Look to the rock from which you were hewn Vol. 26, No. 2, Spring 2002

jewish historical society chicago jewish history

IN THIS ISSUE Carl Fox and Rabbi Moshe Wolf: From Berlin to Jewish Firefighter and Fire Dept. Chicago: “Lucky” Chaplain Address CJHS Meeting Molecular Biologist Gunther Stent On Sunday, May 5, the Society held an open meeting at the Family Memoir: Chicago Fire Academy, 558 West “The Street” by De Koven Street––built on the site Harriet Karm Berman (legend has it), where the Great Fire of 1871 began. We met there to From the Archives: hear Carl H. Fox lecture on Chicago Jewish Music– “Chicago Jewish Firefighters.” The Empire Room In view of the horrific events of September 11, and the focus of Fragments of attention on our nation’s fire- Chicago’s Jewish fighters, Mr. Fox’s subject had a Architectural History special relevance and poignancy. What compelled a “nice Jewish The Selfhelp Home boy” to want to become a fireman? Oral History Project: Carl Fox attended Shepard School Sophie Manes at Francisco and Fillmore, across the street from a fire station, and that’s Report on CJHS where he became a fire buff. Program: Ida Crown Firefighter Carl Fox. Atlas Arms fire, Mr. Fox was one of the Jewish Academy Niles, , February 19, 1973. founding members of the volunteer Collection of Carl Fox. Chicago Civil Defense Fire and Rescue Service in 1957. He worked as a copy boy for the Sun-Times, a police beat reporter for the City News CJHS Bureau, and an insurance salesman for Met Life, until he fulfilled his dream of becoming a professional firefighter. In 1963 he joined the Niles, Illinois department, eventually reaching the rank of lieutenant. He retired in 1985, 25 and currently volunteers in the ER of Lutheran General Hospital. His colleague in the Chicago Press Veterans Association, CJHS board member Harold Berc, encouraged him to research the subject of Jews in the CJHS Silver Chicago Fire Department. He discovered such names as Bernstein, Gilbert, Anniversary Exhibit Katz, Kirchner, Kravitz, Levy, Marcus, Marks, Peretz, Rappaport, Weiner, Opens November 7, 2002 Weisserman, and Palermo (whose mother is Jewish). Bobbie Sacks is a at Spertus Museum member of the Air-Sea rescue team. Most of the 40-50 Jewish people in the continued on page 15 2 Chicago Jewish History Spring 2002 President’s Column

chicago jewish historical society ABOUT THIRTY YEARS AGO, I HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO MEET ELI WIESEL. Officers 2001-2002 He was spending a weekend in Chicago for a Walter Roth President program sponsored by the Midwest Region of the Burt Robin Vice President . It was before he Dr. Carolyn Eastwood Secretary gained renown as undoubtedly the most eloquent Herman Draznin Treasurer figure to emerge from , and long Directors Walter Roth before he received the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize. Leah Axelrod A group of us spent the Sabbath with him, at Harold T. Berc the home of an AJC member. We engaged in discussions during the Charles B. Bernstein afternoon and sang Hebrew and Yiddish songs in the evening. The Dr. Irving Cutler next day he addressed a large audience at a downtown hotel. There Sheldon Gardner followed a panel discussion with several young people on subjects of Clare Greenberg interest to them. The “hot” topic was Israeli policy with respect to Dr. Adele Hast* the territories recently won and occupied after the Six-Day War. It is Rachel Heimovics* hard to believe that thirty years later the topic is still with us. Dr. David H. Heller Elie Wiesel’s most recent visit here was on Wednesday, April 17, Janet Iltis as a guest of the City of Chicago, to speak at the Harold Washington Bea Kraus Library Center in celebration of “One Book, One Chicago.” Seymour Persky The city’s first “One Book” project was organized last fall, when Muriel Robin Rogers* Norman D. Schwartz* Mayor Daley selected the novel To Kill a Mockingbird as a Ethel Shulman meaningful book that all Chicagoans could read and discuss. The Dr. Milton Shulman project was so successful that the Mayor decided to choose another Dr. N. Sue Weiler book this spring––Elie Wiesel’s Holocaust autobiography, Night. *Indicates Past President Night was written in serial form, in Yiddish, ten years after the end of World War II when Wiesel was living in France. It is a 109- Chicago Jewish History page book that relates in simple, powerful language the horrors he Chicago Jewish History is published experienced as a 15-year-old boy deported with his family from a quarterly by the Chicago Jewish town in Hungary, first to a ghetto, and then to one death camp after Historical Society at 618 South another. Thousands of copies of Night were purchased at bookstores Michigan Avenue, Chicago, and borrowed from libraries. This “One Book” was a success, widely Illinois 60605. (312)663-5634. discussed in reading clubs, high school classrooms and the media. Single copies $2.00 postpaid. Elie Wiesel began his talk at the library by noting that he had Successor to Society News. just returned from a visit to . “I have never seen Israel so sad,” Please send submissions to the he said, and went on to denounce the suicide bombers. editor, Bev Chubat, at 415 West He spoke about his continuing struggle to comprehend the Fullerton Parkway, #1102, Nazis’ attempt to exterminate the entire Jewish people. The atrocities Chicago, Illinois 60614-2842. in our time, as in Serbia and Africa, cannot compare with it, he said. E-mail: [email protected] His usual calm manner changed to anger when he was asked Editor/Designer about American policy during the Holocaust. He chastised FDR for Beverly Chubat denying a safe haven to the Jewish refugees aboard the ship St. Louis, and for refusing to order the bombing of railroad tracks leading to Immediate Past Editor the death camps once Hitler’s extermination policy became known. Joe Kraus Elie Wiesel concluded his remarks with this message for the Editor Emeritus audience: “Write your stories.” This call to “bear witness” is not Irwin J. Suloway meant only for Holocaust survivors. It should inspire all of us in the Editorial Board Society to write our life stories and those of our families, and ❖ Burt Robin, Walter Roth, Norman preserve them for future generations. Schwartz, and Milton Shulman Chicago Jewish History Spring 2002 3

