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Vol. 38, No. 1, Winter 2014

chicago jewish historical society

Look to the rock from which you were hewn

“Home Kid” Sophia (Skits) Gutt, center of middle row. Her hands are on her sister Dorothy’s shoulders (big bow).

Brother Paul is in the middle row, second from left.

chicago jewish history

P rior to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s election in 2011, only four other Jews had been electedto citywide office in the history of the City of Chicago. The first was Abraham Kohn, a

German-born clothing merchant, who served as city clerk from 1860 to 1861. Nearly acentury later, Lithuanian-born Morris B. Sachs, also a clothier, was elected city treasurer in1955. Although Sachs is now only remembered by those called Senior Citizens, his namewas once as familiar to Chicagoans as that of his fellow merchant, Marshall Field.

In Willard Motley’s great novel of Depression-era Chicago, Knock on Any Door, one ofthe characters boasts, “I won a prize on the Morris B. Sachs amateur hour a year ago. Five

dollars for five minutes.” Later in the book there is a mention of the clothes that “Emma had bought at Sachs out onthe South Side to get married in.” These references reflect the importance of Morris B. Sachs in the commercial andpopular cultural life of Chicago for nearly four decades. Continued on page 6.

Courtesy of Spertus Institute.

MORRIS B. SACHS: A CHICAGO ORIGINALBY RICHARD REEDER

SOPHIA GUTT GOODMAN 1927-1938:HAPPY AND SECURE AT “THE HOME”

Article begins on page 12.

REMINDER! CJHS OPEN MEETING – SUNDAY, MARCH 23, 2:00 P.M.ALEX GAREL-FRANTZEN DISCUSSES HIS BOOK “GANGSTERS AND ORGANIZED CRIME IN JEWISH CHICAGO”Emanuel Congregation, 5959 North Sheridan Road, Chicago • Social Hour with Kosher Refreshments and Book-Signing to follow • CJHS Members & Emanuel Members Free • Non-members $10 per person

CJHS HONORS FIVE LINCOLN PARK HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT HISTORIANS

One of the most important missions of the ChicagoJewish Historical Society is encouraging the efforts ofbudding historians, and one of our most satisfyingactivities is honoring those who excel.

In a brief ceremony on February 6, during theSocial Science Fair at Lincoln Park High School, 2001North Orchard Street, President Ed Mazur presentedhonoraria of $50 each to five boys who were winners inthe 2013 Chicago Metro History Fair with their SeniorGroup Performance, “Benny Goodman & TeddyWilson: Changing the Face of Jazz,” and then went onto place high in the National History Day competition.

The subject: how a white Jewishclarinetist, Goodman, brought racialintegration to the jazz music stage byemploying Wilson, a black pianist,in his combo. Chicago was the sceneof their first integrated concert.

Continued on page 3.

Corrected March 13, 2014from earlier printed version

2 Chicago Jewish History Winter 2014

2014 Officers & Board of Directors

Dr. Edward H. Mazur President

Jerold Levin Vice President

Dr. Rachelle GoldSecretary

Marvin DickmanTreasurer

Leah AxelrodRachel Heimovics Braun*Dr. Irving CutlerDr. Carolyn EastwoodHerbert EisemanElise GinspargClare GreenbergDr. Adele Hast*Janet IltisJoy KingsolverMark MandleDr. Stanton PolinJoan PomarancBurton RobinMuriel Rogers*Walter Roth*Norman D. Schwartz*Dan SharonDr. Milton ShulmanCarey Wintergreen

*Past President


Look to the rock from which you were hewnPresident’s Column

Chicago Jewish History is published quarterly by theCJHS at 610 S. Michigan Ave.,Room 803, Chicago, IL 60605-1901. Phone (312) 663-5634. [email protected] to Society News.Single copies $4.00 postpaid.

Editor/Designer Bev Chubat Editorial Board Edward Mazur,Burton Robin, Milton Shulman.

Send all submissions to Editor:electronically to e-mail addressor via standard mail to streetaddress. If manuscript is sent viastandard mail, enclose SASE.

THE FIRST WORLD WAR Historians, by their training and intellectualenergies, look to, examine, and interpret thepast. For those of us interested in Jewishhistory this means involvement with almostsix thousand years of human experience. Inthis column I’ll go back a mere hundred yearsto discuss World War I and its impact andsignificance for Jewry.

The First World War began on July 28,1914. German Jews shared in the nationalisteuphoria of the time, and 100,000 Jews served

in the German and Austrian armed forces. WWI introduced new technologies of mass death, from machine

guns and tanks to poison gas. It was the fifth deadliest mass killingin history. (World War II ranks as #1; Chinese dynastic conflictsrank #2 through #4.) If we factor in the epidemics and revolutionsthat resulted from WWI, the full toll was perhaps sixty-fivemillion—nearly four percent of the world’s population.

Approximately 100,000 Jews would be murdered in postwarpogroms in the Ukraine, caught between the the White and Redarmies and Ukrainian nationalists.

The conflagration erased great empires, including the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, German, Russian, and the last vestiges ofimperial China. They were replaced by nation-states, establishedaccording to the newly proclaimed universal principle of nationalself-determination. Revolutionary nationalist movements came tothe fore. Iraq and Syria were created by the victorous powers.

WWI destroyed the Pale of Settlement, liberated millions ofEastern European Jews from tsarist oppression, and gave numerousothers hope for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Many of thesedevelopments were annihilated by WWII. However, in their time,they were regarded as hopeful signs of Jewish progress.

The war resulted in votes for women in the USA and Britain. In our country, WWI brought in its wake anti-Semitic immigrationquotas, the first Red Scare, the birth of the American Civil LibertiesUnion, and Prohibition.

On June 28, 2014, the Vienna Philharmonic will observe thecentenary with a concert in the Town Hall in Sarajevo, Bosnia,exactly a century after the assassination there of Archduke FranzFerdinand, the presumptive heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne.This was one of the catalysts of the war.

BENNY GOODMANOn other pages of this issue, you can read about the honoraria givenby the Society to five Lincoln Park High School students for their

Edward H. Mazur

Continued on page 15

3Chicago Jewish History Winter 2014

CJHS Award-winning students. From left: Jeffrey Tang,Stephan Cernek, Michael Lally, Evan Montgomery, and

Lucas Levine. Lincoln Park High School, February 6, 2014.

and filling capsules by hand, Dad made his own fudgeand fresh fruit syrups for the fountain. I was often sentto the market to purchase whatever fruit was in seasonso that he could have fresh ingredients.

