What do Mr. Potato Head, the Teddy Bear, Transformers, Barbie, GI Joe and Bratz
Dolls, Magic 8 Ball, and the home video game console all have in common? Jewish inventor/creators!
George Lerner, born in Brooklyn, NY, created Mr. Potato Head in 1952.
Morris and Rose Michtom, Russian-Jewish immigrants to the US invented the Teddy
Bear in 1902 and developed the Ideal Toy Corporation.
Henry Orenstein, a Holocaust survivor who held over 100 patents is credited with developing the Transformers toy line.
Ralph Baer, known as the Father of Video Games, escaped Nazi Germany subsequently inventing the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home video game console.
Don Levine, from New York City, worked for Hasbro after serving in the US Army and is credited as creating G.I. Joe, recognizing a market for boys’ toys and coining the term action figure avoiding using doll so G.I. Joe would be marketed as a masculine plaything.
Abe Bookman around 1950, from Chicago, created a liquid-filled sphere containing a floating 20 sided die with printed answers on it – the Magic 8 Ball.
Most of us know that Barbie was created by Jewish-American Ruth Handler in 1959. But did you know that much more recently, in 2001, an Iranian-Jewish immigrant to the US, Isaac Larian, created the Bratz doll line with Yasmin, Cloe, Jade and Sasha.
You can thank Jewish inventive minds for more toys than the above, but we’re out of space here. Ok, one more – the inventor of Windup Chattering Teeth in 1949 was Eddy Goldfarb.
Toys! You’re welcome!!
Cindy and Jerry Brodsky submission sourced at:
https://www.museumofplay.org/blog/a-brief-jewish-history-of-the-toy-and-game-industry-the-united-states/
https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/pb-daily/a-new-vision-of-childhood-the-jewish-innovators-who-defined-toymaking-in-the-us
https://aish.com/the-inventor-of-the-teddy-bear/
https://jewishpress.com/six-famous-toys-and-their-jewish-inventors/
Proud of the contributions Jewish men and women have made in our world! If you have a nomination and information about their contribution to our world, send your submission to today, and show us your Jewish pride!
Jerry Brodsky is chair of FJMC’s Inclusion Initiative, president of the International Region and a member of KIO+ Region.
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