CJHS Summer Tours 2002 SUNDAY, MAY 19 The Chicago Jewish Historical Society––in cooperation with the Spertus to Show Dawn Schuman Institute––has planned three exciting Sunday tours “Maxwell Street: of Chicago area sites rich in Jewish history. All tours are conducted in the comfort of an air-conditioned bus with restroom facilities. A Living Memory” Shuli Eshel’s acclaimed SUNDAY, JUNE 23 documentary will be shown at Milwaukee: New Museum, Old Neighborhoods 2:00 p.m. at Spertus Institute GUIDE: LEAH AXELROD. The Milwaukee Art Museum has received of Jewish Studies, 618 South international acclaim for its recent expansion and renovation. A Michigan Avenue. Historians museum docent will lead us on a tour of works by Jewish artists and an Dr. Irving Cutler and Steve exploration of the dramatic new architecture. After lunch at the Reiss will make short presen- lakefront Pieces of Eight Restaurant we will take a drive-by and stop tations before the screening. tour of the Jewish neighborhoods and the Lubavitch Chabad House. Admission is free, but reser- PICKUPS AT TWO LOCATIONS: vations are requested. Phone Marriott Hotel, 540 North Michigan (Rush Street Entrance) (312) 322-1769. 8:00 am––Return 6:30 pm Bernard Horwich JCC, 3003 West Touhy MAY 24–JULY 7 8:30 am––Return 6:00 pm Victory Gardens to $59/Member of CJHS or DSI $65/Nonmember Debut “The Old SUNDAY, JULY 14 Man’s Friend” by Indiana Safari GUIDE: LEAH AXELROD. The communities of northwest Indiana–– James Sherman Hammond, Gary, Michigan City, East Chicago and Whiting––were once A funny, touching new home to thousands of Jewish people. Our bus “safari” will explore their dramatic comedy by Chicago historic houses of worship and neighborhoods. Lunch will be at the playwright James Sherman, Michigan City Yacht Club overlooking Lake Michigan. author of Door to Door, The PICKUPS AT TWO LOCATIONS: God of Isaac, and Beau Jest, Bernard Horwich JCC, 3003 West Touhy will debut at Victory Gardens 8:00 am––Return 6:30 pm Mainstage, 2257 N. Lincoln Marriott Hotel, 540 North Michigan (Rush Street Entrance) Ave. Boxoffice (773) 871- 8:30 am––Return 6:00 pm 3000. (Jim was the dramaturg $50/Member of CJHS or DSI $56/Nonmember for the CJHS public program on The Romance of A People.) SUNDAY, AUGUST 18 Chicago Jewish Roots NOW THRU JUNE 16 GUIDE: DR. IRVING CUTLER. The author of The Jews of Chicago: From “A Force of Nature: Shtetl to Suburb leads a sentimental journey to the Maxwell Street area, Lawndale, Logan Square and Humboldt Park. We stop at the The Life and Work historic Garfield Park Conservatory to view Dale Chihuly’s exquisite of Jens Jensen” at glass sculptures, which are dramatically displayed among the plants. Cultural Center PICKUP: Bernard Horwich JCC, 3003 West Touhy Learn about the legendary 12:00 noon––Return 5:30 pm landscape architect of the $30/Member of CJHS or DSI $36/Nonmember Garfield Park Conservatory. For information phone Leah Axelrod (847)432-7003. Chicago Rooms, 2nd floor of Advance payment required. the Chicago Cultural Center, Make check payable to: Chicago Jewish Historical Society. 77 E. Randolph St. Admission Mail to: Leah Axelrod, 2100 Linden, Highland Park, IL 60035-2516 is free. Call (312) 744-6630. 4 Chicago Jewish History Spring 2002

From Berlin to Chicago: “Lucky” Molecular Biologist Gunther Stent BY WALTER ROTH

he Chicago Jewish Historical Society is engaged Within a few days, I received a copy of Nazis, Women in an oral history project at the Selfhelp Home and Molecular Biology: Memoirs of a Lucky Self-Hater Ton West Argyle Street, interviewing elderly (Briones Books, 1998). The book made fascinating residents who were refugees from . reading, and I recommend it highly. In connection with this project, my attention was Professor Stent writes that he was born in Berlin, drawn to a book by the noted historian Walter Laqueur, into a genre of Jews who were very wealthy and Generation Exodus: The Fate of Young Jewish Refugees completely attuned to German high culture. His early from Nazi Germany (Brandeis University Press, 1998). education was in rigorous, conservative, Prussian-style Laqueur himself was a young refugee from Germany boys’ schools. He fully absorbed the atmosphere. who managed to reach Palestine. The book profiles a He writes: “Soon after the Nazis came to power in number of those young people and describes their January 1933, I began to hate myself for being a Jew.” adventures as they escaped and He was envious of the smartly gained entry to lands where they uniformed Hitlerjugend youth could start life anew. group that was, of course, closed to Generation Exodus includes only him. Gunther did get to dress up in one refugee, Gunther Stent, who a uniform the following spring came to Chicago. I decided to try when, at eight years of age, he and find him. became the youngest member of the By coincidence, my friend Jewish youth group, Schwarze Manfred Steinfeld called me (Manny Fähnlein. Its leaders “asserted the and I were both refugees from Nazi German Jews’ integral membership Germany who came to Chicago) to in the German nation, were ask if I knew of the Laqueur book. I virulently anti-Zionist, and glorified answered in the affirmative, and in Prussian military virtues.” turn queried him about Stent. Much Toward the end of 1934 the to my surprise, he answered, “Of Gestapo dissolved the Schwarze course I know him. I went to Hyde Fähnlein. These Jews who thought Park High School with him. We of themselves as super-German both worked as soda jerks in a presented “not only an ideological drugstore at 53rd and Ellis.” Gunther S. Stent challenge to the Nazi racist doctrine Manny had lost contact with but also an impediment to the him and suggested we search the Internet. We located speedy cleansing of Germany of Jews.” Stent was him easily. There is a page about him on the Web site expelled from the Bismarck Academy and reluctantly of the University of California-Berkeley: Gunther S. faced attendance at the all-Jewish PRIWAKI school. Stent, Professor Emeritus of Neurobiology. Included is Much to his surprise, he instantly fell in love with a long list of his scientific publications. PRIWAKI. The Jewish teachers were young and That same evening, I phoned him, and he returned friendly, the setting was elegant, the students were my call the next day. Yes, he was the Gunther Stent upper class and (most important) co-ed. English, mentioned in the book by Walter Laqueur, his good French, and Hebrew language studies were emphasized, friend. And yes, he had attended Hyde Park High from and Zionism was taken seriously. The students were 1940 until graduation in 1942. being well-prepared for their inevitable emigration. Prof. Stent now teaches Philosophy and Ethics at His wealthy businessman father fled the country in UC-Berkeley. A most charming man, he told me that 1938 while Gunther remained in Berlin with his he had recently written a book about his early life. stepmother. His older brother went to ; his Chicago Jewish History Spring 2002 5