Back when I was a skinny pre-adolescent, mymother would prepare a nutritious malted for me everyday after school. If I arrived with friends, they’d betreated to a malted, too. By way of appreciation, theboys and girls even wheeled my toddler sister around;she was my responsibility when the school day was over.

During the summers I worked long hours as a sodajerk. Those were the days before air conditioning, so itwas our fountain that gave the neighbors refreshmentand relief from the Chicago heat and humidity.

The Singer Pharmacy was located one block east ofthe Hibbard Elementary School. The little kids wouldstop in for penny candy, and the older ones to readcomic books. My dad paid frequent visits to Hibbard,delivering Dixie Cups of ice cream that parents orderedfor their children’s birthday parties.

That’s the Albany Park I remember: a “small town”with values worth passing on to future generations. �

HISTORIANS Continued from the front page

The boys did not sugarcoat the commercial consider-ations that led to that momentous musical event.

And their format was very interesting. One boy, thenarrator, was portrayed recording the happenings in ajournal (in good old-fashioned handwriting) while theothers acted the parts of the participants in the story.

The quintet is preparing a piece for the 2014 Fair,and they performed a rough preview just before theCJHS award ceremony. They depict the interactionsthat led up to Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago,showing the commercial and social class issues involved.

LPHS Principal Michael Boraz and Social ScienceChair Richard Sauer were present. They expressed pridein their students’ work and gratitude to the CJHS. �

For about twenty years, 1940-1960, the SingerPharmacy at 4900 North Kedzie Avenue, corner of

Ainslie, was owned by my dad, Maurice “Doc” Singer,and my mother, Shirley.

Dad opened the store at 8 a.m. and usually closedaround 11 p.m. Mother would join him at noon, after afull morning of cleaning, cooking, and ironing. I partic-ularly remember the ironing. My blouses were someticulously pressed that even the very stylishly dressedprincipal of Von Steuben High School, Varian Shea,commented. Ironing is not my area of expertise.

Because my parents worked such long hours(without complaint), our customers were also ourfriends and extended family. They were interested in me,my accomplishments, and well-being, They even pre-screened a certain young man named Bob (Schur).

In the front of our store was a soda fountain withbooths and round metal tables flanked by wrought ironchairs. The malted milk machines were run byelectricity, but everything else was done by hand.

In addition to dispensing prescriptions, usuallycompounded with a mortar and pestle, and measuring

“Those Were the Days” in Albany Park: The Singer PharmacyBY LENORA SINGER SCHUR

Ron Grossman’s talk at our December open meeting “You Can Go Home Again (A Love/Hate Affair with Albany Park)”inspired this native of the neighborhood to send us her memoir. Following are edited excerpts.

“Beyond Swastika and Jim Crow: Jewish Refugee Scholars at Black Colleges”DuSable Museum of African American History • 740 East Museum Place

Through April 6, 2014The exhibition explores the unlikely coming together of these two groups, each the object of exclusion and hatred,and examines the ongoing encounter between them as they navigated the challenges of life in the segregated South.

dusablemuseum.org (773) 947-0600


A t the end of 2013, S. Karger AG publishers releaseda translation from Latin to English of the most

important Renaissance book on human anatomy. DeHumani Corporis Fabrica (The Fabric of the HumanBody) by Andreas Vesalius was published in 1543, witha second edition in 1555. Two professors emeriti atNorthwestern University, Malcolm Hast and DanielGarrison, spent twenty years translating both editions,annotated by more than five thousand footnotes.

The book consists of the anatomy of the humanbody described by Vesalius through dissections ofhuman cadavers, usually executed criminals. Mostearlier authors of books on human anatomy based theirfindings on dissections of animals and lack the accuracyof Vesalius’s text. Illustrations in the books came fromthe school of the renowned Italian artist Titian.

The Fabrica forms the basis of modern medicalscience. The book also provides insights into the historyof medicine during the Renaissance period.

Although published in 2013, The Fabrica has acopyright date of 2014, to observe the five hundredthanniversary of the birth of Vesalius in 1514. Vesaliuswas born in Belgium and trained as a physician inFrance and in Padua, Italy. He wrote the book in Paduaand published it at 28 years of age in Basel, Switzerland.

From left: Malcolm Hast and Daniel Garrison.Photographs courtesy of S. Karger AG.

Translation of Andreas Vesalius’s De Humani Corporis Fabrica

Karger produced abeautiful book—twovolumes in the same sizeas the original Fabrica,contained in a plexiglasscase, with a total weightof thirty-seven pounds!

Karger, a significantpublisher of books andjournals in medicine, isbased in Basel, Switzer-land, like the originalFabrica publisher. Karger’s

history links the firm to events during World War II.Samuel Karger, a young Jewish publisher, established hiscompany in Berlin in 1890. When Samuel grew older,his son Heinz took much responsibility in management.

After Adolf Hitler came to power, the Nazis in 1935forced the firm to remove Jewish scientists from theeditorial boards of its journals. Samuel Karger died thatyear and was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Berlin.The day after his funeral, Nazi officials gave Heinz anorder to give the company to “Aryans.”

Heinz Karger took steps to move the firm, seeking acity where other publishers would accept the company.He connected with the medical faculty at the Universityof Basel, who welcomed the Karger publishers. In 1937,the Karger family and the firm moved to Basel, whichcontinues to be home to S. Karger AG, the largestpublisher of medical books and journals in Europe.

CJHS members… YASHER KOACH!To all our activists, achievers, and honorees… the Hebrew phrase means “More Power to You”…


A lthough Vesalius wrote thebook in Latin, he included

Greek and Hebrew terminology aswell. In Book 1, which contains theanatomy of human bones, Vesaliusincluded Hebrew names in thefigure legends for the illustrations ofthree skeletons found on page 331in the English edition. In thetranslation, the names of the bonesare written in Hebrew and thentransliterated into English letters.Malcolm Hast and Daniel Garrisonconsulted a person knowledgeable inHebrew. They then translated theseterms to the currently usedanatomical names, which areinternationally recognized.

