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Showing 24 of 116 records

Medieval Synagogue of Tomar, Portugal

JWR VerifiedFounding Record

Jewish Heritage · SynagoguesOldest

Oldest Synagogue in Portugal

Record holder

Synagogue of Tomar

Record value

Built: 1430–1460

The Synagogue of Tomar, in central Portugal, is recognized as the oldest surviving purpose-built synagogue building in the country. According to the Municipality of Tomar and Portuguese heritage authorities, its construction dates to a period between 1430 and 1460; no single exact construction year has been reliably established. The building served the town’s medieval Jewish community during the fifteenth century, when Tomar was associated with the Order of Christ and Prince Henry the Navigator. Its compact prayer hall has four central columns supporting vaulted ceilings, traditionally linked to the four biblical matriarchs, while twelve wall supports evoke the twelve tribes of Israel. Jewish worship ended after the Portuguese expulsion and forced-conversion measures of 1496–1497. The building subsequently had several nonreligious uses. Recognized again as a historic synagogue in the twentieth century, it was protected as a national monument and became home to the Abraão Zacuto Jewish Museum. The documented construction interval, rather than an invented exact date, is the historically defensible record value.

Holder country: Portugal
Achievement location: Tomar, Portugal
Achievement date: 1460

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Marlee Matlin photographed in Arizona in 1989, two years after winning the Academy Award for Best Actress

JWR VerifiedFounding Record

Awards · Academy Awardsyoungest

Youngest Academy Award Winner for Best Actress

Record holder

Record value

21 years and 218 days

Marlee Matlin holds the record as the Youngest Oscar Winner for Best Actress, an achievement she secured on 30 March 1987 in Los Angeles, California. At the 59th Academy Awards, Matlin was officially 21 years and 218 days old when she won the competitive Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Children of a Lesser God. Her win was notable not only for her age but also because she became the first deaf woman to win an acting Oscar.

Country represented: United States
Achievement location: Los Angeles, California, United States
Achievement date: 30 March 1987

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Portrait of U.S. Cabinet member Oscar S. Straus.

JWR Verified

Community & SocietyFirst

First Jewish Member of the United States Cabinet

Record holder

Oscar S. Straus

Record value

17 December 1906

On 17 December 1906, Oscar S. Straus entered office as United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor in President Theodore Roosevelt’s Cabinet. The Library of Congress identifies the appointment as the first time a Jew held a Cabinet position in the United States, while official Commerce records place his service from 17 December 1906 through 5 March 1909. The record is defined by the date Straus actually began Cabinet service, not by the earlier announcement of his nomination. His appointment joined a career in law, diplomacy, public administration and international arbitration. It also marked a visible national milestone for Jewish participation in the highest level of the federal executive branch. JWR found no earlier Jewish head of a Cabinet-rank executive department. Archival footage of Straus is retained only as holder context because no direct moving image of the 1906 appointment or oath was located.

Country represented: United States
Achievement location: Washington, D.C., Washington, D.C., United States
Achievement date: 17 December 1906

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Portrait of Jewish American actor Paul Muni.

JWR Verified

Awards · Academy AwardsFirst

First Jewish Winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor

Record holder

Record value

4 March 1937

Paul Muni became the "First Jewish Winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor" on 4 March 1937. The achievement was marked at the 9th Academy Awards in Los Angeles, California, where he won the award for Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in the film The Story of Louis Pasteur.

Country represented: United States
Achievement location: Los Angeles, California, United States
Achievement date: 4 March 1937

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Synagogue of Carpentras, France

JWR VerifiedFounding Record

Jewish Heritage · SynagoguesOldest

Oldest Active Synagogue in France

Record holder

Synagogue of Carpentras

Record value

1367

The Synagogue of Carpentras was founded in 1367 and is recognized as the oldest active synagogue in France. The Jewish community of Carpentras developed under papal protection in the Comtat Venaissin, where Jews maintained a continuous communal presence despite periods of restriction and segregation. Although the synagogue’s present appearance reflects extensive eighteenth-century rebuilding and enlargement, its religious history is rooted in the medieval foundation of 1367. The building contains prayer spaces, ritual facilities and architectural elements that reflect centuries of Jewish life in Provence. It is protected as a historic monument and remains a place connected to Jewish worship and heritage. For JWR, the qualifying metric is the earliest securely documented foundation year of a synagogue in France that is still active; this is why the title must retain the word “Active.”