sister and her husband left for America. After in November 1938, Gunther escaped to Belgium, living in SUNDAY, JUNE 16 Antwerp until early 1940, when an American visa finally CJHS Seeks Volunteers arrived. He managed to get to England and board one of the few ships still taking passengers to the United States after the for “Greater Chicago outbreak of World War II. He landed in New York and came to Jewish Folk Arts Festival” Chicago to live with his sister and brother-in-law who had Every two years individuals from a settled in the Hyde Park neighborhood, as did many other cross-section of the entire Jewish German-Jewish refugees. community produces a festival that e comments on his high school days, noting the life- attracts thousands of participants. long influence of his demanding English teacher, Miss This year’s all-day festival will take HRubovits, on his writing style. And yes, he refers to his place at Caldwell Woods/Bunker Hill, job as a soda jerk: “My partner was a fellow German-Jewish kid Cook County Forest Preserves, Devon at Hyde Park High. In later life, he became a multi-millionaire and Milwaukee Avenues. furniture manufacturer.” (This was my friend Manny.) Stent The Society is seeking volunteers to went on to the “big time,” as a short-order man at one of the host our information table, telling busiest fountains in the city, Liggett’s Drug Store in the Chicago festival visitors about our work. If you & Northwestern Railroad Terminal. can contribute some time, please phone In the fall of 1942 he entered the “cornball” University of the CJHS office: (312) 663-5634. Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where, despite his lack of means, he was invited to join TEP, a Jewish fraternity. (They needed JUNE 30–JULY 2 someone to raise their grade point average.) He was surprised to learn that despite the religious segregation in campus housing Chicago to Host First and social life, American Jewish students were not self-haters. Ever Reunion of “One (As he integrated himself into American life, he coped with Thousand Children” his self-hatred as a Jew. When he visited Israel in 1968, after the One Thousand Children, Inc. Six-Day War, to lecture, he was pleased to see a strong warrior (OTC) is presenting a special event nation in a sunny, developed land not unlike California.) celebrating the lives of a unique group of He “discovered science” at the U. of I., and it was as a Holocaust survivors and their rescuers. scientist in a U.S. Army uniform that he returned to post-war The first ever OTC Reunion will Germany. By 1948 he was embarked on a career in the new field bring together the approximately 1,000 of molecular biology. His mentor was Max Delbrück. One unaccompanied children who were colleague was James Watson. In 1952 Stent was invited to UC- rescued between 1934 and 1945 by Berkeley, where, during his long tenure, he has made bringing them to the U.S. and placing fundamental contributions in three distinct areas: molecular them with foster families across America. biology, neurobiology, and the history and philosophy of The Reunion will include presen- science. His books include Molecular Biology of Bacterial Viruses, tations by scholars, OTC children, Molecular Genetics, The Coming of the Golden Age and Paradoxes rescuers, and members of the second of Progress. He edited the Critical Edition of The Double Helix, generation. OTC children will be helped James Watson’s fascinating book about the discovery of DNA. to locate each other. Nazis, Women and Molecular Biology often reads like a novel. This three-day event is part of Stent describes his youthful relationships with women––his “Chicago 2002: Living the Legacy–A liaisons and love affairs––and includes excerpts of letters to and Gathering of Descendants of the Shoah from his partners (discreetly changing their names). He writes of and Their Families,” to be held at the his interactions with some of the world’s greatest scientists, and Palmer House Hilton, 17 E. Monroe St. makes a wry, modest assessment of his own accomplishments. For more information about the While Stent’s stay in Chicago was short, it was here that he “Chicago 2002: Living the Legacy” began a new life as a proud citizen of his adopted land. ❖ conference, visit the organizers’ Web site WALTER ROTH is president of CJHS. In 1938 he came to the Hyde at www.chicago2002.descendants.org or Park neighborhood of Chicago as a refugee from Nazi Germany. e-mail: [email protected]. 6 Chicago Jewish History Spring 2002 The Street BY HARRIET KARM BERMAN An earlier version of this memoir was written for the class “Writing for Your Family” at the Institute for Learning in Retirement (ILR) at Northwestern University.

n a mild midsummer day in 2000, as prelude Kiev, people fainted in the street when they saw me! to our son Joel’s birthday lunch, we decided to The neighbors thought they were seeing a ghost!” It Ocombine and pursue two of his favorite seems that the family had received word that Mischa interests: family history and architecture. We took the had died in the army. Sorrowfully, they had packed, Chicago Architecture Foundation’s tour of Maxwell bribed their way out of Kiev, and headed for the United Street. This was not a random choice; there is a States. Somehow Mischa caught up with them in magnetic pull to this area. The story of my father, Poland, where they had stopped to bury his sister’s baby Martin Karm, or Mischa, as he was lovingly called, son who had died en route. resonates in this neighborhood. Mischa met my mother, Rose Levin, in an English In my memory, it was always referred to as “the class at the Jewish People’s Institute (JPI) on Douglas Street.” Maxwell Street was the place where my father, Boulevard. They married when both were twenty. and at one time or another, his older brothers, Hyman Mischa was working with his brothers on the Street. and Max, earned their livings after they immigrated to Rose had an aunt and uncle, Goldie and Dave the United States. Seltzer, who lived in Bloomington, Illinois, where they Hyman was the adventurous one who left Kiev operated an automobile agency and repair shop. They several years before the Russian Revolution, and encouraged the young couple to move to the town. undertook the arduous journey to America alone. Shortly after their first child, my brother Jerry, was (Although the family spoke of coming from “Kiev,” born, Mischa and Rose relocated to Bloomington and they most likely had lived in a Jewish shtetl in the optimistically opened a Jewish deli. Alas, this was an near Kiev.) Hyman came to Chicago upon the idea before its time. In the late 1920s, Bloomington, urging of cousins who had already made a successful Illinois, site of the state teachers’ college, was not yet transition to the New World. They encouraged him to ready for lox, bagels, and hot corned beef sandwiches. do the same and be the mentor and helping hand to his family. Brother Max came the following year. hey returned to Chicago and Mischa began Hyman and Max worked at various jobs on working on Maxwell Street again, as a salesman Maxwell Street, saved their hard-earned money, and Tfor Taxman & Dlugatch Clothiers. He built up eventually were able to bring most of the Korczemski quite a following of regular customers who always asked family (the name was later shortened to Karm) to for “Martin.” He worked ten long hours a day, six days Chicago in the early 1920s––mother, father, Hyman’s a week. Wednesday was his day off, and my brothers wife and two sons, Max’s wife and two sons, three Jerry and Paul and I eagerly anticipated it, even though sisters, a brother-in-law, and brother Mischa. we had to spend much of the day in school. Handsome and outgoing, Mischa made friends After some years, Mischa and a fellow salesman, easily and was adored by his family. His journey to Morris “Buby” Zolt, opened a small menswear store, Chicago began in a circuitous way. He had been Martin’s Clothes, at 713 Maxwell Street. There were no conscripted into the Russian army. The term of service visible prices on the garments they sold. Prices were in those days was twelve years, and discharge was not determined by a complicated secret code written on easy to come by. He had to be creative in finding a way each tag, and successful sales were the result of hard out. I remember him pointing to the ugly purple mass bargaining. Mischa was not the world’s best business- above his left ankle and, eyes aglow, telling my man; he liked people too much and was a soft touch. astounded brothers and me how he secretly shot There was genial cameraderie among the merchants himself in the leg so that he would be sent home to on the Street. They were good friends despite being recuperate and could then desert the army. competitors. On Sundays the Street was mobbed with Mischa embellished the story: “When I returned to bargain hunting shoppers. Street musicians abounded. Chicago Jewish History Spring 2002 7