The Fabric of the Human Bodyis available for use at many medical,university, and other libraries. Seesample pages and read more aboutthe extraordinary publication at: www.vesaliusfabrica.com

Adele Hast, the wife of MalcolmHast, is a member of the Board ofDirectors of the Chicago JewishHistorical Society. She is pleased totell this story to the readers ofChicago Jewish History. �

W e received a phone call at theSociety office from Rena

Hershman Klein, the daughter ofrenowned hazzanMordechai Hersh-man (1880-1940). She lives in acommunity near Princeton, NJ. A while back, her daughter wasbrowsing a small bookstore in thearea and came upon a copy of TheCantors: Gifted Voices Remembered,by Bea Kraus (1996, CJHSMinsky Memorial Prize). Renaexpressed her pleasure in reading itand finding information about herfather’s early life that she had notknown. She also recalled a happyvisit to Chicago with her husband:davening at Loop Synagogue, diningwith Rabbi Kroll, and attending aLyric Opera performance. �

Research InquiriesSEPHARDIC JEWS IN THE CHICAGO AREA:

DIASPORIC PERSONAL NARRATIVESWalter P. Zenner (1933-2003), a professor of Anthropology at the StateUniversity of New York at Albany, investigated the Sephardic community inChicago in the late 1990s. As a result of this research, he published anarticle in 1998 entitled “Chicago’s Sephardim: A Historical Exploration.”Zenner’s article is a preliminary exploration of Mediterranean andSouthwest Asian Jews in Chicago between their initial arrivals circa 1900 tothe late 1990s. The purpose of his article was to lay down secondarysources, indicate primary sources, and use oral accounts.

Since Zenner’s initial study of the Sephardic community in Chicago,there has not been another attempt by any scholar to explore the currentsituation of this population. I believe it is important at this time to conductsome new fieldwork to reevaluate the state of this community, taking intoconsideration the more recent migrations of Sephardic Jews from differentparts of the world.

Since 2008, I have been conducting fieldwork in the Chicago area,talking to informants who identify themselves as Sephardim. Through aseries of interviews with members of this community during the last fiveyears, I have compiled personal stories that explain the Diaspora of theirspecific families, and include examples of oral tradition and folkloreembedded in their culture: such as songs, prayers, sayings, recipes andmedicinal remedies, as rendered by the informants. It is my intention tocontinue gathering information that consequently will enable me to write abook-length manuscript.

Beatriz Gómez Acuña, Ph.D., University of Texas at AustinAssociate Professor of Spanish at Elmhurst College

Dr. Gómez Acuña is a native of Madrid (Spain), and has lived in the U.S.since 1991. Her research interest focuses on the folklore and oral traditionsof Spain. She has published in journals such as Folklore, Hispania, andLemir. Most of her publications pertain to the study of Hispanic Balladry.

If you wish to participate in the project as an informant, please contact her at [email protected] or at (847) 983-0456

MINNIE F. LOW, born in New York City, November 9, 1867, the second ina family of six children. When ten years old, shewas brought to Chicago, where she graduatedfrom grammar school and then attended theSouth Division High School. Compelled to leave inher first years on account of ill health, shegradually gravitated toward social services, firstas a volunteer and then as a professional worker.Miss Low suf fered continually from poorhealth.…She died May 28, 1922, a pioneer andleader in her sphere, the one who, perhaps morethan any other person, brought women into socialwork as a recognized factor, and developed herprofession into the scientific and specialized fieldit is today.—History of the Jews of Chicago, edited by H.L. Meites (1924)

If you have any archival information/material about Minnie Low, Bureauof Personal Service, or legal aid for juveniles in the West Side Jewishimmigrant community who came in contact with the juvenile courts,

please contact Felice Batlan, IIT Chicago-Kent College of [email protected]


Ayoung orphan boy, Sachs traveled alone on board aship from Europe, arriving at Ellis Island around

1908, in the great wave of immigration to America.Affixed to his well-worn coat was a tag with identifyinginformation. It was understood by the immigrationauthorities that, through prearranged plans, the boy wasto be picked up by a responsible adult. Yet no one cameto meet him. Seemingly abandoned and unprotected,the boy was taken under the wing of a concernedstranger, a local butcher, who sheltered him at his shop,letting him sleep in a spot near the freezer. Thisdemonstration of kindness from a stranger was anexample that stayed with Sachs his entire life.

How the young Lithuanian Jewish boy found hisway to Chicago remains a mystery. We do know thatsomehow he was able to buy a pushcart and a smallstock of neckties from a jobber and started peddling hismerchandise in the Maxwell Street Market. From about1890 to 1920, tens of thousands of poor EasternEuropean Jews called the Maxwell Street area their firsthome in America. Sachs, at first, could get by therespeaking Yiddish and basic street merchant English. Heshowed a natural flair for salesmanship, and as soon ashe became more comfortable speaking English, hebought a horse and cart and began selling his wares inChicago’s ethnic enclaves south of the viaduct on 16thand Halsted streets.

Traveling south on Halsted with a cartful of ready-made clothes and various fabrics, Sachs discovered manycustomers among the working class Bohemian, Irish,Italian, Lithuanian, and Croatian populations living inthe Pilsen, Bridgeport, Canaryville, Back of the Yards,and Englewood communities. Sachs would later claimthat one customer was Richard J. Daley’s mother, andthat she bought the future mayor’s first pair of longpants from the inventory in the Sachs cart.

The Irish women in these neighborhoods wereespecially appreciative of the supply of lace he carried,which they bought to make doilies and curtains.

In 1919, his success as a “mobile merchant” allowedSachs to open a two-story clothing store inEnglewood, at 6624 South Halsted Street. His ads inneighborhood papers and Catholic parish bulletinsproclaimed that his store provided “credit with a smile.”Sachs soon became known as someone with a willinghand to help others in need. He felt that one should“keep giving to those in the need until it feels good.”His generosity to local charities, especially Catholic

ones, solidified his outstanding reputation in Chicago’slargest and most powerful religious community. Hedeveloped lifelong friendships with parish priests andbishops, which proved valuable to him as a merchantand later as a politician. He preferred dealing with hissuppliers with a handshake rather than a formalcontract. People who did business with him knew thatthe word of Morris B. Sachs was as good as gold.

