Sophie Tucker, sometimes called the "First Lady of Show Business" and the "Last of the Red Hot Mamas," is a Jewish cultural icon. Tucker was born Sonya Kalish in 1886 in what is now the Ukraine. Her family immigrated to Connecticut when she was just a baby, escaping persecution against Jews. When her parents opened a restaurant in their new Hartford hometown, Tucker began singing in the eatery for tips. It was just the first in a careeer of entertainment jobs. Tucker made a name for herself as a young woman …More

Here is how the Actors’ Temple went from being an Orthodox synagogue to a Conservative one — at least for a time. Sophie Tucker, the self-proclaimed “Last of the Red Hot Mamas” who was famous for her vaudeville renditions of “Some of These Days,” and “My Yiddishe Momme,” was sitting in the women’s balcony during the High Holy Days and spotted a wealthy woman she was acquainted with enter the men’s section below to pray with her husband, causing something …More