Our recent profile of decidedly goyishe Swedish band Katz got us thinking: where are all the Katz profiles? We've got at least 20 Cohens, a bunch of Millers, Roths, Goldbergs and Sterns... but only three Katzes, and of them is fictional: TV's Dr. Katz! (The other two are Elias Katz, Finnish Olympian, and actress Phoebe Cates, born Katz. We're not counting the Swedes, obviously.)
Why is that? Katz is only one of the most popular Jewish last names, formed from the initials of Kohen Tzedek, or righteous priest. If you know even a few Jews, odds are you know a Katz. And yet... where are the profiles?
Let's rectify it. We could go with Alex Katz (American artist), or Vera Katz (former mayor of Portland), or Otto Katz (Soviet spy), or Jonathan Katz (comedian, real-life version of above-mentioned Dr. Katz), or Daryl Katz (owner of the Edmonton Oilers), or Joseph Katz (Soviet spy... wait a minute!), but we do love those Nobel laureates, so let's choose Bernard Katz.
Make that Sir Bernard Katz, born in Germany, fled to England, worked on the properties of synapses, and shared the Nobel in Medicine in 1970 with previously-profiled Julius Axelrod. And not only was Sir Bernard a Katz, his mother had another proto-Jewish last name, Rabinowitz...
Somehow, we only have one Rabinowitz profile!?