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

Across the Jewniverse: 180 Totally Random Jewish Facts

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 and potato menorahs
8-9 The Dead Sea
9 Russian superstition
10-11 Dreidels in space
12-13 New ancient trees, 2,000-year-old seeds
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? and Golda Meir
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 scroll facts and what the Torah is and how it's made, plus the Torahs that survived the Holocaust and are in museums
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 and Hedy Lamarr
32 "Hatikvah"...
33 ...and shared melodies
34  Israel's National Bird and 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) and the largest stone in the Western Wall
37 Peki'in
38 Moroccan Challah and the world's biggest challah
39 Banana leaf challah
40 Jerusalem's conquering
41 How big is Israel and why is it called the "City of Peace"?
42 How many American magicians are Jewish?
43 Abracadabra! and 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? And only 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 and mailing 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, Yisrael Kristal
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 and "The Hebrew Hammer" Hank Greenberg
70 Jews in India and more fun facts
71 Jew Town, India (and their dedication to preserving culture) and Jewish women crowned Miss India
72 Kosher sushi
73 Japanese kibbutzim
74 Jewish chess champions
75 Alik Gershom and Wilhelm Steinitz
76-77 Jewish superstitions
78 Pronouncing God's name
79 The many spellings of Hanukkah
80 Giudaico-Romanesco
81 Pizza Ebraica and a recipe for it, plus Jews in Rome
82 World's largest seders
83 Passover in Ethiopia and the Matzah cooking countdown
84-85 Cantonese inscriptions of Judaism and the seven Jewish clans and 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 and a Spanish seder plate blessing
92 137 beaches and "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 inventors 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) and the first White House seder
104 The world's largest matzah ball
105 The evolution of the Haggadah
106-107 More and more Israeli inventions
108 Jewish developers of the vaccines for polio, the bubonic plague, and more. (Bonus: the history of vaccines)
109 Gertrude Elion and Dr. Henry Heimlich
110-111 Hanukkah foods and customs around the world
112 Annie "Londonderry" Kopchovsky (want to read more? Check out AHP's Amazing Annie)
113 Helene Hines in the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, Morris Frank
114-115 Yiddish insults and curses
116 Ancient candy recipe
117 Rabbi Sam Born and his company's history
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 and Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis
126 Ashkenazic genetics
127 Rosalind Franklin
128 European Jewish immigration to Ellis Island
129 Lower East Side, NYC and its history (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? and Ray Frank
138-139 Jewish Academy Award winners
140 Hummus, olive oil, and apples & honey ice cream?
141 Worldwide ice cream consumption, Indian Jews and grape sherbet, ice cream entrepreneurs
142 What to say when finishing a book of Torah