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Netflix series considers Jews in Istanbul, Turkey.

PAGE 19
DECEMBER 16, 2021 / 12 TEVET 5782
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM — WHAT IT MEANS TO BE JEWISH IN PHILADELPHIA —
$1.00 OF NOTE
LOCAL MatzoBall Sinks
Out of Sight
Longtime event
won’t be held locally
in 2021.

Page 4
LOCAL RRC to Launch
Race, Racism
Initiative Study will tie to
American Jewish
experience. Page 6
LOCAL Authors Consider
Diversity in Jewish
Community What does that
community look like?
Page 8
Volume 134
Number 36
Published Weekly Since 1887
Penn Professor
‘Saves the
World’ with
COVID Vaccine
Research SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
SHARON TAFFET HAS BEEN friends
with immunologist and University of
Pennsylvania Roberts Family Professor
in Vaccine Research Dr. Drew Weissman
for 22 years.

Every time she asked his wife how he
was doing, Taff et got the same response:
“She would always say, ‘Oh, Drew’s busy
saving the world.’ It was the same answer
for years,” said Taff et, who is Weissman’s
administrative coordinator. “Th e answer
was fascinating because nobody could
ever have known how true it would turn
out to be.”
On Nov. 30, the Franklin Institute
announced that Weissman, along with
colleague and neurosurgery Professor
Katalin Karikó, were among the 2022
Portraits of the Gratz brothers at the Museum of the American Revolution
Courtesy of the Museum of the American Revolution
Revolution-era Museum
Adds Jewish Exhibit
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
ABOUT TWO-AND-A-HALF-million
people lived in the 13 colonies during
the late Colonial era, around the time
of the American Revolution. Somewhere
between 2,000 and 3,000 of them were
Jewish, according to historians.

But the Colonial Jews made a big
See Professor, Page 12
impact, said Mark Turdo, the curator
of collections at the Museum of the
American Revolution.

Th ey built businesses, supported the
revolution and petitioned state govern-
ments to allow Jews to hold offi ce. Now,
starting at the end of 2021 and continuing
through November 2022, that impact will
be magnifi ed in an exhibit at the museum.

See Museum, Page 13
LEARN TO DRIVE
IN A TESLA!