Interior, Taxman & Dlugatch Clothiers (?). Collection of Harriet Berman. Salesman Martin Karm is at the right. Can the savvy historians of CJHS identify any of the other people in the photograph and verify the name of the store?

Mahalia Jackson, the great gospel singer, frequently bustle of the Street and the social connection that it performed on the corner of Maxwell and Halsted. afforded. Early each morning he would be at the My brothers helped out at the store on weekends, kitchen table in his fresh white shirt, tie carefully but I wasn’t allowed to come along, probably because I knotted, sipping his coffee listlessly, with nowhere to go was a girl. The exclusion didn’t bother me much in the long day ahead. because I was terrified of the gypsies, who from their street level windows beckoned with forefinger to oel’s birthday tour of Maxwell Street turned out to passing youngsters. be sentimental but disappointing. Mischa’s store Eventually Mischa was able to leave the Street, if Jno longer existed. The University of Illinois at not the neighborhood. He and two partners, brothers Chicago (UIC) had gained control of the area and named Cooperman, opened Clinton Clothiers on was demolishing buildings on Maxwell and Halsted to Roosevelt Road and Clinton Street. The building had a make way for the 21st century. Modern university center entranceway. On one side was the men’s clothing housing was being erected, surrounded by fenced-in store that Mischa and the brothers operated. On the parking lots. Even a pre-Civil War house on an other side was a store where the Coopermans sold adjoining street had been torn down. The preserva- trousers. (They may have manufactured the pants, or tionists had lost the battle. Nevertheless, on that day, perhaps they were wholesalers.) the street musicians greeted us and happily played on. Several years later Mischa was forced to retire because of heart problems. He sorely missed the hustle- continued on page 10 8 Chicago Jewish History Spring 2002

Visit the exhibit FROM THE “Variations on a Theme: CHICAGO JEWISH Chicago Jewish Music in the Twentieth archives Century and The Empire Room Beyond” in the By Joy Kingsolver 6th floor gallery at Spertus Institute, now through August 31.

n the spring of 1933, despite dedicated its Walnut Room; the save them from the fire, so Palmer, the economic Depression and Blackstone presented a renovated after receiving a $2 million loan, Iominous news from Germany, Crystal Ballroom; and the Palmer could begin rebuilding at once. The Chicagoans were preparing to set House opened the Empire Room. new Palmer House became a symbol aside their worries and celebrate the “If this sort of thing holds to its of a rejuvenated Chicago. achievements of the modern age at present pace,” wrote Charles Collins The opening of the Empire “A Century of Progress”–the World’s of the Tribune, “Chicago will have a Room on May 4, 1933, was Fair marking the city’s centennial. night life better than that of the attended by an overflow crowd who Even before its official opening good old days in Vienna.” paid $2.00 apiece for dinner and on May 27, the fair attracted The nightclubs offered many parked their cars for 75 cents. The thousands of visitors, who strolled opportunities for Jewish performers show featured the tango dance team through the grounds to gawk at the and musicians, but none had so of Veloz and Yolanda, blues singer uncompleted exhibits. Anticipating strong a Jewish presence as the Judith Barron, Richard Cole’s a surge of visitors, the hotels of Empire Room of the Palmer House. orchestra, and Merriel Abbott’s Chicago spruced up their nightclubs Built on State Street by International Dancers. and ballrooms and booked new millionaire Potter Palmer in 1870, “The assemblage saw a floor shows featuring top entertainers. the hotel was soon destroyed by the revue that radiates class–and in The Congress Hotel opened the Great Fire of 1871. The blueprints abundant measure,” wrote Charlie Hawaiian Room; the Bismarck had been buried in the basement to Dawn in the Chicago American.

erriel Abbott, daughter of Russian-Jewish immigrants, was born in 1893 and grew up on the South Side of MChicago. She established a dance school and was an instructor and choreographer, choosing her “Abbott girls” from among the students. Known for her high standards and strictness, she watched over all aspects of her girls’ education, going so far as to fine a girl if she gained too much weight. “She taught the girls how to be ladies,” recalls Min Bobbin, who trained with Abbott as a young girl and performed under the name Sherry Wynn. “Success was very important to her. She had a drive that was terrific, but a soft and generous heart. Everybody felt her energy, and we all did our best for her.” Four years after the opening of the Empire Room, Merriel Abbott became its booking agent, auditioning and hiring performers. When the Palmer House was bought by Conrad Hilton in 1945, she became his first female executive, and was in charge of booking entertainment for all of the Hilton hotels. Her dancers continued to perform until 1957. She continued to work for Hilton until her death in 1977.

Lew Diamond & Merriel Abbott, c. 1945. Collection of Alan Klein. Chicago Jewish History Spring 2002 9