Sachs and his wife, Anna, whom he married in1916, settled in the Hyde Park neighborhood at 4950Chicago Beach Drive. They had two daughters, Zeniaand Rhoda, and a son, also named Morris B. So as asuccessful business owner and a family man with a self-named son, Sachs was well on his way to achieving theAmerican Dream.

One of the first retailers in Chicago to introduce“lay-away” merchandising, Sachs helped his customerssecure their purchases with small down paymentsduring the Depression. He sold clothing in volume atlower prices than his competition, and his businessboomed. In 1940 he added three stories and 12,500square feet to his Englewood store. “MORRIS B.SACHS” and “CREDIT WITH A SMILE” wereemblazoned in lights on a huge sign.

H e always exhibited great showmanship inpromoting his business, so it was natural for Sachs

to venture into radio to publicize his name to a vastaudience. In 1934 he launched the Morris B. Sachs

Amateur Houron radio stationWENR. It airedon Sundayafternoons from12:30 to 1:30from thebeautiful andornate CivicOpera House indowntownChicago. Theshow proved tobe an instant

success. Everyone seemed to delight in the wide varietyof contestants. It was an opportunity for Chicagoansand other Midwesterners to “strut their stuff ” for thefirst time in front of a large radio and (later) televisionaudience, and win prizes. Most of the acts wereenthusiastic, though unpolished performers, but everynow and then a star was born. Singers Mel Torme andFrankie Laine and comedian Steve Allen, the first hostof “The Tonight Show,” were contestants.

Morris and Anna Sachs, 1916.Courtesy of Henry A. Feldman, Jr..

MORRIS B. SACHS Continued from front page


The public would phone in their votes. Sachs wouldcome on at the end of each show and personally awardthe winning contestants their wrist watches and otherprizes. His TV viewers on WBKB would see a short,bald man with a sunny smile and an avuncular manner.A discerning viewer might even notice that he walkedwith a cane and had a slight limp.

The origin of his limp, Sachs believed, could beattributed to an incredibly emotional experience in1938, when he received a letter from an extortionistthreatening to kill Sachs’s daughter Rhoda and grandsonHenry if a ransom was not paid. The FBI set up andcaptured the criminal with no harm done, except toSachs, who felt that he ”cracked up” under the tension.Yet he returned to work promptly. Unfortunately, a fewmonths later his leg began dragging as he walked.Doctors speculated that he must have experienced amild stroke during the time of the extortion plot. Hehad the limp for the rest of his life. Sensitive to thedisabilities of others, especially the young, Sachs wouldpresent a special “March of Dimes” Amateur Hour oncea year for polio victims and other disabled contestants.

During World War II, Sachs received much positivepress when he took it upon himself to cancel thepayments owed to his store by customers who wereserving in the Armed Forces.

He rode the tide of the post-World War II economicboom and opened a new store on the North Side, at3400 West Diversey Avenue, in 1948. His two storestogether grossed about eight million dollars andemployed seven hundred workers. MBS showed greatrespect to his employees and the unions that representedthem. Sachs’s growing economic success andunblemished character now caught the interest ofChicago’s political power structure.

M ayor Martin Kennelly, who had the support ofthe Chicago political machine for his previous

two successful election bids, lost the support of the wardbosses when he announced that he was running for athird term in 1955. By an overwhelming vote of 49-1,the fifty Chicago Democratic ward committeemenslated 11th Ward Committeeman and Cook CountyClerk Richard J. Daley as the Party’s candidate.

Kennelly was the founder of Allied Van Lines, awarehouse and trucking business. He asked Sachs to runwith him as City Treasurer, joining Marion Isbell, anowner of Chicago restaurants (and later a founder ofRamada, Inc.), who had already agreed to be part of histeam by running as City Clerk. Kennelly would presentthe citizens of Chicago with a “businessman’s ticket.”

It offered a clear choice to the voters: Kennelly’s

solid citizens versus the professional politicians on theDaley slate. Sachs pledged to donate his entire CityTreasurer’s $12,000 salary to charity if elected.

Benjamin Adamowski, a lawyer and a former staterepresentative, was the third candidate in theDemocratic mayoral primary held on February 22.Adamowski hoped that Chicago’s large Polish blocwould unite to catapult him to victory.

In the three-way race, Daley won an easy victorywith 376,847 votes to 264,775 for Kennelly and112,072 for Adamowski. A memorable photo was takenon election night of Kennelly comforting Sachs, whoclings to the mayor’s lapels with his tearful face on thedefeated incumbent’s shoulder.

Daley was to face Alderman Robert Merriam of theliberal 5th Ward in the general election on April 5.Merriam, a Democrat-turned-Republican, campaignedon a reform agenda. Daley knew that the Democraticticket had to appear “squeaky clean.” That was why hedecided to dump his candidate for City Clerk, 40thWard Alderman Bernard Becker, because of allegedzoning improprieties in his ward.

From left: MC Don McNeil, MBS, and his daughter Rhodaat the 1,000th Morris B. Sachs Amateur Hour broadcast.

Courtesy of Henry A. Feldman, Jr.

Continued on page 14


ED MAZUR’S

PAGES FROM THE PAST

My source for these selections is the Chicago Foreign Language

Press Survey Microfilm Collection atthe Chicago Public Library HaroldWashington Library Center.

In the autumn of 1936 theChicago Foreign Language PressSurvey was organized under the WorksProgress Administration (WPA) ofIllinois. The purpose of the Survey wasto translate and classify selected newsarticles appearing in Chicago’s foreignlanguage press from 1861 to 1938.

Financial curtailments in the WPAprogram ended the Survey in October1941. The Chicago Public Librarypublished the work in 1942. Theproject consists of a file of 120,000typewritten pages from newspapers oftwenty-two different foreign languagecommunities in Chicago.

Yiddish is the foreign language of the Jewish press in the Survey.English language periodicals are alsoincluded, as well as the publicationsof charitable institutions, communalorganizations, and synagogues.

manages to find employment fortheir own girls who lose theirpositions. Free medical care isextended to all members of theClub. It is indeed worthwhile forevery girl to go and see what thisClub has to offer.

Daily Jewish Courier, May 4, 1906.

