Chicago Jewish Historical Society

06/11/2026

***From Chicago Jewish Historical Society member and tour guide Matthew Schlerf***

Schedule of 4 different Jewish historic Chicago walking tours from his company "Shpatz"

Chicago Shpatz is an experimental theater company created by Chicago artists Matthew Schlerf and Sivan Spector. The word shpatz is a Yiddish pun based on the words shpatzir ("stroll") and shpas ("joke"). Chicago Shpatz specializes in immersive, site-specific and environmental theater, blurring the l...

05/29/2026

***Meyer Levin: A Forgotten American Jewish Writer and the Controversy Over Anne Frank***

Meyer Levin (1905-1981) was born and grew up in Chicago.

A novelist, journalist, filmmaker and passionate Zionist activist, Levin left behind a rich and influential body of work. Today, however, he is remembered primarily for one dramatic chapter in his life: his role in bringing "The Diary of Anne Frank" to international attention, and the painful public...

05/27/2026

***Photos of May 19 co-sponsored program at Goethe-Institut***

Chicago Jewish Historical Society member Matthew Schlerf was a presenter

Talk title: "Chicago's German-Jewish Labor History, from Haymarket to the 1910 Garment Workers' Strike"

05/27/2026

***August 30 joint program with JGS of Illinois***

05/27/2026

"Jews and Lithuania: A Different Perspective"

Information below.

05/21/2026

***The Spring issue of our quarterly journal, Chicago Jewish History, is available for your digital reading pleasure.***

CJHS Current Journal IN THIS ISSUE Martha Sharp, a Righteous Gentile. Part I The Jewish Origins of Banked Track Roller Derby More Reflections on Buffalo Grove The Role of Chicago Jewish Delis. Part I Highlights of Fall/Winter 2025 Programs Upcoming Program: Spectacular Outcry: The Anti-Nazi Spectacl...

05/20/2026

***Report on Presentation at Goethe Institute May 19 by Ben Schacht and Chicago Jewish Historical Society (CJHS) member Matthew Schlert***

Chicago's German-Jewish Labor History, from Haymarket to the 1910 Garment Workers' Strike
Talk with Ben Schacht and Matthew Schlerf

A report by CJHS board member Larry Edwards.

Terrific presentation. So much I didn’t know, even though much sounded familiar. Ben and Matthew did a great job of dividing up the material and moving things along.

Haymarket was just 15 years after the Great Fire and seven years before the Fair, so in the midst of rebuilding - with the help of a lot of immigrant labor, no doubt.

From the Goethe Institut website:
Topics covered included the political and industrial revolutions of 1848, German and Jewish immigration to Chicago, the Civil War and the Great Chicago Fire, the use of Turnverein (or Turner Halls) and Hull-House as hubs for social activism, Chicago's German and Yiddish press, the eight-hour day movement, and the class divide (and subsequent historical biases) between machers and shnorrers in Chicago's early Jewish community.

05/18/2026

Learn about the Jewish Book Council:

Jewish Book Council, founded in 1943, is the longest-running organization devoted exclusively to the support and celebration of Jewish literature.

05/18/2026

"A British spy, a notorious murderer, the Indiana Jones of the insect world, and a very Jewish history"

In 'To Life,' author Joel Greenberg explores the strange-but-true stories of Jews and the natural world

05/12/2026

Chicago Jewish Historical Society Editor Robert Nagler Miller had the honor of writing a memorial tribute to prominent Jewish Chicagoan Sam Harris.

Here is a link to the tribute, published in the May issue of Jewish Chicago.

Honoring Sam Harris, a Holocaust survivor whose optimism and leadership helped build the Illinois Holocaust Museum and advance education.