(Jewniverse via JTA) — Haaretz writer Vivian Eden just unearthed an amazing historical factoid: the Bataclan, the stately Paris theater that is now synonymous with bloodshed and horror, takes its name from an operetta written and composed by two 19th-century Jews.
Composer Jacques Offenbach, the son of a German cantor, immigrated to Paris to study music. The libretto he famously set to music, “Ba-Ta-Clan,” was written by...
(Jewniverse via JTA) — In 1900, Horace Elgin Dodge and John Francis Dodge founded the Dodge Brothers Company. The brothers were not Jewish, but their original logo looked a lot like the Star of David. It was a circle with two interlocking triangles forming a six-pointed star. An interlocked “DB” was at the center of the star, and the words “Dodge Brothers Motor Vehicles” encircled the outside edge.
(Jewniverse via JTA) — Looking for some relative peace and quiet in the Middle East? Look no farther than Akhzivland, a micronation on Israel’s northern coast, near Nahariya. Officially a mere 10,000 square meters, this tiny independent state is presided over by Eli Avivi, an Iranian expat who settled there in 1952. (After the destruction of the Palestinian village Az-Zeeb in the war of ’48, he found the land uninhabited.