HACHNOSAS ORCHIM AND CHARITYIt is an old Jewish custom to donatethe money gathered in thesynagogues during the reading of theportion Vayera (and he appeared) tothe Jewish needy. This year, morethan ever before, it is an absolutenecessity, because of the extremelycold weather, for all synagogues ofChicago to take heed and doeverything possible to help theneedy by contributing to theHachnosas Orchim Society.

This organization is alwayswelcoming the poor, naked,unfortunate, and hungry people tothe Hachnosas Orchim Home—especially when the weather is cold.

So far no person has been turnedaway from the Shelter Home; but itseems as though we shall probablybe short of funds this year tocontinue this charitable work. We,therefore, take this opportunity tonotify all the synagogues of Chicagoto get busy immediately and raisethe necessary funds for the upkeepof this worthy Home.

You are the only ones who keptthis Home for the poor in the coldwinters past, and we expect yourhelp in the future.

Daily Jewish Courier,November 10, 1911

[Hachnosas Orchim was founded in 1888, financed by the Orthodoxcommunity, and known in English as The Hebrew Sheltering andImmigrant Aid Society. It was located

in the Maxwell Street area. The Society had continuingfunding problems and reorganizeda few times. Eventually MarksNathan and Bernard Horwichmade generous donations. AfterWWI it became the Chicagobranch of HIAS.]

IT MUST NOT BE HUSHED UPThe attack instigated by Irishbullies upon Jews Mondayevening, in the vicinity of Taylorand Cypress Streets, is apparentlymore serious than it seemed to beat first. The seriousness of theattack is attributed to the fact thatit was premeditated, and that itsplanning was known about inadvance by peaceful Jewishresidents and the police of the13th Street Police Station.

The attack is serious becausethe Jews, expecting it, hadrequested police protection andfailed to get it.

Three Jews lie at the hospitalin critical condition; fifteen areconfined to their beds in theirhomes, and windows still remainshattered. And not one singlepoliceman came to investigateuntil everything was over.

The district around Taylorand Cypress Streets looked likethe aftermath of a battle. It hasbeen learned that the number ofinjured is much larger than whatwas originally calculated. It isnow known that besides the fourwounded whose names appearedyesterday in the Courier, thefollowing are also seriouslywounded:Dave Anext, 45, 2119 KendallSt.; Paul Stein, 2106 Kendall St.;Sam Shechter, 18, 2125 KendallSt.; Ruben Dubinsky, 19, 1024Cypress St.; Morris Ruzitsky, 38,2102 Taylor St.; and Hyman

MIRIAM CLUB FOR GIRLSThe Miriam Club at 482 East42nd Street near GrandBoulevard has just enlarged itsquarters by the acquisition ofanother flat. The club now has amembership of twenty-eight girlsand has just accepted six more,making a total of thirty-four.The girls of the Club pay onlytwo and a half dollars permonth, for which they receive ahome with all necessary conven-iences. The house has a choicelocation with a very fineappearance. The streetcar takesyou right there. Aside from theseconveniences, the Club also


Bass, 36, 1933 Taylor St. Manyothers were also injured, but theydisappeared, and their nameshave not as yet been disclosed.

If it is true that the policewere aware of the premeditationof the attack upon Jews andrefused to give protection, it istime for Jews to deliberate onwhat should be done about thismatter. For this purpose a massmeeting will be held next Sundaywhich will inform our cityauthorities and our protectors ofthe public peace what law-abiding citizens think about this.The time and place of the massmeeting will be announced in theJewish Courier on Friday….

Daily Jewish Courier, August 2, 1916.

SYNAGOGUES CROWDEDYESTERDAY FOR PUBLIC FASTDAY: LARGE SUMS OF MONEYCOLLECTED FOR THE “HELP THETORAH ASSOCIATION”Orthodox Jewish Chicagoresponded generously yesterdayto the appeals of the rabbis for apublic fast day as a protest againstthe persecution of Judaism inBolshevik Russia and theUkraine. The synagogues werecrowded with worshippers,particularly at the afternoonservices when special fast dayprayers were said. All the rabbisspoke on the significance of thisspecial fast day.

A fair sum of money wascollected by the synagogues fromthe eighteen cents “ransom”money, which those who wereunable to fast, were required topay. Congregation TipherethZion, on the Northwest Side, hada large crowd.

Rabbi Judah Leib Gordon ofLomza, Poland, who not long ago

became the rabbi of this synagogue,delivered a poignant speech whichdeeply moved the large audience.Over one hundred dollars wascollected. Sixty-five dollars wascollected at Congregation KnessethIsrael, where Rabbi B.Z. Margolinspoke.

The money collected will go toan organization called the Help theTorah Association, the purpose ofwhich is to support the Jewish clergyin the countries ruined by the war.

A committee of rabbis has beenformed from the Association towhich all the money should beturned over. Rabbi B.Z. Margolin ispresident, and Rabbi Saul Silber istreasurer.

Daily Jewish Courier, August 24, 1922.

DR. CHAIM WEIZMANN: TO CHICAGO JEWRY In greeting theJews of Chicago through the DailyJewish Courier, I wish to say that Iam convinced that the develop-ments in Palestine are as normal aswas to be expected. The progressthat we have made in rebuildingPalestine can be compared with theprogress that has been made byother nations that have recognizedgovernments behind them, andwell-established populations.

We Jews have no government totake care of us. Our people arescattered, and one half of the Jews ofthe world are so utterly ruined thatthe burden and privilege ofrebuilding Palestine falls chieflyupon American Jewry, of which theChicago Jewish community is a part.

I believe that Chicago will do itsduty. I have come here to present thecause of Zionism to this greatcommunity. I shall present all thefacts and all the obstacles and all thedetails, and I am sure that theChicago Jews will respond. If we

work systematically and do notlisten to what our opponents say,we will accomplish great thingsfor our land. In the words of LordHerbert Samuel: “It is better tolisten to what your friends tellyou and to pay no attention toyour enemies.”

Our work is the work ofpeace, justice, and civilization,which will bring honor to allJews, and to all those who haveassisted us in this great, butdifficult task. In the name of thefuture freedom of our people, Icall upon you to begin to workzealously, courageously, energet-ically, and willingly. The worldhas paid us an old debt. Now payyour debt to yourselves, to yourfuture, to your people.