Holder country: France
Achievement location: Carpentras, France
Achievement date: 1367

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Portrait of poet Marya Zaturenska in 1921.

JWR Verified

Awards · Pulitzer PrizeFirst

First Jewish Recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

Record holder

Marya Zaturenska

Record value

2 May 1938

Marya Zaturenska holds the record as the first Jewish recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, an achievement she secured in 1938 for her collection, 'Cold Morning Sky'. The prize was awarded in New York, New York, and official lists from The Pulitzer Prizes confirm her as the winner in the Poetry category for that year. Her position as the earliest qualifying Jewish recipient is based on a chronological review of all Pulitzer Poetry winners combined with biographical verification.

Country represented: United States
Achievement location: New York, New York, United States
Achievement date: 2 May 1938

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Historical portrait of Hedwig Rosenbaum, photographed circa 1914–1918.

JWR Verified

Sports · Olympic GamesFirst

First Jewish Woman to Win an Olympic Medal

Record holder

Hedwig Rosenbaum

Record value

Bronze — July 1900

Hedwig Rosenbaum competed in tennis at the Paris 1900 Olympic Games and is credited in recognized Olympic records with two bronze medals, in women's singles and mixed doubles. Historical research, including material published by the Czech Olympic Committee, describes her as coming from a German-speaking Jewish family in Bohemia. These results occurred decades before the Amsterdam 1928 silver medal won by Fanny “Bobbie” Rosenfeld, previously recognized by Jewish World Records under this record ID. The difference is not a new athletic achievement or a recent record-breaking event: it is a correction based on earlier historical evidence. Jewish World Records preserves its former recognition of Rosenfeld in the independent revision ledger, with the sources, decision date and explanation visible to readers. The exact day on which Rosenbaum secured the first of her two bronze medals remains uncertain, so only the year 1900 is asserted.

Country represented: Bohemia
Achievement date: July 1900

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Olympic weightlifter Isaac Berger during the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games.

JWR VerifiedFounding Record

SportsMost

Most Olympic Medals Won by a Jewish Weightlifter

Record holder

Record value

3 Olympic medals (one gold, two silver)

Isaac Berger holds the record for the Most Olympic Medals Won by a Jewish Weightlifter, with a career total of "3 Olympic weightlifting medals (1 gold, 2 silver)". Representing the United States, he competed at three Olympic Games, winning a featherweight gold medal at Melbourne 1956, followed by silver medals at Rome 1960 and Tokyo 1964. The record was set on 12 October 1964, the date of the featherweight competition in Tokyo where he secured his third medal. The International Weightlifting Federation confirms his record of winning three medals at three separate Olympic Games.

Country represented: United States
Achievement location: United States
Achievement date: 12 October 1964

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Congregation Beth Israel in Portland, Oregon

JWR VerifiedFounding Record

Jewish Heritage · Jewish CommunitiesOldest

Oldest Jewish Congregation Still Active in Oregon

Record holder

Congregation Beth Israel

Record value

Founded in 1858

Congregation Beth Israel holds the record as the 'Oldest Jewish Congregation Still Active in Oregon', having been 'Founded in 1858'. The achievement is based on the congregation’s beginnings at a meeting of eight people in Portland, Oregon, in May 1858, with twenty-one original members joining the following month. The record specifically measures the continuity of the institution since its founding, not the age of its present 1928 building. The metric is defined as the earliest founding date among currently active Jewish religious congregations within the state, based on a review of institutional chronology and continuity.

Country: United States
Achievement location: Portland, Oregon, United States
Achievement date: May 1858

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Geoff Tabin

JWR Verified

SportsFirst

First Jewish Person to Summit Mount Everest

Record holder

Geoffrey Craig "Geoff" Tabin

Record value

2 October 1988

On 2 October 1988, American physician and mountaineer Geoffrey Craig “Geoff” Tabin reached the summit of Mount Everest via the South Col route. The American Alpine Journal records Tabin in the October 2 summit party, providing confirmation from professional mountaineering literature of both the successful ascent and its date. Independent Jewish press later described him as the first Jew to reach Everest’s summit and as the 209th person to do so. Tabin had previously attempted Everest in 1983. He later became the fourth person to complete the Seven Summits and built an internationally recognized medical career devoted to eliminating avoidable blindness.

