timberland has planted over one million trees worldwide, is carbon-neutral, and recycles rubber from tires. It has been listed on CNN’s “100 best companies to work for”. Meanwhile, Swartz has become a noted philanthropist and ‘social investor’. He is also a proud Orthodox Jew, waking up at 4 am each morning to study Torah. Timberland continues to be a shoe adored by construction workers and rappers alike. It has even lent its name to hit music producer Timbaland, who was nicknamed after the iconic shoe.

Words of the Week

…A shy person cannot learn, a short-tempered person cannot teach; nor does anyone who does much business grow wise.
– Hillel (Avot 2:5)

Jew of the Week: David Copperfield

Most Successful Entertainer in History

‘Magician of the Century’ David Copperfield

David Seth Kotkin was born in New Jersey to a Ukrainian-Jewish father and Israeli mother. At age 10 David started putting on magic shows in his neighbourhood. He was so amazing that by age 12 he was already admitted into the Society of American Magicians, the youngest person ever to do so. At 16, he taught magic at New York University. At 18, he was cast in the musical The Magic Man and there adopted his stage name ‘David Copperfield’ – taken from the Charles Dickens novel. At 21 he starred in his first TV special for ABC. Copperfield went on to make 19 more incredible TV specials, as well as several movies and Broadway performances, winning a total of 21 Emmy Awards during that time (with 38 nominations), and setting 11 Guinness World Records. He has sold over 40 million tickets to his shows, grossing more than $3 billion – making him the most successful solo entertainer of all time. This wealth allowed him to purchase a chain of islands in the Bahamas, known as the Islands of Copperfield Bay, where people can vacation with magical thrills (and where Google founder Sergey Brin got married). He has also built the International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts. Though not open to the public, it contains the world’s largest collection of magical texts and artifacts. Since 1982, Copperfield has been running ‘Project Magic’, a charitable organization that helps disabled people regain dexterity through practicing fun magic techniques. The program quickly became popular and now runs in over 1100 hospitals in 30 countries around the world. Copperfield has been knighted by the French government, and the Library of Congress has titled him a ‘Living Legend’. His shows continue to amaze people worldwide.

Words of the Week

The frog said to King David: “I have a mitzvah greater than any of yours, for there is a bird that lives by the swamp and hungers, and I sacrifice my life to feed it.”
– Perek Shira

Jew of the Week: Golda Meir

Golda Meir

Golda Mabovitch (1898-1978) was born in Ukraine and moved with her family to Milwaukee when she was 7 years old. A leader from her youth, she raised funds to pay for her classmates’ textbooks while in elementary school, and ran her parents’ grocery store in their absence. At 14, Golda rebelled against her mother’s wishes to abandon her studies and get married. Instead, she fled to Denver to live with her older sister. There she was first exposed to Zionism, and met her husband Morris Meyerson, from whom she took the last name, later shortening it to Golda Meir. She only married him with the promise that they would move to Israel. After working as a teacher for a few years, Meir finally made aliyah in 1921, joining a kibbutz where she worked on farms and chicken coops. Recognizing her leadership, the kibbutz appointed her their representative to the Histadrut (Federation of Labour). Meir rose through the ranks, eventually becoming head of the Jewish Agency and chief negotiator with the British Mandate. In 1948, she single-handedly raised $50 million for Israel to purchase arms in the wake of war. Ben-Gurion famously said that this was the money that “made the State possible”. She was one of 24 signatories of the Declaration of Independence, and the first person to carry an Israeli passport. Meir served as Labour Minister, and then Foreign Minister, until retiring in 1966 due to lymphoma. But she came back three years later, aged 72, to become Israel’s Prime Minister. She was Israel’s “iron lady” during the Yom Kippur War, maneuvering a victory against all odds. Nonetheless, she took the blame for the war and resigned. She succumbed to lymphoma shortly after. A winner of the Israel Prize, and voted to the list of greatest Israelis, her maxims are often quoted. Meir once said: “Pessimism is a luxury that a Jew can never allow himself.”

Words of the Week

Ten measures of speech were given to the world, and nine of them were granted to women.
– Talmud, Kiddushin 49b