I urge you to work. I ask ofyou a small offering. I requestthat you give our great cause afew days of your time. Let thebusinessmen, professional men,and workers put aside theirbusiness for a few days anddevote their time to the KerenHayesod [National Fund].Everybody must be reached.Nobody must be overlooked.Donors, volunteers, and halutzim[pioneers] are needed in KerenHayesod.May the Keren Hayesodhalutzim in Chicago strengthenthe hands of our halutzim inPalestine, and make it possible forthe great numbers of halutzimwho are now enroute to Palestine,to reach their goal.

Sunday Jewish Courier, April 15, 1923.


“L eave it to Martha and Marc to find the end ofthe world and live there.” That’s what the

Newmans’ friends said after visiting them in far-offWinnetka. When Martha and Marc were married in1902, they settled in a comfortable apartment on theSouth Side. But they felt confined, cooped-up; Marccomplained that the only open space nearby was thelanding on the stairs outside the kitchen door.

So one summer the Newmans rented a house inWilmette—and loved it: the quiet, the proximity toLake Michigan, and especially the abundance offlowers. Several years later, in 1908, Marc, Martha, andtheir two young daughters made the North Shore theirpermanent home by settling in a house in Winnetka.

At that time a Jewish presence on the North Shorebarely existed. In 1900, four members of the Foremanbanking family—a brother, three sisters, and theirspouses—built a residential compound on Hazel thatthey called “Wildwood.” But Wildwood was forsummer use only; each year when school began, thefamilies returned to the South Side.

There were also several Jewish families who settledin downtown Highland Park, where they operated retailenterprises and lived on or near the premises.

Occasional renters included David Mayer of theSchlesinger & Mayer department store, who spent thesummer of 1902 on an estate in Glencoe. But Marc andMartha Newman were in the very forefront of Jewishfamilies in Chicago who opted for life on the NorthShore year-round.

When the Newmans moved north, they foundWinnetka a little different from how it is today. TheIndian Hill train station, today just up the street fromtheir former home, had not yet opened. Nor were theremail deliveries, or even house numbers: in the earlyyears, the Newmans’ street address was simply“Winnetka Avenue near Abbotsford Road.”

But Martha and Marc took to their new lifewithout hesitation. Marc, who like Martha’s father, wasa manufacturer of men’s clothing, commuted to hisoffice downtown from the Kenilworth station, where healso picked up the mail, while Martha, with youngchildren, became active close to home. Winnetka wasthen known as a progressive community, which suitedMartha just fine. When the ladies in town marched forwomen’s suffrage, for example, Martha Newman wasright there with them.

At the invitation of Christian friends, Martha’s olderdaughter K [sic] occasionally attended Sunday schoolwith them. As K’s daughter, Babette Powell, recalled it:

“One day [in 1914] my mother came in and askedher mother why she couldn’t have her own Sundayschool. And that was it—the very next Sunday, Grannyhad ten children in the house, and her religious schoolwas underway.”

Martha Newman: Pioneer on the Suburban FrontierBY MERLE A. BRANNER AND ROBERT A. SIDEMAN

It was in this house that Martha Newman opened her religious school one hundred years ago.

Courtesy of Winnetka Historical Society.

M artha Newman was uniquely qualified, notmerely to teach, but to establish a school as well.

She was born Martha Washington Simon in Chicago in1876, a Centennial baby named for the first First Lady.Martha grew up one of five children in a comfortableneighborhood on the South Side, the daughter ofHenrietta Mayer Simon, a homemaker, and LeopoldSimon, a manufacturer of men's clothing. Both ofMartha’s parents emigrated from Germany at an earlyage. Martha attended Armour Institute, predecessor ofthe Illinois Institute of Technology, and aftercompleting coursework there, went back to Armour fora two-year kindergarten teacher training course.

Martha’s first job after completing the program wasto open a kindergarten at the Maxwell StreetSettlement, located at Maxwell and Jefferson in theheart of the burgeoning immigrant Jewish neighbor-hood. The inspiration for the kindergarten came from asuggestion made one evening by Jane Addams, at ameeting attended by Martha Simon. Martha enjoyedthe teaching and the children, yet found herself


unprepared for the poverty she encountered. She soonfound herself taking up a collection among her friendsto provide the basic necessities for some of her students.Later, she taught in the public schools.

An important influence on Martha throughout herlife was Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch of Chicago SinaiCongregation. Martha grew up at Sinai, went throughreligious school, and was confirmed there. She recalledthe day Rabbi Hirsch came to her home to ask her tojoin the faculty of the Sinai religious school. Sheobjected, he insisted, she took the job—and loved it.Fortunately, Martha kept texts and materials from those days andbrought them with her to Winnetka.

Martha strongly admired RabbiHirsch’s progressive approach toJudaism, which placed far lessemphasis on ritual than on socialjustice. His thinking, she felt, wasactually closer to that of youngercongregants such as herself than tothat of their parents. As Martha putit, “What religion I got, I got fromhim.” Many of her friends whosettled on the North Shore in theearly years felt a similar devotion toSinai and to Rabbi Hirsch.

Aided by Rabbi Hirsch’s informalguidance, Martha’s religious schoolin Winnetka—an “informal Sabbath school to preparechildren for Confirmation in the city,” as Marthadescribed it, thrived from the start. She was soon joinedby several other mothers who assisted her, and within ayear she moved the school to the Winnetka Woman’sClub on the Village Green.

By 1920 enrollment had reached 65, a measure bothof her success and of a growing Jewish population. InApril of that year, the Newmans joined forty-five otherfamilies (twenty-five from Winnetka, ten fromWilmette, six from Highland Park, three fromEvanston, one from Glencoe, and one from Chicago) informing the “North Shore Branch of SinaiCongregation.” This was an expansion of Martha’sreligious school to include Confirmation that couldnow be conducted on the North Shore, as well asweekly services by visiting rabbis.

Rabbi Hirsch conducted the initial service of thenew congregation at Hubbard Woods School in June1920, marking the beginning of Jewish worship on theNorth Shore. Following the death of Rabbi Hirsch in1923, the group took its first steps toward

independence by adopting a new name, “North ShoreCongregation,” hiring a rabbi, and joining the Reformcongregational union. With the Jewish populationmaking increasing demands for a more completeprogram including a home of its own, the congregationincorporated in 1926 as North Shore CongregationIsrael and proceeded to build a temple at Lincoln andVernon Avenues in Glencoe.