Country represented: United States
Achievement location: Mount Everest, Nepal
Achievement date: 2 October 1988

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Portrait of Jewish American actor Paul Muni.

JWR Verified

Awards · Tony AwardsFirst

First Jewish Winner of the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play

Record holder

Record value

1 April 1956

Paul Muni became the first Jewish winner of the Tony Award for Actor in a Play when he won for his performance as Henry Drummond in Inherit the Wind at the 10th Tony Awards on 1 April 1956. The official Tony Awards archive lists Muni as the 1956 Actor (Play) winner and provides the chronological basis for reviewing earlier winners in the category. JWR’s counter-candidate review of the preceding winners found no earlier recipient verified as Jewish under the project’s eligibility standard. Muni’s Jewish identity is independently documented by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, which described him as a famous Jewish American actor and recorded his roots in a Yiddish-theatre family. The record therefore combines official award evidence, chronology and independent Jewish-eligibility evidence.

Country represented: United States
Achievement location: New York, New York, United States
Achievement date: 1 April 1956

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Carl Djerassi

JWR VerifiedFounding Record

AwardsFirst

First Jewish Recipient of the Wolf Prize in Chemistry

Record holder

Record value

11 April 1978

Carl Djerassi received the inaugural Wolf Prize in Chemistry at the Knesset in Jerusalem on 11 April 1978. The Wolf Foundation recognized his work in bioorganic chemistry, the application of new spectroscopic techniques, and his support of international scientific cooperation. Djerassi had already transformed steroid chemistry and was widely known for work leading to the first oral contraceptive. Because the Wolf Prize in Chemistry began in 1978 and Djerassi was its sole chemistry laureate that year, he is the first recipient in the category and, with his Jewish identity independently documented, the first Jewish recipient. JWR uses the exact presentation date as the Record Value and keeps the broader award-year context in the evidence and story.

Country represented: United States
Achievement location: United States
Achievement date: 11 April 1978

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Publicity portrait of Phil Silvers for Top Banana.

JWR Verified

Awards · Tony AwardsFirst

First Jewish Winner of the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical

Record holder

Record value

30 March 1952

American comic actor Phil Silvers holds the record as the first Jewish winner of the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He received the honour on 30 March 1952 at the 6th Tony Awards ceremony in New York City. The award, officially titled "Actor (Musical)", was for his performance in the production Top Banana. Born Fischl Silver, he was the youngest of eight children in a Russian Jewish family.

Country represented: United States
Achievement location: New York, New York, United States
Achievement date: 30 March 1952

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Frank Spellman, Olympic weightlifting champion.

JWR Verified

Sports · Olympic GamesFirst

First Jewish Olympic Champion in Weightlifting

Record holder

Record value

10 August 1948

American athlete Frank Spellman became the first Jewish Olympic champion in weightlifting on 10 August 1948 at the Olympic Games in London, United Kingdom. Competing in the men’s middleweight (≤75 kg) category, he secured the gold medal with a winning total of 390 kg. During the event, Spellman also set new Olympic records on his way to victory. The official record value for this achievement is documented as 'Gold — men’s middleweight (≤75 kg), London 1948, 10 August 1948'.

Country represented: United States
Achievement location: London, United Kingdom, United States
Achievement date: 10 August 1948

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Jessica U. Meir in a NASA spacesuit

JWR VerifiedFounding Record

Space / Human Spaceflight / Distancefarthest

Farthest Distance from Earth Reached by a Jewish Woman

Record holder

Jessica U. Meir

Record value

428.9 kilometers

On 27 August 2026, a Cygnus XL reboost raised the International Space Station to an apogee of 266.5 statute miles, approximately 428.9 kilometers. Jessica Meir was aboard the station as part of Expedition 75, so she physically reached that maximum orbital altitude. JWR compares documented apogees on a like-for-like basis rather than mixing average altitude, perigee or launch trajectory values. Earlier missions flown by verified Jewish women were screened, including flights by Marsha Ivins, Judith Resnik and Ellen Baker. Their published maximum orbital values remained below the 2026 ISS apogee. The resulting record is a precise example of how a station reboost can create a new human altitude mark even without a new launch.