alph Ginsburg (who spelled Norman Krone was a young Will Leonard wrote in the Chicago his name “Ginsburgh” for trumpeter and violinist when he was Tribune, “the show folk seem to be R professional purposes) was a hired by Lew Diamond. Krone looking backward instead of toward member of the first violin section of began playing at the Empire Room a bright future.” The dwindling the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1938 and looked up to Diamond audience for show tunes and semi- from 1916 to 1923. He formed his as his mentor. In 1953, Lew classical music signalled a genera- own string ensemble, and, begin- Diamond collapsed on the tional shift. Today the Empire ning in 1925, played in the main bandstand and died of a heart Room is maintained in all its dining room of the Palmer House. attack. Norman Krone took over splendor, but is open only for From 1932 to 1946 radio the band, playing for several years private parties. ❖ station WGN broadcast his music under Lew Diamond’s name before JOY KINGSOLVER is Director, live from the hotel. The ensemble giving the band his own. Krone was Chicago Jewish Archives, played background music during a prolific composer and arranger, Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies. lunch in the Empire Room, and during dinner in the Victorian Room. The sweet string music (along with the murmur of conversation and clink of silverware) was enjoyed by a radio audience all over the Midwest. Ralph Ginsburg was a member of Temple Sholom. He died in December, 1965. Lew Diamond, saxophon- ist and conductor, was one of the many musicians hired by Merriel Abbott. As a young boy, he had taken music lessons at Hull House, where a neighbor’s son, Benny Goodman, was also enrolled. At the age of 16 Lew formed his own band, and began playing in Chicago clubs in the mid-1930s. Diamond’s orchestra became the regular relief band at the Empire Room, playing there every Norman Krone conducting his band in the Empire Room, 1960. Monday night and at other Chicago Jewish Archives. spots on other nights. Alan Klein, Lew’s son-in-law working with stars such as Red Sources for this article include reports that Glenn Miller and Gene Skelton, Jimmy Durante, Bob interviews with Alan Klein and Krupa were early members of the Hope, Jack Benny, and many more. Sherry Wynn (Min Bobbin), the band. Lew’s relief band was more Norman Krone continued to play at Norman Krone Papers at the popular than some of the regular the Empire Room and book other Chicago Jewish Archives, and ensembles, he says. Lew Diamond’s musicians there until his retirement. “Merriel Abbott” by Norma band appeared with Sophie Tucker He died in 1992. Libman, in Women Building and other great headliners, and was When the Empire Room closed Chicago, edited by Rima Lunin the first professional band hired to in 1976, it was not a surprise. The Schultz and Adele Hast (Indiana play at Wrigley Field. music scene was changing, and as University Press, 2001), page 9. 10 Chicago Jewish History Spring 2002

THE HENRY CROWN GALLERY: Fragments of Chicago’s (Jewish) Past

isitors to The Art Institute of Chicago usually A painted cast iron frieze panel from the facade of head for the galleries displaying the museum’s the five-story Rothschild Store (1880-81, demolished V famous collection of French Impressionist 1972), at 210 West Madison Street, was designed by paintings. They climb the great staircase (or ride an Louis Sullivan for the Jewish architect Dankmar Adler. elevator) to the second floor and pass through a large Dankmar Adler was the architect of the Rosenfeld hall displaying chunks of architectural materials. They Building (1881-82, demolished 1938), on the southeast may not look at the lettering high on the wall: “The corner of Washington and Halsted Streets. This Henry Crown Gallery: Fragments of Chicago’s Past.” building was constructed for Levi Rosenfeld, a They open the big glass doors to the Pritzker prominent Chicago businessman. The fragment is a Gallery and encounter Caillebotte’s painting of a rainy terra cotta spandrel designed by Sullivan for Adler. Paris street scene, and they go on to visit many galleries The firm of Adler & Sullivan designed the of great art. But a stop in the Crown Gallery would be Benjamin Lindauer house (1885, demolished 1959), at enriching, too. Its fragments reveal the importance of 3312 South Wabash Avenue. On display is a terra cotta Chicago’s Jews in the architectural history of our city. corner piece from the chimney decoration. Adler & Sullivan were the architects of the Victor Falkenau house (1888-89), at 3420-24 South Wabash Avenue. Its The Street continued from page 7 displayed fragment is a terra cotta angel. Adler & Sullivan’s Chicago Stock Exchange (1893- 94, demolished 1972), at 30 North LaSalle Street, is here is a postscript to the story. Back in represented by a bank of elevator doors. (The superb the early 1950s, when Mischa and Buby reproduction of the Stock Exchange Trading Room is were operating Martin’s Clothes, I was a T located inside the museum’s Columbus Drive entrance.) student at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Architect Alfred S. Alschuler is represented by a Champaign. One day I was infuriated to read a section of a decorative terra cotta frieze for the lobby of sensational editorial in the student newspaper, the the Thompson Commissary (1912, remodeled and Daily IIlini. There it was––yellow journalism at converted to multi-purpose office space in 1982), 350 its worst––an editorial criticizing the Maxwell North Clark Street. The huge Thompson restaurant Street merchants, claiming that they were bilking chain was the precursor of today’s fast food restaurants, their customers and living in the lap of luxury. I and the decoration depicts images of food and grain. blasted off a letter to the editor, refuting his words. When my letter appeared in the paper ther Jewish-related Chicago structures may several days later, I felt satisfied that my father soon yield fragments. Alschuler’s Mercantile and the other hardworking Maxwell Street O Exchange Building (1927), on the corner of vendors had been vindicated. Franklin and Washington, is slated for demolition. Will Upon my next visit home, my father, eyes its bronze elevator doors, decorated with agricultural twinkling, placed both issues of the Daily Illini in scenes, be preserved in the Henry Crown Gallery? front of me! “Where did you get those?” I The Rosenwald Garden Apartments (1929), in the sputtered in amazement. He smiled a slow, all- 4600 block of South Michigan Avenue, is a five-story knowing smile and said, “Oh, the Street has its complex designed by Ernest Grunsfeld (the architect of sources. Nothing escapes us. The editor’s own the Adler Planetarium), and later reconfigured by grandfather has a store on the Street.” ❖ philanthropist Julius Rosenwald to provide low-cost housing for African-Americans. The future is dim for HARRIET BERMAN lives in Deerfield, Illinois this uninhabited, city-owned building. A fragment and with her husband, Dr. Myron Berman, a retired a photoraph in the Crown Gallery may have to suffice. internist. She, too, is retired after a career of The Art Institute of Chicago is located on teaching in north suburban public schools and the Michigan Avenue at Adams. Visit their Web site at Solomon Schechter Day School in Skokie. www.artic.edu or phone (312) 443-3600. Bev Chubat Chicago Jewish History Spring 2002 11

Its genesis and its fine record of service in the provision THE SELFHELP HOME of a then highly unusual facility for senior citizens form an important chapter in Chicago Jewish history. ORAL HISTORY PROJECT: “What is today an impressive home…had its origins in a different sort of organization first founded in Sophie Manes another part of the country. Self-Help for Emigres from Central Europe was founded in New York in 1936 by a distinguished group of German refugees as a mutual EDITOR IRWIN J. SULOWAY wrote in the December aid society concerned with employment possibilities, 1984 issue of Chicago Jewish History: “The large housing assistance, help for the sick, child-care and number of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany who even the exchange of clothing among the recent Jewish began arriving in Chicago…in the middle 1930s were refugees. Two years later a Self-Help of Chicago was an energetic and gifted group. They almost immediately established under the leadership of Dr. Walter became self-supporting and developed religious and Friedlaender, then of the University of Chicago. communal institutions of their own. Among these none “In the years after the war, the leadership passed to is more vital or typical of this achievement than the Dr. William F. Becker, and as the refugees became Self-Help* Home for the Aged at 908-20 Argyle Street. continued on page 15