One of the first Jewish families to follow Marc andMartha Newman to the North Shore were the

Stonehills. In 1908, Charles Stonehill joined ten othermen in signing articles of incorpo-ration for Lake Shore Country Club,and at the same time he began todevelop lakefront property inGlencoe adjoining the club groundsfor his own residence. Charles andNettie Stonehill and their childrenmoved to the seventeen-acre estatethey called Pierremont around 1911and remained there into the 1930s.In 1961 North Shore CongregationIsrael purchased the former Stonehillestate; three years later it dedicatedits new house of worship on thegrounds.

And Martha Newman was thereto enjoy that dedication, as she wasto see the school she opened with

ten students grow to an enrollment of nearly twothousand, in a life that spanned 104 years of keenmemories and sharp wit. When at 99 she was asked bya persistent interviewer to answer questions she didn’twant to answer, she sparred with the ease of aPresidential candidate. Of a student sixty years earlier, agirl: “She always wanted to get out of Sunday school,but she certainly wanted the presents.” Of a grandsonwho became president of his temple: “He tellseverybody, ‘I got asthma from one grandmother andreligion from the other.’”

Rabbi Edgar Siskin of North Shore CongregationIsrael called Martha Newman “a Rebecca Gratz of theAmerican suburban frontier.” And indeed, just asRebecca Gratz established the first Jewish religiousschool in North America, Martha Newman followedher beyond the edge of one great city, as the school shefounded now begins its second century of providingJewish education to children of the North Shore. �

MERLE A. BRANNER is archivist of North ShoreCongregation Israel. ROBERT A. SIDEMAN is author of African Americans in Glencoe: The Little Migration.

Martha Newman (1876-1980). Courtesy of North Shore Congregation Israel.


Sophia Gutt Goodman’s Story:1927–1938: Happy and Secure at “The Home”

COMPILED BY DEBORAH GOODMAN KASDAN

M y mom, Sophia Goodman, is a “Home Kid.”From the ages of nearly eight to nearly nineteen,

she lived in the Chicago Home for Jewish Orphans,later called Woodlawn Hall, at 6208 S. Drexel Blvd.For her, it was always just “the Home.” Like a numberof others who lived there during the Depression, shehad a single parent, Anna Gutt, who could not manageboth a job and children on her own. Mom knew shehad to make the best of a difficult situation. With herintelligence, feistiness, and optimism, she was able to tothrive with support from Chicago’s Jewish community.In 2007 Mom wrote a memoir and today, at 93, shecontinues to tell stories about her Chicago childhood.

The Home was like being in a special boardingschool. The structure was very stabilizing for me, asI felt adrift having been in five foster homes, andanxious about what was going to become of me.The first thing I was told when I came to theHome was that I was number 50. Each Home Kidwas assigned a number that was sewn in herclothes. I thought that was neat, especially anumber that was so special.

Even at that age Mom was intrigued by numbers. A fewyears later, when the Home population declined, hernumber changed to 33.

I thought that was like magic. First it was “half ”and then “one-third”—and I was entranced.

It wasn’t long before Mom adjusted to life at the Homeand was adding sums faster than anyone in her thirdgrade class at Fisk, the local elementary school. Almostas quickly as staff assigned numbers, the kids bestowednicknames on the newcomers. They combined Mom’sfirst initial with her last name, which made the sound“Skits.” That became her lifelong nickname. The oldergirls were supportive of the new kids and Mom attachedherself to one of them in particular.

Ray Lessin was like a mother to me. One day shewas in charge of the dorms when the caretakerswere off duty. She got mad at me for talking andnot letting the kids go to sleep. So she punished meby putting me in a broom closet and locking thedoor. I wasn’t going to show her that I was scared,so I started singing and laughing. She finally tookme out and just laughed and hugged me.

Mom recalls how Ray left the Home to study, butreturned as a professional nurse. At the request of hermother, the Home provided Mom and her sister,Dorothy, with piano lessons. Their brother, Paul,studied violin and played the trumpet in the boys’ band.

It took someone to make me stop practicing inorder to go to bed or at mealtime. I would just losetrack of time, and I had to get the music just right.I was so in love with my teacher, Dora Friedman.When I came up for my lesson she would call me‘little scamp.’…I got good enough to play the organfor Saturday religious services. The big pipe organwas not in good condition, so I played a smallpump organ.

Mom was delighted when she got to perform at Pesachand Chanukah celebrations. Summers at Camp Chi alsoprovided important skills and relationships. Mom stillremembers when a counselor, Fay (“Fagie”), took herinto her confidence about her romantic predicament.She asked Mom to paddle her out to the middle of thelake so she could think things out. When Fagie visitedher at the Home a few month later, Mom was inheaven. At Camp Chi Mom became certified inlifesaving, valuable training that she used some monthslater on an outing with Home Kid friends.

A bunch of us older girls in our middle teens wereat the sand dunes and we went in the water for aswim—about nine or ten of us. We were laughingand singing, holding hands and walking fartherup to swim in deeper water. Sylvia and I were atthe end of the line when an undertow broke ourranks It was swift and we were unable to swimagainst it as it pulled us into the deeper water.

When Sylvia cried out for help, Mom remembered hertraining. She had Sylvia hold on to her swimsuit strapsand float until both of them got to shore. Years later,Sylvia got in touch with Mom, and thanked her forsaving her life. Says Mom:

I realized that in a way she saved [my life] by needing me.

Sometimes, the staff treated kids unfairly. When thathappened, she protested—whether it was a lateallowance or a big punishment for little infractions ofdinner rules. Bernard Freeman, the superintendent,


warned her she could get burned for“taking chestnuts out of the fire,”which was his way of advising her toconsider relinquishing her self-appointed role as the Home Kids’advocate. But Mom followed herheart, and often got the powers-that-be to see things her way.

Mom looked for role models,who turned out to have a majorimpact on her life. Agnes Poillonwas the nurse who gave wise counselto her about life, love, and relation-ships. Mr. Presser, father of a Home

Kids friend, includedMom in politicaldiscussions, and assuredher that, contrary towhat she was hearing atschool, Jews really werebeing persecuted inGermany and you didn’thave to be a Communistto believe that. Thearrival at the Home of agroup of Germanrefugees proved that he was right.

