pock Look co the Epo,'l .tthich Eo.l .ttene heurn lJFJJn 1tJ-5x ivilit FORMERLY SOCIETY NEWS cy)tco.c,ro J c,r(tlrsl.) l..rrston rcol s<lcl c)tJ volumexiv, no.l, Fall,1990 ffi I W;ffi October28 MeetingTo Mark PublicationOf MeitesHistory Judge Marovitz, Dr. Cutler, MeitesKinTo Speak [ .peeirlprogrrm rnarking rhe repub- ,/L\ licotion b) rhe So(icly ot H.L. -{ IMeitc.'lunL)mtrl lli.t,tr| nl rh" .ltus ttJChitago will bc the highlightof the CJHSmccting on Sunday,October 28, at Emanue!Congregation,5959 N orrh SheridanRoad. The programwill startat l:30PM. Spealerr*ill be JcrryMcile.. I Chicago lawyer and grandsonof H.L. Mcites;Dr lrving Curler.Chicago histori- an and a Societyfounder: and Federal JudgeAbraham Lincoln Marovirz.distin- guishedjurist and communitylcader The meetingwill be chairedby and speakers introducedby the programchairman. Vice- presidentBurt Robin. Slide s, Reminiscences F eatured History of tlre jews Mr. Meiteswill discusshis grand- father; Dr. Cutler will show slides of ChicagoJewish scenes at the time H.L. of Chicago Meites was compiling his hisroryin the leensand l\ entiesof lhi\ cenlury:and _ H.t-. MEITES_ JudgeMarovitz will speal of growing up in Chicago during yearscovered in l"ttt$ui& al tit oti@xal Jg21 trlitittr the book. dti t nts, itlnt/axitn ty.ltnus R. (in,t:mat Copiesof the i/r-rroryof theJews of Chicat:,',newly received lrom theprinl- er.will beavailable lor vicwingduring rhe continuedon page ll Coverol the reprintedMeites history. extraction.A 1940 Chicago Board of Education study LookingBack at AlbanyPark indicated that ninety percent of those attending English Whenlt WasJewish classesfor adultsin the Albany Park areawere Jewish. Decline Began in Fifties Jews Lend SpecialFlavor to Community The Jewish population of the area peakedaround For Nearly Forty Years 1950 when an estimatedseventy thousand Jews lived there. By 1980 thc number of Albany Parkers who were Jewishhad declinedto approximatelytwenty-five thou- By Edward Mazur sand,primarily elderly and lessphysically, socially, and financially mobile. Today the Jewish population of A lbany Park. an overwheJminglyJewish neip.hbor- Albany Park is probably no more than severalthousand. I hood by the era ol the 1930sDepression. was r Throughout theil period of residencythe Jews of I lfascinating, vibrant, and good neighborhoodto Albany Park were primarily middle classwith small grow up in for more than four decades. groupsof economicallylower middle classand working Bounded on the south by Montrose Avenue class.It was an area that Jews moved to as they achieved (4400W), (5200N), on the north by Foster Avenue on the sufficienteconomic mobility to leave such West and east by the north branch of the Chicago River and on the NorthwestSide neighborhoodsas Lawndale,Humboldt (4000W), west by Pulaski Avenue Albany Park was a Park,and Logan Square.Significantly, relief statisticsfor German and Scandinavianfarming community several the 1930sDepression years are much lower for Jewish miles distant from the congestionof the inner city before groups than for others in the area.A 1937 study of 3,000 it was developedand populatedbetween 1900 and 1920. Albany Park familieson relief indicatedthat only about Major stimulus for this developmentwas the extensionin onehundred were Jewish. 1909 of the elevatedrailway's Ravenswoodline to a new This article is essentiallya backwardlook at terminus on Lawrence Avenue at Kimball. Lawrence Albany Park after 1920, when it was one of Chicago"s Avenue (4800N), an east-westartery, bisects the Albany largestand most vibrant Jewish neighborhoods.It is a (3600W) Park community and Central Park Avenue was nostalgicoverview of the institutions-public, private. to divide the areasof Jewish population into eastem and religious, secular,charitable, and commercial-which westernsections. The housing was primarily multiple- contributedto and helped define the quality of Jewish life family apartmentbuildings with a significant number of in the Albany Park that is no more. bungalowsand two-flat structures. Synagogues Many and Important J ewish R eside nt s P redominat e If the synagogueis the heart of the Jewish com- The areabegan to attract hundredsand later thou- munity, then Albany Park during its Jewish heyday had sandsof Jewish families during World War I. This was the many hearts.Temple Beth Israel, a Reform congregatiorl staft of a processthat continuedin increasingintensity foundedin the autumnof 1917,was the first Jewishinsti- until the late 1950s.A report issuedby the Jewish Chari- tution in Albany Park. Originally located in a rented hall, ties in 1934 noted that a majority of the 15,000families in thenin a buildingat 4718 North Kedzie,in 1923it occu- Albany Park had resided there for less than five years. pied its