*Note that the spelling of ”Self-Help” was changed to “Selfhelp” since the time Dr. Suloway wrote his article. The CJHS Oral History Project was proposed and developed by Society President Walter Roth. The following (excerpted) interview was conducted by Sheila Rodin-Novak on October 17, 2001 at the Home. Sophie Manes was born on March Germans were defeated, so they my father’s unmarried sister lived 18, 1905 in Husen, Germany, a didn’t come back in troops. Each with us, too. Tante Johanna. We small community near the city of one had to find his way home. called her Tantchen (little aunt). Dortmund. Her parents were Felix CJHS Do you have any memories She was rather small. Ruhr and Amalia Wolf Ruhr. The of that period? The five Ruhr sisters (from oldest to family moved to nearby Derne and youngest) were Hedewige, Lotte, then to another small community in SM were hard. We Sophie, Helen, and Ilse. Four of the area, Hostedde, and that is always had a little meat because my them immigrated to the U.S.A. where Sophie Ruhr grew up. She mother kept the store open. The Hedewige went to Israel, and died tells Sheila that the people of the French soldiers…we were occupied. there at age ninety-four. (Sophie area worked as farmers or miners. And I was going to high school in visited Israel to celebrate her Dortmund by that time. They took CJHS sister’s ninetieth birthday.) Ilse lives What kind of work did your the trains over and we wouldn’t take in Skokie. She and Sophie are the father do? the trains. We took the bicycle or only two that are still living. SM My father was what they call a walked, whatever we could do, “fee handler.” He bought cattle and because we wanted to show them CJHS What kind of education did sold [them] to the farmers. Not only that we wouldn’t use the trains as you have before you emigrated? And cattle, but pigs, too. And he sold long as they were in charge of them. then did you work? pigs to the miners. They would raise CJHS Can you describe the kind of SM High school…I had learned them and then slaughter them and house you grew up in? how to sew, and [worked] in one of have their meat for the winter. SM It had two stories. Downstairs the nicest stores in Dortmund, as a CJHS Did your mother work? was a living room and a kitchen, seamstress. But I was still learning. SM When father was in the war, and then my folks’ bedroom, and a CJHS So, like an apprentice? World War I, she kept the store Wöhnzimmer, the better room that SM Yes, although I found some open, yes, a little butcher shop… you don’t use much. Upstairs were kind of letter where it says I was a He was already forty-two years old bedrooms. I was one of five girls. “directrice.” The directrice is the when he was drafted. He was in We always slept like sardines, one one in charge of a sewing room… Russia. He came back in, I think, up and one down, one up and one 1918. They had to walk back. The down, three or four in a bed. And continued on page 12 12 Chicago Jewish History Spring 2002

