Of Joe Biden, the Heimlich Maneuver and 8 Other Facts About (Jewish) Delaware
1) 15,100 Jews live in Delaware.
2) Former Delaware Senator and current vice-president Joe Biden ran afoul of the Anti-Defamation League in September, 2014, for using the term “Shylocks” to refer to people who engage in nefarious business practices.
3) In 1971, businessman Irving Shapiro became the first person outside of the Dupont family to become chairman of the DuPont company, which was founded in 1802 near Wilmington.
4) Former New York mayor Ed Koch and actress Carrie Fisher are among those whose lives were saved by the Heimlich maneuver, invented by surgeon Henry Heimlich, who was born in Wilmington in 1920.
5) Proto-punk band Television was founded in 1973 by Richard Lester Meyers (aka Richard Hell) and Tom Miller (aka Tom Verlaine), above, who met at the Sanford School in Hockessin, Delaware.
6) At last report, there were no kosher restaurants in the state.
7) Born in Newark, Delaware, current governor Jack Markell attended a labor Zionist youth camp.
8) In the 17th century, there were few Jewish settlers in the state and most of them were fur traders.
9) Adas Kodesch Shel Emeth in Wilmington is the oldest congregation in the state.
10) Shirley Marlin Noznisky, Jakob Dylan’s mom, Bob Dylan’s first wife (and star of his ill-fated film “Renaldo and Clara”) was born in Wilmington in 1939.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO