Andrew Patner, the Chicago arts maven who died at age 55 on February 3, looked to Jewish elders for inspiration about what culture can signify. His “I. F. Stone: A Portrait” (1988) featured a sustained interview with the radical journalist born Isidor Feinstein in Philadelphia, ranging from current politics to ancient Greek civilization. Patner was…
A wall of the Morton Salt building on Chicago’s North Side collapsed on Tuesday afternoon, spilling hundreds of pounds of salt onto cars of an adjacent Acura dealership. The Chicago Fire Department said no injuries were reported. Images on Twitter showed a mountain of salt submerging about eight vehicles that had been awaiting servicing by…
A Chicago synagogue and more than 10 nearby residential garages were vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti. Congregation Atereth Yehoshua and the garages in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of West Rogers Park were defaced over the weekend with slurs that included a Star of David accompanied by the words “F**k U,” according to Fox 32, a Fox…
Rahm Emanuel’s teenage son was reportedly robbed and beaten outside the Chicago mayor’s home on the city’s north side. Zachariah Emanuel, 17, went outside the house to make a phone call around 10 p.m. Friday night when he was set upon by three thugs, the Chicago Tribune reported. The robbers punched the teen in the…
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel formally announced his candidacy for a second term on Saturday in a speech that highlighted his successful effort to push through a minimum wage increase in the city. While mostly avoiding specific references to the achievements of his first term, Emanuel expressed pride in a bill that the city council passed…
Calling all Cassandras, those given to gloom and doom about the pliancy of contemporary Jewish life, much less its future. I suggest they make a beeline for Chicago’s Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership’s new exhibition, “Amy Reichert: Reinventing Judaica,” whose display of Jewish ritual objects will go a very long way toward dispelling…
Prosecutors in an Illinois county have asked a judge to revoke the bail of a man charged with vandalizing a synagogue because he said he planned to “shoot Jews.” John White, 40, of Westmont, Ill., was charged last month with a hate crime for allegedly vandalizing Congregation Etz Chaim in Lombard, a Chicago suburb. White’s…
With an estimated net worth of $29 billion, the Pritzkers are among the 10 wealthiest families in the United States. The philanthropic causes the Ashkenazi Jewish family supports are almost as diverse as the real estate and business investments that made them rich. Here are some of the most significant ones. Jewish Causes $3 million…
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