Oral History Excerpt to the United States in the 1920s? chewing. And I thought, “Why in continued from page 11 SM Well, times were very bad… the world can’t they finish their inflation in Germany. My husband’s breakfast at home?” I had never seen anybody, you know, chew gum all CJHS Were you raised religiously? brother was here already. He came in 1912, I think. Really, there was the time. Everybody just sat there SM We belonged to a temple in no future for anybody there. And so chewing. I though, “I can’t Dortmund. We would go there, but my husband came over in 1925. We understand this.” And the dime mostly for the High Holidays. I can were already engaged. And then he store, stuff like that… remember that––people in all their sent me a visa, and I came over. Sophie traveled by train to Detroit, finery, walking in front of the to relatives of her mother. There CJHS So tell me, how did you meet temple. Otherwise, my father always she married Henry Manes. After the your future husband? said he carried his religion in his wedding, the couple established heart. He didn’t believe in going to SM I think it was a demonstration their home in Chicago, where Henry a temple. And there were only about …against something. And we were was already living and working. three Jewish families in Hostedde… marching. He worked for a Sophie and Henry (called “Heinz”) CJHS And what about your millinery firm. His home was near were married for forty-one years, grandparents? Did you know them? Cologne, but he was working [in from 1926 until his death from Dortmund]. That’s how we met. heart disease in 1967. SM Only my [maternal] And some friends had, like, a CJHS grandmother. She was a very good pensione where young men would So your English was pretty person, but I was afraid of her. eat. And he was eating there. And I good when you came over? [Sophie She was very sarcastic. If my dress knew the daughter of the family… says that she studied English in high was a little too short, she said, But there was another young man, school and with a Berlitz teacher.] “Aren’t you afraid that you would and he said to my husband, “Fingers SM Oh yeah. And we decided just step on your hem?” And I crocheted off that one. I know the family. to talk English all the time. We once a sweater that had a rather big There is no money.” But [my went to Englewood night school… neckline. She said, “Aren’t you afraid husband] didn’t listen to him” An eighth grade certificate I got. you’ll fall out of that neckline?”… But she was loved in the town, the CJHS When you left Germany, did CJHS What work did your little town of Husen, because if you come by yourself? husband do? Did you work here? anybody gave birth to a child, she SM Yes. When a fellow asked my SM In Germany he was a would send soup there for the first father, “How can you let one of salesman. Here he worked for seven days. They really, really loved your daughters go so far away?,” his Marshall Field’s, first for the Davis her. She was a very good person. answer was, “I cannot offer her Company, that was part of Field’s, Only, like I said, very sarcastic. I anything here.” I had never been and then for Field’s wholesale. wasn’t there anymore when she away from home and was apt to get I went to work right away, for died. Even after Hitler [came to homesick. But when my father said, Blum’s Vogue, you wouldn’t power], when they buried her, they “If you don’t like it, you let me remember, one of the finest stores said the people from the little town know, and if I have to, I’ll take out on Michigan Avenue. And then I went along. They didn’t care. They another mortgage on the house and worked for Carson Pirie for a little went to the funeral. And it’s quite a send you the money. You can come while. Dressmaking. Then I worked distance, in a different area, where home.” So that way, I felt, you for Laschin (sic). That was another the Jewish cemetery was. know, I never was homesick. very nice store on Michigan Avenue, CJHS Did you go to a Hebrew Sophie came by ship from Hamburg until I became pregnant and my school or anything like that? to New York, where she was met by daughter was born. Then I quit and started sewing at home. SM cousins of her mother. No, I didn’t. But in high The Manes’s daughter Rosemarie CJHS school, every Wednesday morning, What was your first was born in 1930. She is married to [they] had a Jewish teacher for us. impression of the United States? Donald Farrington. “A really English CJHS What prompted your family, SM When I got on the [subway] name…He is gentile,” says Sophie. and you, particularly, to come over train in New York, everybody was The Farringtons have three children Chicago Jewish History Spring 2002 13 and three granddaughters. The right across from the Kenwood CJHS Did you [belong to] a youngest, a two-year-old, is named School, and called it the Kenwood synagogue in Hyde Park? Sophie Rose, after her great- School Store. We were in the same SM We joined K.A.M. My grandmother and grandmother. business for thirty-two years, until daughter was confirmed from SM She doesn’t know that we my husband died. Not in the same K.A.M. location, because they relocated don’t…[Jews don’t name children CJHS Did you go to there often? after the living]. But she asked me Lake Park Avenue, so we had to and I said I would be honored if move to Hyde Park Boulevard. And SM Not really. We had the store you named her after me. So she when they…I don’t think they tore open on Sunday, and then late… named her Sophie, little Sophie. that down…we moved to 53rd and then, of course, K.A.M. joined Street. We had a small store there. with [Isaiah Israel]. After my CJHS Did you ever go back to We called it the Card Nook, called husband died, I joined Sinai. And Germany? it our retirement store. That was when I moved here, they gave me a SM Yes. I went back in 1931… about ’62 or ’63. My husband died life membership. because I had told my father I in ’67. So then I sold the store. would come back in five years and CJHS What was it like for you CJHS How did you come to open when you first became a parent? visit––and I did… up a store? How did that happen? Sophie’s parents immigrated to SM Well, I was working. I wished I SM Well, we had to do something. Chicago in 1937. Her father worked could, like other people, push a So my husband’s brother gave us, I with one of his sons-in-law “who had baby buggy. I never had a chance to. think, or signed for, about $400 a little milk store in South Shore.” When [Rosemarie] was a little older, with the wholesale house so that we I had a girl take her out and take SM We [lived at] 53rd and could buy merchandise there. So we care of her…I’ll have to ask my Blackstone.…My daughter was started. And in 1933, there was the daughter how she feels about it. Oh, born when we lived there. Then my World’s Fair. Swift introduced ice I know that I often wished I could husband lost his job and we had to cream there for the first time… go and do like other women, push move to a cheaper apartment. [Swift] put a fountain in our store. the baby buggy. That I know. We had a little store, and the next CJHS Rosemarie helped out in the store, When did he lose his job? year enlarged it…We had a very but “was always busy with school.” SM nice fountain and a back bar…And In 1932. He would come She graduated from Hyde Park High besides that, we had a postal home at night and say, “So-and-so School and Grinnell College, and substation. When we first got it, we got his pink slip.” So-and-so, every earned an advanced degree from got three hundred dollars [a year]. week. When he came home and said Northwestern University. he got his pink slip, I said, “Thank The last year, three thousand dollars goodness. We don’t have to worry that paid. But it was a…job. CJHS How would you describe yourself today? Would you describe about that anymore.” So we moved CJHS Did you both work in the yourself as an American, a German, to Cornell. My brother-in-law who store? was in the wholesale meat business an American Jew, Jewish? would bring me some meat Friday SM At first I would go over, like at SM I feel more Jewish than I did nights. My sister-in-law would give noon, when school was out, and before, that’s for sure. My friend is me some dresses. So we managed, help out. I don’t know just when I quite religious, and she said, “I don’t but it wasn’t easy to get through. gave up sewing and worked in the knit on Shabbat.” So I don’t knit on And I sewed. I even employed store full time. We had to leave Shabbat. I feel good. And I enjoy it. one girl. My husband would do odd [Rosemarie] alone, but she knew she I really enjoy being here. jobs and get a dollar or so. He and could call us. It was only right CJHS the manager from where we lived on across the street. That post office, If you were talking to your Blackstone, they were good friends, when the war broke out, they were grandchildren, what out of your life so he gave him sometimes a job, you sending mail to the soldiers. [The would you hope they could learn know, a dollar a day. line of customers would stretch] from your experiences? In 1935 we opened a small store almost a block long…I really SM Do the right thing. That’s all I on Lake Park Avenue and 50th, learned how to make packages. can say. ❖ 14 Chicago Jewish History Spring 2002 CJHS Open Meeting Reviews 60 Year History of Ida Crown Jewish Academy

he Society’s open meeting on Sunday, March 10 at an annual salary of $3,000. In order to gain accredi- was held at Ida Crown Jewish Academy, 2828 tation from the North Central Association, which TWest Pratt Avenue. ICJA is a high school that requires that a school have a separate building/library, provides both a secular and a . It was the Academy moved to its own home on Wilcox Street. founded sixty years ago as the Chicago Jewish Academy, Harvey Well was born in Memphis. He came to on the West Side, and has been a vital presence in the Chicago on his own to attend the Academy, and his Chicago Jewish community ever since. Program Chair family followed. He was graduated in 1960, and went Charles B. Bernstein introduced three distinguished on to HTC where he received smicha, while at the same Academy alumni who reviewed the school’s history: time earning university degrees. Since 1978 he has been Rabbi Bernard Neuman, Rabbi Harvey A. Well, and superintendant of schools of the Associated Rabbi Leonard A. Matanky. Torahs of Chicago. He has served as rabbi of Bernard Neuman was born in France. His family Congregation Or Torah in Skokie since 1989. was able to escape in 1941, and settled in Chicago. He Rabbi Well spoke about his era, which he called the was graduated from the Academy in 1951, and earned “golden age” of the Academy, 1961-75. During this university degrees while concurrently studying at the period the Academy moved to Torah Center on Hebrew Theological College, where he received smicha Melrose Street (now the Florence Heller JCC).The boys (rabbinical ordination). He became a financial advisor and girls came from all segments of the Jewish and is now a senior vice-president of Morgan Stanley. community. The religious classes were taught by a staff He spoke about the early years of the Academy, of rabbinical “giants,” including Rabbis Nahum Sacks, naming Menachem B. Sacks as the prime mover in its Fefferman, Sender, Eugen, and David Silver. The establishment in 1942 as Chicago’s first , the youth group B’nai Akiva, and Camp school. Its first home was in the Hebrew Theological Moshava offered strong peer reinforcement. But the College on Douglas Boulevard. There were 42 students spirit of “community and unity” ebbed, he said, when at the start and tuition was $60 a year. Secular teachers, HTC opened a boys’ high school in 1961, and a usually non-Jewish, were hired to teach secular subjects separate girls’ high school (ultimately named Hannah Sacks Bais Yaakov), opened in 1963. Ida Crown Jewish Academy opened in 1968, and Chicago-born Leonard Matanky was graduated in 1976. He has smicha from HTC, and holds numerous university degrees. He has served as rabbi at Congregation K.I.N.S. of West Rogers Park since 1994, and is president of the Chicago Rabbinical Council. He has been dean of ICJA since 2000. He spoke of the school today. Enrollment is 330, about 50/50 boys and girls. Secular classes are coeducational, religious classes are single sex. Annual tuition is $12,000, but about half the students are on scholarship. ICJA is constantly evolving, reflecting the “best opportunities and also the difficulties of Ida Crown Academy, March 10, 2002. From left: CJHS President today’s society.” He called the Academy Walter Roth, Rabbis Harvey A. Well, Leonard A. Matanky and Bernard “an extraordinary modern Orthodox Neuman, and Society Program Chair Charles B. Bernstein. institution, based on community, Torah, Photograph by Norman D. Schwartz. and the Land of Israel.” ❖ Chicago Jewish History Spring 2002 15

