Alfred Kinsey

Born to devoutly Protestant parents in Hoboken, New Jersey, Alfred Kinsey dedicated his early academic life to gall wasps, meticulously classifying thousands of species. While this might sound like peak kvell-worthiness for a certain type of Jewish mother, his later career pivot was, shall we say, a bit less conventional for the tribe.

Kinsey's groundbreaking work on human sexual behavior, detailed in the famous "Kinsey Reports," certainly rattled puritanical cages and opened up vital, if uncomfortable, discussions. He challenged societal norms and brought a scientific lens to subjects previously shrouded in silence, earning him both accolades and fierce criticism.

However, while his research irrevocably changed Western attitudes towards sex, some of his methods and interpretations have since been scrutinized and largely discredited. So, while he certainly made a splash, the "nachas" is, like a poorly designed questionnaire, a mixed bag.