Just how many songs have been written about Chicago? Take a look at Wikipedia and search “Songs about Chicago.”¹ The sheer number of celebratory tunes is amazing. Who doesn’t think of Frank ‘Old Blue Eyes’ Sinatra’s “My Kind of Town” and the upbeat “Chicago, (That Toddlin’ Town)”? Both are but a teasing taste of the famous and exciting culture that prove the reputation of this great city.

Sing along and mark your calendars for the 28th International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) annual International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, August 17–22, 2008. Join fellow genealogical enthusiasts at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile, 540 North Michigan Avenue at North Rush Street. The fantastic location, luxurious accommodations and innovative programs will relax and excite all at the same time. It will be 24 years since a Jewish genealogy conference was held in Chicago (1984), and the IAJGS board is thrilled to be returning to partner and co-sponsor Chicago 2008 with the Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois² and the Illiana Jewish Genealogical Society.³ Further information about the conference will appear on the IAJGS website <www.iajgs.com> later this year.⁴ This year for the first time, IAJGS is sponsoring a contest with a fabulous prize for early registrants. Look for details later this year on the registration website.

Chicago is a great conference location for many reasons: a vibrant Jewish past and present; many research opportunities; easy access by plane, car, train or bus; wonderful museums and other famous sights; and great places to eat.

History

Jews first came to Chicago in 1832 from Prussia, Austria, Bohemia and parts of what is now Poland, but the first permanent settlers probably came in 1841. In 1845, Yom Kippur services were held above a store at Wells and Lake Streets and shortly thereafter, in 1847, Chicago’s first Jewish congregation, Kahilath Anshe Mayriv (KAM), was founded at that same location. For more about the many synagogues from Chicago’s past, check the website <www. forgottensynagogues.com/cjnews_article.asp>. It has photographs, a discussion about what has happened to some of the synagogues and a reference to a book about them: A Walk to Shul: Chicago Synagogues of Lawndale and Stops on the Way, by Norman Schwartz and Bea Kraus, published by the Chicago Historical Society.

The Jewish community expanded with many new immigrants. “Between 1880 and 1900, a wave of 55,000 Russian and Polish Jews crowded into the Maxwell Street market neighborhood. Yiddish was the language of choice. Dozens

of Hebrew schools and Yiddish theaters were organized, and 40 shuls

Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile Hotel

were built within walking distance of Halsted and Maxwell Streets.”⁵ Coming primarily from shtetlach, those from Eastern Europe constituted 80 percent of the city’s Jewish population by 1930. As time passed, the Jewish community grew not only on the South Side, but into other neighborhoods such as Lawndale and Douglas Park on the West Side and Albany Park, Humboldt Park, Lake View, Uptown and Edgewater on the North Side. Many of today’s Chicago Jews trace their roots to these areas.

Today about one-third of the area’s Jews live in the city of Chicago itself, with the largest concentration in West Rogers Park. Two-thirds live in the suburbs, especially on the North Shore from Evanston to Highland Park, and to the northwest from Skokie to Buffalo Grove. There are also significant numbers of Jews in the south suburbs and to the west in DuPage County. In fact, Jews can be found in 180 disparate zip codes in the metropolitan area.”⁶

Have you heard of (a) Lazarus Silverman, (b) Julius Rosenwald, (c) Robert Adler, (d) Rosa Sonnenschein or (e) Samuel “Nails” Morton? (see below for brief answers)? These are just a few of the significant Chicago Jews described in a fun-to-read book called Looking Backward: True Stories from Chicago’s Jewish Past, by Walter Roth.⁷ A glance at the book’s table of contents demonstrates the important role Jews have played not only for Chicago but elsewhere as well:

• Chicago Jews and the Secular City: Builders, Movers, Shakers
• Chicago Jews and Anti-Semitism: Tragedy Abroad, Challenges at Home
• Chicago Jews and Zionism: Local Idealists
• Chicago Jews and Zionism: Renowned Visitors
• Chicago Jews and the Arts: The Page and the Stage
• Chicago Jews on Both Sides of the Law: Colorful Characters

Answers: (a) an important financier and banker; (b) founder of the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry; (c) worked to provide numerous affidavits for escape from Nazi Europe; (d) journalist, feminist and Zionist; (e) helped protect West Side Jews from outside gangs.

One of the most famous Jewish events to take place in Chicago was the Jewish Day at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. On July 3, 1933, a huge pageant, called “The Romance of a People,” presented the history of the Jewish People to an audience of 125,000 at Soldier Field. A “…giant Torah was placed on a huge four level stage…[and] a chorus of thousands of singers and dancers stood massed.”⁸ Chaim Weizmann was there and spoke to the crowd. The theme is reflected in the poem, The Romance of a People, which begins with the words “I hear the tread of a wandering race” and ends with the phrase “…and such is the Romance of a People.”⁹

The 2008 conference will include tours of Jewish Chicago. For example, the Chicago Jewish Historical Society gives bus tours going to “North and Northwest Side neighborhoods where Jewish culture has flourished—a sentimental journey to Humboldt Park, Logan Square, Albany Park, Rogers Park and Westridge (West Rogers Park), with a number of stops at interesting places of Jewish significance.”¹⁰

For an in-depth coverage of Chicago’s Jewish history, see The Jews of Chicago: From Shtetl to Suburb, by Irving Cutler.¹¹ The book includes a chronology, many photos and maps. Anyone with ancestors/relatives from Chicago will find this book worthwhile, since the possibility exists of finding their names in it.

For a head start on research possibilities in Chicago, see Mike Karsen’s Guide to Jewish Genealogy in Chicagoland found at <www.jewishgen.org/Infofiles/Chicago>. It covers Jewish cemeteries, Jewish funeral homes, the Chicago Jewish Archives, Chicago YIVO Society and much more.

Feel like some Chicago humor along the way? You can find it at <www.corsinet.com/chicago/chicagos.html>, and click on “Chicago humor.”

Notes

1. <www.wikipedia.org>
2. <www.jewishgen.org/jgsi/>
3. <http://ijgs.home.comcast.net/>
4. <www.iajgs.org>
5. <www.juf.org/shalom_chicago/history.aspx>
6. <www.juf.org/shalom_chicago/history.aspx>. Two addi­­­tional sites for Chicago Jewish history, used as sources for this article, where you will find information about Chicago’s Jewish history, include The Encyclopedia of Chicago on line at <www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/> (do a search for Jews) and the website of the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago at <www. juf.org/news/chicago.aspx?id=15550>.
7. Walter Roth’s book was published by Academy Chicago Publishers in association with the Chicago Jewish Historical Society in 2002.
8. <www.wttw.com/main.taf?p=1,7,1,1,24>
9. For more on the pageant and the complete poem, see <www.wttw.com/main.taf?p=1,7,1,1,24>.
10. <www.chicagojewishhistory.org>. This website provides information about the Chicago Jewish Historical Society. It also allows readers to read two issues of the society’s journal for additional insights into the city’s Jewish past.
11. The Cutler’s book was published by the University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago, in 1996.

Anne Feder Lee of Honolulu, Hawaii, Mike Posnick of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Joel Spector of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, serve as IAJGS President, Treasurer and Secretary, respectively. They are the chairs of the Chicago conference.