Country represented: United States
Achievement location: United States
Achievement date: 27 August 2026

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Boris Volynov

JWR VerifiedFounding Record

Space / Human Spaceflight / CommandFirst

First Jewish Person to Command a Crewed Space Mission

Record holder

Record value

15 January 1969

When Soyuz 5 launched on 15 January 1969, Boris Volynov was its commander. The mission participated in the first docking of two crewed spacecraft and a crew transfer between them, while Volynov remained aboard Soyuz 5 for a famously difficult return to Earth. Contemporary Jewish reporting identified him as Jewish through his mother and explicitly described him as the Soyuz 5 commander. Because the same chronology establishes Volynov as the first Jewish person to reach space, the command claim has a particularly strong logical boundary: no earlier Jewish space traveler existed who could have commanded a crewed mission. JWR therefore recognizes Volynov as the first Jewish person to command a crewed space mission.

Country represented: Soviet Union
Achievement location: Soviet Union
Achievement date: 15 January 1969

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Early portrait of Jewish American writer and screenwriter Ben Hecht.

JWR Verified

Awards · Academy AwardsFirst

First Jewish Winner of the Academy Award for Original Story

Record holder

Record value

16 May 1929

Ben Hecht became the first Jewish writer to win the Academy Award for Original Story on 16 May 1929. The achievement took place at the inaugural Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, California, where he was honoured for the film 'Underworld' in the category of Writing (Original Story). Official records from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences confirm him as the winner. As this was the first time the award was presented, no earlier winner is possible.

Country represented: United States
Achievement location: Los Angeles, California, United States
Achievement date: 16 May 1929

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Temple B’nai Israel historical marker

JWR VerifiedFounding Record

Jewish Heritage · Jewish CommunitiesOldest

Oldest Active Jewish Congregation in Oklahoma

Record holder

Temple B’nai Israel

Record value

May 1903

Temple B’nai Israel is recognized by JWR as the oldest active Jewish congregation in Oklahoma. The record is held by the continuing congregation, not by any one synagogue building. Founded in Oklahoma City in May 1903, the congregation has occupied several sites while maintaining an ongoing institutional identity. Its official history traces the community from its formation through its first permanent synagogue and later campuses. JWR’s statewide comparison also considered earlier or near-contemporary Jewish communities. Temple Emeth in Ardmore was organized earlier, in 1890, but later dissolved; Emanuel Synagogue in Oklahoma City was formally chartered in 1904, and Temple Israel in Tulsa dates to 1914. B’nai Emunah developed from an early minyan but was formally organized later. The record therefore measures continuous congregational existence and present activity, not the age of a surviving building.

Country: United States
Achievement location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States
Achievement date: May 1903

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Portrait of 1905 Nobel chemistry laureate Adolf von Baeyer.

JWR Verified

Awards · Nobel PrizeFirst

First Jewish Recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Record holder

Adolf von Baeyer

Record value

10 December 1905

German chemist Adolf von Baeyer became the first Jewish recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1905. The prize was awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, for his significant work on organic dyes and hydroaromatic compounds. According to official Nobel Prize records, Baeyer was the sole laureate for Chemistry in that year, highlighting the individual importance of his scientific contributions. The record is valued as "Nobel Prize in Chemistry — 1905."

Country represented: Germany
Achievement location: Stockholm, Sweden
Achievement date: 1905

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Ada E. Yonath

JWR VerifiedFounding Record

AwardsFirst

First Jewish Woman Recipient of the Wolf Prize in Chemistry

Record holder

Record value

13 May 2007 — Shared with George Feher

Ada E. Yonath became the first woman to receive the Wolf Prize in Chemistry when she shared the 2006/7 award with George Feher. The prize was formally presented at the Knesset in Jerusalem on 13 May 2007. Yonath was honored for pioneering structural discoveries of the ribosomal machinery of peptide-bond formation, work that transformed structural biology and later contributed to her 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Institutional biographical sources document her Jewish family background, supporting JWR Jewish Eligibility at Achievement. JWR uses the exact ceremony date as the Record Value, while the 2006/7 award-cycle designation and shared-award context remain in the story and evidence. Yonath died on 31 August 2026 at age 87.

