Vince McMahon Jr. of World Wrestling Entertainment announced his retirement last week. This came a month after he resigned as the organization’s chairman and CEO, following allegations that he had paid millions of dollars in hush money to female WWE employees with whom he had sexual encounters. The Jewish connection to wrestling, and specifically to the WWE, goes back to the early 1950’s through the unlikely path of a Jewish boy from Vienna. Rafael Halperin was a student of the famous rabbinical scholar Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz, known as the Chazon Ish. Halperin moved with his family from Vienna to Palestine in 1933, where he began pursuing athletic endeavors including weight lifting and body building. He then opened a gym, which eventually led to a chain of health clubs (The Samson Institute for men and The Venus Salon for women) and he organized the first Mr. Israel contest, which he won. He later became a professional wrestler in the United States, working with Vince McMahon Sr.’s Capitol Wrestling (the precursor to WWE), where he competed under the names “Mr. Israel” and “The Rasslin’ Rabbi,” at one point winning 159 consecutive bouts. Halperin returned to Israel where he further popularized the sport. Halperin’s last professional match was in 1973 against Abu Antar, the “Jordanian Tiger,” at a sold out match at Tel Aviv’s Yad Eliyahu Arena. What else did Rafael Halperin do in his life besides professional wrestling?

Israel Wrestler Rafael Halperin from Dan Hadani Collection, The Pritzker Family National Photography Collection, The National Library of Israel is licensed under CC BY 4.0

President Joe Biden visited Israel last week, his tenth trip to the country. Biden made efforts to strengthen U.S. relations with Israel, while furthering the process of the Abraham Accords, which he also is pursuing in Saudi Arabia where he traveled after leaving Israel. While in Israel, Joe Biden was given the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor during a reception in Jerusalem, recognizing his decades of dedication to the United States-Israel relationship. At that ceremony, Israeli singers Ran Danker and Yuval Dayan performed the song Lu Yehi (Let It Be). Following the presentation, why did Yuval Dayan refuse to shake Joe Biden’s hand?

Yair Lapid , Joe Biden and Isaac Herzog at Maccabiah ceremony / Joe Biden in Jerusalem, July 2022 (GPOHZ0 3047) by Haim Zach / GPO is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

Actor James Caan, most famous for his role as Santino “Sonny” Corleone in The Godfather, died last week at the age of 82. Caan was born in the Bronx to German Jewish immigrants, and his father was a kosher butcher. In addition to acting, Caan worked professionally in rodeos for many years, earning him the moniker “the only New York Jewish cowboy.” Yet many people still believed that he was Italian, and he twice won an “Italian of the Year” award. What was James Caan once asked that led him to respond, “They would have gotten punched in the face.”?

James Caan 1976b is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 NL

Sausages have existed in many forms for centuries, long before the kosher hot dog made an appearance in America. In 1870, a German immigrant named Charles Feltman (there is dispute as to whether or not he was Jewish) began selling pork and beef sausages from a pushcart on Coney Island. To make it easier for customers to eat the sausages, he inserted them into soft buns, which is considered the first hot dog (though they were called Coney Island Red Hots or dachshund sandwiches). Two years later, Isaac Gellis opened a kosher butcher shop on New York’s Lower East Side where he sold a kosher all-beef version of the sausage, which was used by customers in split pea soup and franks and beans, among other recipes. But the growth of the hot dog in a bun took off a few decades later when Jewish immigrant Nathan Handwerker opened a stand at Coney Island to compete with Feltman (for whom he had previously worked). Unlike Feltman’s sausages which contained pork, Handwerker used only beef. Though his hot dogs were not certified kosher, he did market them as “kosher style,” a designation that attracted many Jews who didn’t require certification, but wouldn’t eat pork. Handwerker was quite a promoter, and even hired people to dress up as doctors while eating his hot dogs, to help overcome public fears about the quality of the product. And Handwerker is best known for his annual Fourth of July hot dog eating contest, which this year will include previous champion Joey Chestnut going for his 15th win. What year was the first Nathan’s Fourth of July hot dog eating contest, and who were the judges?

Nathan's Hot Dogs by Travis Wise is licensed under CC BY 2.0