magnificent structureat 4850 North Bemard. An During the decadeof the 1920s,approximately 28,000 adjoining school building was erectedin 1928 and an Jews moved into Albany Park and, by the mid{hirties, a upper sanctuaryin 1948. Virtually throughout its history study for the Jewish Welfare Board estimatedthat out of a in the communitytwo individuals,Rabbi Felix Mendel- total populationof 55.500,approximately 33,500 or sixty son and Rabbi Emest Lorge influenced the Jews of Beth percentwere Jewish. Israel,Albany Park, and the larger ChicagoJewish and Overall, Albany Park's population on the eve of non-Jewishcommunity. Today, Beth Israel is locatedin World War II was approximately60,000. Only twenty- Skokie. two percent were native bom of native born parents. A CongregationBeth Itzchok, "the Drake Avenue majority of the foreign bom and native bom of foreign or shul," was the first Orthodox house of worship in Albany mixed parentagewere Jewish - primarily of Russian,Pol- Park.It wasorganized in 1919.Its foundersoriginally met ish, Austrian, Hungarian, Lithuanian, and Roumanian at Beth Israel and in various storefrontsand apartments. The first servicesin the permanentstructure were held on Rosh Hashanahin 1922 under the auspicesof Rabbi Isaac At its peak as a Jewish leighborhood, nearly a quader of the aity's Jewslived in Albany Park.Only Lawndalehad ever Milner. During the 1920s,the congregation'srapid growth exceededthat record. In this article Edward Mazur, a professor at resultedin expansionto the north and south and the erec- the Chicago City College, recounts how this concentatiol aame tion of a balcony for the women of the congregation.Dur about and how it changed. But, more than that, Dr. Mazur, who ing the congregation's"glory years"of 1930-1950,Rabbi grew portray$ rhythms and texturesof that up in the area, the was the spiritualleader. In the 1940s,Beth vibrantcommtmity and the many institutionswithin it. IsaacSiegel Itzchok expandedyet again and acquiredan Episcopal Lawrence and Kimball Avenues in 1909when the "L" was being extended to the heart of Albany Park Chicago Histaical Saciety Photo church building on the southwestcorner of Drake and Some organizationsthat met at the former were the B'nai Leland Avenues.Under the leadershioof Rabbi Aaron Brith, the Old Friendship Social Club, the Chicago Com- Rine.Beth ltzchok today is oneof theiignilicanr "shuls' sumptivesAid, the Mothers of Young Judea,the Sudlikoff in West RogersPark. Sheptikover Verein, the Bleiweise Verein, the Friends in Need, the BialystokerRelief and Social Society,the H uge Conse rvative Congregation Chicago Builders Northwest Branch of the City of Hope, CongregationBeth Hamedrosh Hagodol, later to and the Young Breziner Fratemity. Among lhose who met be known as the Albany Park Hebrew Congregation,was al Capitol Hall were the ElchananLodge, the B. Friendly the third significant and magnificent Albany Park institu- Ladies Aid Society, the Isidor Chem Rest Haven Lodge, tion. ThoughOrthodox when foundedin 1923,it became the IndependentSisters of Charity, and the JacobsonAux- a Conservativesynagogue in 1939.For more than thirty iliary of the Daughtersof Zion Nursery. years its activitieswere directedby Rabbi Abraham E. Other groups met in Chicago Park Districr Field- Abramovitz,who was ordainedin lsraclin 1909.In 1928. houseslocated in JensenPark and Eusene Field Park. the structurelocated at Lawndale and Wilson Avenues Among thosewho met at the latterwere the EzrathCha- was erecledat a cost of $250,000.The origins of this lutzim Day Nursery, the Doba Club, the Herzl Chapter of Congregation can be found in a dispute over "progres- Avukah, the Council of Jewish Juniors. the American sivism" within the membershipof the Orthodox Congre- JewishCongress, the Free Sonsof Israel,and the Rose gation Beth Itzchok. During the 1940sand 1950smore ProteusSocial Service Club. than 3,000 worshippersthronged the congregationfor Such groups as the Poalei Zion, the Pioneer high holiday services.Among the many famous Cantors Women,and Habonim met at a hall at 4825 North Kedzie. who servedthe congregationwere YosseleRosenblatt, The Workmen's Circle groups met at 3605 West Der Blinder Greenberg,Cantor Shellenshky,the Lind Lawrence,and the IWO (InternationalWorkers Order) family, and Maurice Geffen. A victim of changing School #91 was headquarteredat 3543 West Lawrence. demography,the congregationno longer exists. Prior to the Germaninvasion of Russiain 1941,this Other significant Albany Park synagoguesinclud- school was not overtly concemedwith Jewish issues,but ed Kehilath Jeshurun,B'nai Sholom, Nusach Ari. and following the Nazi invasion, the school's teachingmateri- Beth Jacob. als began to emphasizemore traditional Jewish leaming materialsand themes. Other lnstitutions