Country represented: Israel
Achievement location: Rehovot, Israel
Achievement date: 13 May 2007

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Portrait of Olympic canoe champion Leonid Geyshtor.

JWR Verified

Sports · Olympic GamesFirst

First Jewish Olympic Champion in C-2 1,000 m Canoe

Record holder

Leonid Geyshtor (Geishtor)

Record value

Gold — 29 August 1960

Leonid Geyshtor of the Soviet Union became the first Jewish Olympic champion in the men’s C-2 1,000-metre canoe sprint at the Rome 1960 Olympic Games. Competing with Sergey Makarenko, he won the final on 29 August 1960 at Castel Gandolfo, Italy. The pair finished in 4:17.04, recorded by Olympedia as an Olympic best. JWR defines this record specifically for the C-2 1,000-metre event; it does not claim that Geyshtor was the first Jewish Olympic champion in canoeing overall. That distinction matters because canoeing contains multiple boat classes, crew sizes and distances with separate Olympic histories. Jewish sports sources identify Geyshtor as a Jewish Olympic gold medalist, while the event chronology confirms the Soviet pair as the 1960 champions. The measurable record value is therefore their C-2 1,000-metre gold on 29 August 1960.

Country represented: Soviet Union
Achievement location: Castel Gandolfo, Italy
Achievement date: 29 August 1960

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Carl Sagan with Mariner 9 images of Mars.

JWR Verified

Awards · Pulitzer PrizeFirst

First Jewish Recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction

Record holder

Record value

17 April 1978

Carl Sagan became the first Jewish recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction when The Dragons of Eden was named the 1978 winner on 17 April 1978. The book explored the evolution of human intelligence and the development of the brain, bringing complex scientific ideas to a broad public audience. The official Pulitzer site confirms Sagan as the 1978 General Nonfiction winner and features a 1977 Tonight Show interview in which he discusses the ideas in The Dragons of Eden. JWR uses the announcement date as the Record Value because Pulitzer winners in 1978 did not receive their awards at a modern presentation ceremony; the annual Pulitzer awards luncheon began only in 1984.

Country represented: United States
Achievement location: New York, New York, United States
Achievement date: 17 April 1978

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Barbara Liskov at the ACM Turing Centenary Celebration in 2012.

JWR Verified

AwardsFirst

First Jewish Woman to Receive the Turing Award

Record holder

Record value

27 June 2009

Barbara Liskov is recognized by JWR as the first Jewish woman to receive the Turing Award. The Association for Computing Machinery selected her as the recipient of the 2008 ACM A.M. Turing Award for foundational contributions to programming languages, data abstraction, fault tolerance and distributed computing. Although the award carries the year 2008, ACM announced Liskov as the recipient in March 2009, and she formally received the award at an ACM gathering in San Diego on 27 June 2009. That formal presentation date is therefore used as the Record Value. The full official name, ACM A.M. Turing Award, is retained in the definition and supporting evidence, while the public-facing title is shortened to the widely understood “Turing Award.”

Country represented: United States
Achievement location: Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Achievement date: 27 June 2009

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Jeffrey Hoffman reading from the Torah aboard Space Shuttle Columbia

JWR VerifiedFounding Record

Space · Human SpaceflightFirst

First Torah Reading in Space

Record holder

Jeffrey Hoffman

Record value

2 March 1996

On 2 March 1996, during Space Shuttle Columbia mission STS-75, Jewish-American astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman read from a small Torah scroll while orbiting Earth. The scroll had been arranged through his Houston Jewish community and was light enough to fly aboard the Shuttle. Hoffman read from Genesis on Shabbat, creating a documented milestone in Jewish religious life beyond Earth. The act became the centerpiece of the later Space Torah Project, which preserved Hoffman's footage, photographs and the story of the congregation that helped make the flight possible.

Country represented: United States
Achievement location: Earth orbit, United States
Achievement date: 2 March 1996

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