New from Sydney Taylor Award Winning Authors Deborah Bodin Cohen and Kerry Olitzky

Across the Jewniverse: 180 Totally Random Jewish Facts

Coming Fall 2025

How long will a dreidel spin in outer space? Who created the first teddy bear? How big was the world's largest matzah ball? Why do Russian Jews put salt in their pockets?

In their 5,000-year history, the Jewish people have done some astonishing things. Inspired by the Weird But True series and other books of fun facts, this book brings together 180 surprising facts about the Jewish people, culture, and history. These bite-sized info-morsels are collected from across the Jewish universe on subjects ranging from holidays to entertainment, science, pop culture and more.

Ask your local bookstore or library about Across the Jewniverse, or find it on:

 

Want to learn more about the facts in the book? Check out these links for a deeper dive!

Page  
4-5 Superman's name origin
6 Mel Blanc
7 Mr. Potato Head
  Potato menorahs
8-9 The Dead Sea
9 Russian superstition
10-11 Dreidels in space
12-13 New ancient trees [x]
14-15 "Little Jerusalems" around the world: Italy, Vermont, South Carolina, Massachusetts, and France
16 Bird migration in Israel
17 Ziz
18 "Sabra" origin
19 Cacti from Mexico
20 Albert Abraham Michelson
21 Einstein as Israel's president?
  Golda Meir [x]
22 How many people in the world are Jewish?
23 How many Nobel Prize winners are Jewish?
24 Jews on the Titanic
25 Irene Wallach Harris
 26 Torah scrolls [x] [x]
  World War II torahs [x]
27 Tasmania's Hobart Synagogue
28 Chocolate in France
29 Hot chocolate
  (Bonus! Learn about the history of chocolate gelt here)
30 Voicemail
31 Martin Cooper
  Hedy Lamarr
32 "Hatikvah"...
33 ...and shared melodies
34  Israel's National Bird
  How many camels are in Israel?
35 Facts about a camel's eyes, speed, and water intake
 36 Jerusalem archaeological sites (Bonus! An amazing find in northern Israel)
  The largest stone in the Western Wall
37 Peki'in
38 Moroccan Challah
  The world's biggest challah
39 Banana leaf challah
40 Jerusalem's conquering
41 "City of Peace"
  How big is Israel?
42  How many American magicians are Jewish?
43 Abracadabra!
  Harry Houdini's father
44 9,000 year old board games
45 The first video game console
46 Israel's highest temperature
47 Snow in Israel?
  An inch of rain
48-49 Jews as superheroes
50  Fredericka Mandelbaum
51 Eastern State Penitentiary
52 A million prayers...
53 ...collected twice a year
  Letters to God
54-55 Who invented the flashlight? Ballpoint pen? Shopping cart? Polaroid?
 56 Solar power in Israel (and solar water heaters)
57 Blessing on a rainbow...
  ...and going "Over the Rainbow"
58 24 million sufganiyot
59 The history of the menorah (and the world's largest one)
60 The "Frozen Chosen"
61 The "Mile Chai City"
62  Thanksgiving and Sukkot?
63 Thanksgiving and Hanukkah
64 The first ever bat mitzvah
65 A bar mitzvah at 113 years old [x]
66 Mark Spitz
67 Dara Torres
  (Bonus: learn more about the United States' history with Olympic swimming)
68 Lipman Pike
69 Raining home runs on June 8, 2018
  "The Hebrew Hammer" Hank Greenberg
70  Jews in India [x]
71 Jew Town, India (and their dedication to preserving culture)
  Jewish women crowned Miss India
72 Kosher sushi
73 Japanese kibbutzim
74 Jewish chess champions
75 Alik Gershom
  Wilhelm Steinitz
76-77 Jewish superstitions
78 Pronouncing God's name
79 The many spellings of Hanukkah
80 Giudaico-Romanesco
81 Pizza Ebraica [x]
  Jews in Rome
82 World's largest seders
83 Passover in Ethiopia
  Matzah cooking countdown
84-85 Cantonese inscriptions of Judaism and the seven Jewish clans
  The first Jews settlers in China
86 Judah Benjamin
87 General Ulysses S. Grant's dangerous order
88 Freedom Riders
89 Carol Ruth Silver
90 Polish seder tradition
91 Brick dust in the charoset
  Spanish seder plate blessing
92 137 beaches
  "Sababa"
93 World's northernmost coral reef
94 Larry Page and Sergey Brin
95 Jewish gangsters...
  ...including Mickey Cohen
96-97 Yiddish
  Bonus: expanding the language
98 Jewish men...
99 ...and women boxers
100 The inventor of the Teddy Bear...
  ...the Tootsie Roll...
101 ...and Barbie
 102 Hanukkah at the White House
103 Eddie Jacobson and President Harry Truman (want to read more? Check out AHP's The Peddler and the President)
  The first White House seder
104 The world's largest matzah ball
105 The evolution of the Haggadah
106-107 Israeli inventions [x]
108 Jewish developers of vaccines [x] [x] [x]
109 Gertrude Elion
  Dr. Henry Heimlich
110-111 Hanukkah foods around the world [x]
112 Annie "Londonderry" Kopchovsky (want to read more? Check out AHP's Amazing Annie)
113 Helene Hines [x]
  Morris Frank
114-115 Yiddish insults and curses
116 Ancient candy recipe
117 Rabbi Sam Born [x]
118 Daniel Herszberg
119 Global Jewish populations: Sergio DellaPergola. “World Jewish Population, 2020,” in Arnold Dashefsky and Ira M. Sheskin. (Editors) The American Jewish Year Book, 2020, Volume 120 (2020) (Cham, SUI: Springer) pp. 273-370.
  Afghani Jews (who didn't get along)
120 The Maccabiah Games... (coming soon!)
121 ...and the motorcyclists who organized the first one (want to read more? Check out AHP's Maccabiah)
122 Operation Solomon (and the babies born aboard the plane)
123 Ethiopia Jews and Ge'ez
124-125 Jewish Knights
  Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis
126 Ashkenazic genetics
127 Rosalind Franklin
128 European Jewish immigration to Ellis Island
129 Lower East Side, NYC [x] (Bonus: read The Synagogues of New York's Lower East Side: A Retrospective and Contemporary View, 2nd Edition, Empire State Editions, 2012)
  Emma Lazarus (want to read more? Pre-order AHP's What Emma Wrote here)
130 Bob Dylan
131 Jewish composers
132-133 Israeli curiosities and fun facts
134 Where did Jews first settle in the America's?
135 Luis de Torres
136 Levi Strauss
137 Who were the Jewish Gauchos?
  Ray Frank
138-139 Jewish Academy Award winners
140 Odd ice cream flavors in Israel [x] [x]
141 Worldwide ice cream consumption
  Indian Jews and grape sherbet
  Ice cream entrepreneurs 
142 What to say when finishing a book of Torah