THE SELFHELP HOME continued from page 11 Firefighters continued from page 1 more secure financially, the main focus of the organization [became] department are paramedics, care for its elderly persons. not firefighters. Jody “In 1949 the Chicago Home for Warrick, a Jewish woman, is Aged Immigrants was founded. In the chief paramedic. 1951 it was renamed the Self-Help The first woman fire- Home for the Aged and moved into fighter in Chicago was a converted mansion at 4949 South Jewish. Lauren Howard Drexel Boulevard. Increased joined the department in demand and changing neighbor- 1980. Since 1995 she has hoods caused the move to a newly- been Captain of Engine constructed building at 908 Argyle Company 97. Two of her Street in 1963. nieces (also Jewish) are “There, residents were housed Chicago firefighters: Relief in a modern, purpose-built Lieutenant Lisa Barber of structure. That same year, Dr. the 5th District, and Lieu- Becker’s widow Dorothy assumed tenant Linda Parsons, who the executive directorship of the serves in the Division of home….[The late Dorothy Becker Training at the Academy. assisted Dr. Suloway in the Mr. Fox named Jewish preparation of this 1984 article]. officers in Chicagoland Egon Weiner, Pillar of Fire, 1961. “What made the Home unusual districts: his son Mike, Jeff Sculpture in front of the Chicago Fire from its earliest days was the self- Goldfarb, and Stu Gootnick Academy commemorates the help concept which enabled in North Maine, Barry Liss Great Fire of 1871. View is from the residents to lead independent lives in Skokie, Alan Berkowsky corner of De Koven and Jefferson in a caring group environment… in Evanston, and more. Streets, looking from the south. “[In 1974] during the presidency He then introduced Photograph by Norman D. Schwartz. of Frederick Aufrecht, funds were Moshe Wolf, an Orthodox raised for an adjoining building… rabbi for 23 years, who has His father was a police The top two floors of this nine-story been the unpaid Jewish chaplain. Rabbi Wolf is tall and building provide nursing facilities for chaplain of the Chicago Fire broad-shouldered. He understands the those residents who need them. Department for the past 11 tough police and firefighter culture, “Throughout the years the home years, and of our Police and deflects anti-Semitism with has continued to emphasize the Department for 19 years. humor. He is present at all two-alarm self-help principle…The not-for-profit (He earns his living as a (or bigger) fires, and ministers to all organization which runs it is management consultant.) who request his services. ❖ independent of the various umbrella organizations the Chicago Jewish community has created.” provide a full schedule of cultural Home for approving our oral history Today the Selfhelp Home serves activities and educational events, project. So far we have recorded a much broader Jewish population, and serves excellent kosher meals. over a dozen interviews with its with residents from a variety of Linda Liss Fine, Director of residents. The tapes and backgrounds. Other changes have Selfhelp since 1989 is a registered transcriptions are on file at the occurred: paid professionals now do nurse. Herbert L. Roth has held the Chicago Jewish Archives, and are much of the work that was once office of president for about ten available for use by appointment. completely done by volunteers. years. Selfhelp Home’s immediate Call (312) 322-1741. Living facilities have been enlarged past president is Rolf A. Weil. We hope our readers enjoy the and upgraded, from efficiencies to CJHS is grateful to the officers, story of the humorous, courageous, apartments. The Home continues to board, and staff of the Selfhelp self-reliant Sophie Manes. ❖ 16 Chicago Jewish History Spring 2002 About the Society

What We Are Membership The Chicago Jewish Historical Membership in the Society is open I PROGRAM COMMITTEE Society was founded in 1977 and is to all interested persons and organi- in part an outgrowth of local Jewish Do you have a great idea for a meeting zations and includes a subscription participation in the American topic? If you are organized and creative, to Chicago Jewish History, discounts Bicentennial Celebration of 1976. friendly and outgoing, the Program on Society tours and at the Spertus Muriel Robin was the founding Committee would welcome your help Museum store, and the opportunity president. The Society has as its in planning and implementing our to learn and inform others about purpose the discovery, preservation bi-monthly and annual meetings. Call Chicago Jewish history and its and dissemination of information Charles Bernstein (773)324-6362. preservation. concerning the Jewish experience in I MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE the Chicago area. Dues Structure The Society’s membership continues to Membership runs on a calendar What We Do grow, and you could help us introduce year, from January through The Society seeks out, collects and Chicago Jewish history to even more December. New members joining preserves appropriate written, people. Share your ideas and energy! after July 1 are given an initial spoken and photographic records; Contact Janet Iltis (773)761-1224 or membership through December of publishes historical information, Clare Greenberg (773)725-7330. the following year. holds public meetings at which I TOUR COMMITTEE Life Membership...... $1000 various aspects of Chicago Jewish Bring your creativity and organization Historian...... 500 history are treated; mounts to planning and promoting our Scholar...... 250 appropriate exhibits; and offers popular roster of tours on Jewish Sponsor...... 100 tours of Jewish historical sites. history. Contact Leah Axelrod Patron or Family ...... 50 Volunteer Opportunities (847)432-7003. Individual or Senior Family...... 35 Would you like to become more Synagogue or Organization ...... 25 I involved in the activities of the EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Senior Individual or Student ...... 20 Chicago Jewish Historical Society? Do you like to write? Are you a great Make checks payable to the Chicago We’d love to have you! Following are proofreader? You can contribute to our Jewish Historical Society, and mail the various committees on which quarterly publication, Chicago Jewish to our office at 618 South Michigan you can serve. Contact the Society History. Contact our editor, Avenue, Chicago IL 60605. at (312)663-5634 or any of the Bev Chubat (773)525-4888. Dues are tax-deductible to the Chairpersons listed here. extent permitted by law.

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