RASHI, RAMBAM and RAMALAMADINGDONG

Because the turkey is native to America, it is not mentioned in the Torah. Therefore, a name was devised for this bird in modern Hebrew. What is that name?

A. The turkey is called tarnegol hodu. Tarnegol means chicken. Hodu means thanks (the same root as todah.). By the time President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving as a national holiday in 1863, turkey had already become the traditional meal of the day. Trade between the United States and Europe was a major industry by that time, including the American export of turkeys. As European rabbis determined that this new bird was in fact a kosher bird, they connected the American holiday to the bird and assigned it the name tarnegol hodu, chicken of thanks.

B. The turkey is called tarnegol hodu. Tarnegol means chicken. Hodu means India. The bird got this name because it was believed that America, where these birds were native, was part of India; thus the bird was called Indian chicken.

C. The turkey is called tarnegol hodu. Tarnegol means chicken. Hodu means India. Turkey was served by the native Americans, or Indians, to the Pilgrims at Plymouth at the first Thanksgiving celebration in 1621. In 1649, Solomon Franco, a Dutch-Jewish merchant in Boston, heard of this dinner, and on a subsequent trip back to Europe, he introduced turkey to the Jewish community of Holland, explaining that it was an Indian bird; hence the name.

D. The turkey is called tarnegol gadol, meaning big chicken.

E. The turkey was called tzipor gadol, meaning big bird. However, in 1983, the Children’s Television Workshop, creator of Sesame Street, licensed Israeli Educational Television to produce an Israeli version of the show, Rechov Sumsum. As part of their negotiations, the Children’s Television Workshop petitioned The Academy of the Hebrew Language to change the turkey’s Hebrew name to avoid confusion, as Big Bird, while variously described as an ibis, a golden condor, or even a canary, was definitely not a turkey. As a result, since that time turkeys in Israel have been referred to as nesher katan, or little vulture.

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In exactly one year, you will be entering a voting booth to select the next president of the United States. Will it be Hillary? Jeb? Marco? Bernie? Or could it even be Donald?

The good news is that you can begin narrowing down your choice now, because

RASHI, RAMBAM and
PRESIDENTIAL-DINGDONG

A Quizbook of Presidential Jewish Trivia Facts & Fun

is now available.

Click here to learn more.

And now, one more presidential weekly quiz.

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To what did Ronald Reagan attribute his strong negative feelings about anti-Semitism?

A. He credited his father, John Reagan, a traveling salesman, who told of checking into a hotel while on a sales trip. The clerk said to Mr. Reagan, “I’m sure you’ll enjoy it here; we don’t allow any Jews.” At that point, despite the fact that there was a blizzard outside, Mr. Reagan informed the clerk that he would not enjoy sleeping there, and he left the hotel and slept in his car.

B. He credited his mother, Nelle Wilson Reagan, who shopped regularly at a store in his birthplace, Tampico Illinois. Because Reagan’s father, a traveling salesman, was often on the road, Mrs. Reagan did not always have the funds needed to make purchases. As Mrs. Reagan explained it to Ronald, “The storekeeper was a very kind Jewish man, Mr. Harry Schilkofsky. He would let me shop and he kept a record of what I owed, so that when your father returned, we could pay our debts. Many stores would not let Irish Catholics shop on credit. Mr. Schilkofsky was a godsend to us.”

C. Said Reagan in an interview with Barbara Walters in 2001, “I was very lucky to meet so many wonderful Jewish people when I was working in Hollywood. Kitty Carlisle, Kirk Douglas, John Garfield, Dinah Shore, and so many others. But I really owe everything to Jack Mayer of Warner Brothers, who gave me my first break, signing me to a contract in 1937. I knew that people like this did not deserve the hatred that so many Americans felt toward them just because of their religion.”

D. In an interview with Dick Cavett, Reagan said, “I had only been working in Hollywood for a few years when Senator McCarthy began holding a series of hearings, looking for Communists. A lot of people I knew were called to testify, and over time, I noticed that many Jewish actors I had known and worked with seemed to disappear from view. Edward G. Robinson, Stella Adler, Howard da Silva, John Garfield. So many wonderful actors who hadn’t done anything wrong. That’s when I first began to understand how terrible anti-Semitism was, and that’s when I first began to get involved in politics. If not for this awakening, I might never have run for president of the Screen Actors Guild, which was really my first elected position.”

E. Reagan had starred in the movie Bedtime for Bonzo, where he and actress Jane Linden posed as the parents of a chimpanzee, Bonzo, so that Reagan's character, a psychology professor, could experiment with the chimp regarding the classic “nature vs. nurture” issue of human development. Said Reagan, “The producers had intended to hire Lauren Bacall to play my wife in the movie. But it turns out that Bonzo had a clause in his contract saying that he would not work with any Jewish actors, and as a result, Bacall was not hired. I even tried to intervene, pleading with Bonzo to make an exception. But he just squealed and threw a banana at me. I finished the film because I had already signed my contract, but I decided never to put myself in that position again.”

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