Erwin O. Freund served on theBoard of Directors of the Home. Hetook an active interest in thechildren and found them jobs at hiscompany, Visking Corp., whichmade cellulose casings for skinlesshot dogs, using a new technique heinvented. Mom operated the officeTelex, and then got a position in theart department, where the sausagelabels were designed. Although shewas disappointed when Freunddenied her a job in the lab—notwoman’s work in those days—she very much appreciates hiscommitment to her and otherHome Kids. (See “Hot Dog! JewishParticipation in Chicago’s MeatIndustry” in the Summer 2012 issueof CJH.)

A fter junior college, and stillworking at Visking, she met

Mort Goodman. My dad was then agraduate student at University ofChicago, and proctored study hallsat the Home as a volunteer. Mom’ssister was in high school and stillliving at the Home. Dorothypretended to need help in math so

Quotes are taken from Sophia Goodman’s memoirs which you can read at http://www.blogspot.skitsaroo.com. See more Home Kids photos at http://flic.kr./s/aHsjQs5twQ.

DEBORAH KASDAN lives in Norwalk, Connecticut with her husband andmother. She is a business writer at IBM and a proud grandmother of four.

(For the recollections of a later Home Kid, see “Home, Bittersweet Home,and Hyde Park High School,” by Julian Frazin, in the Fall 2007 issue ofCJH, based on the talk he gave at a Society open meeting earlier that year.)

Camp Chi. Front of boat, Skits (left)hugging Fagie. Behind them, left toright: Esther Korsower, Ida Rosenthal,Ida Rudner, Ruth Pilk, Goldie Geldfarb.

German refugees. Names unknown.

she could talk to the handsomecollege man. Realizing he was tooold for her, she introduced him toMom. They fell in love, married,and lived in Chicago while hefinished graduate school.

When he enlisted in World WarII, Mom moved to Cleveland to livewith his family until his return. Fourchildren, several grandchildren, andfour cities later, Mom and Dadtraveled from St. Louis to Chicagofor the Home Kids reunion in 1978.Recalling the joy of that event stillbrings tears to Mom’s eyes. (See“Chicago Home for Jewish Orphansholds unique reunion” in theNovember 1978 issue of CJH.)

My eleven years growing up inthe Home were like heavenafter all the changes in my life.I think it was the best thingfor me, considering thecircumstances. I was safe, lifewas exciting with otherchildren, I went to greatpublic schools, I had manygood opportunities to expressmyself and I was happy.

From left: Home Superintendent Bernard Freeman,Visking founder Erwin Freund, and Erma Freeman.


Daley asked Sachs to join histicket as the candidate for Treasurer,and the prospective nominee, JohnMarcin, moved to theCity Clerk slot. Sachs,like Becker, was Jewish,so the slate would benicely balanced with theIrish Daley and thePolish Marcin. AndSachs had an unsulliedreputation.

Kennelly’s campaignmanager, Cook CountyAssessor Frank Keenan,felt betrayed by Sachs.The veteran politicalcommentator LenO’Connor, in his bookClout, quotes Keenan ascalling Sachs “thattraitorous sonofabitch.”Sachs is quoted assaying, “I had to run;they insisted on it.”

D aley defeatedMerriam, with a

total of 708,660 to theRepublican’s 581,255.The victorious Marcinhad 708,228. But thewinner with the largestplurality that eveningwas Sachs, whogarnered 735, 747votes.

But it didn’t takelong before MayorDaley realized that hisnew City Treasurer was going to behis own man as a politician, just ashe was as a merchant and philan-thropist. Sachs was always highlydemanding, of himself and all thosewho worked for him—dishonestyand laziness would not be tolerated.

After less than two months in

office, Sachs fired three politicallyconnected administrative staff mem-bers in the Treasurer’s office and toldthe remaining twenty-eight that heexpected them to work hard andperform well; if not, they “better seetheir angels and get other jobs.”

The editorial boards of all theChicago newspapers endorsedSachs’s business approach to runninghis office. The Sun-Times laudedhim for “serving the city in theinterest of the taxpayers and not inthe interest of the greedypoliticians.” The Daily News opined

that “the voters would return anemphatic approval of Mr. Sachs inany referendum on the issue.”

If Mayor Daley was privatelyirked by Sachs’s not playing thepolitical game, he did not show it inpublic. In Springfield, a Democratic

Machine state represen-tative introduced a bill(unsuccessfully) toabolish the CityTreasurer’s office,because a friend of hishad been fired by Sachs.But for the most part,Daley and his cohortslearned to coexist withhim.

S achs, though, hadbigger plans both

commercially andpolitically. A decisionwas made to open athird Morris B. Sachsstore in the heart of theLoop, on the southwestcorner of State andMonroe streets. Also,MBS strongly believedthat his business sensewas just what the Stateof Illinois needed inleadership, and heannounced his candidacyfor Governor in thespring 1956 Democraticprimary.

Daley made it clearthat Sachs would not getthe support of theDemocratic Partyorganization in theprimary. The

endorsement was given to CookCounty Clerk Herbert C. Paschen,who won the primary with fifty-eight percent of the vote to Sachs’sforty-two percent. Daley’s politicalmachine crushed Sachs in CookCounty, though he managed tocarry the Downstate Democratic

MORRIS B. SACHS continued from page 7

From left: MBS, Richard J. Daley, Adlai Stevenson, and StephenBailey (Business Manager of the Chicago Journeymen PlumbersUnion Local #110, who devised the plan to dye the Chicago

River green for St. Patrick’s Day.) Undated. Below: Billboard, 1956 Illinois Gubernatorial Primary.

Courtesy of Spertus Institute.


vote, as well as some of the collarcounties.

However, Paschen was forced toremove himself from the ticket dueto a budding campaign scandal, andSachs asked the Party bosses to namehim as the candidate. Instead, JudgeRichard Austin received thenomination. He went on to lose aclose election to the incumbent,Governor William Stratton, by amargin of 37,000 votes.

On March, 15, 1957, the doorsto the State Street store were finallyopened. Thousands of people linedup for the event. Mayor Richard J.Daley cut the ribbon. Now thename of Morris B. Sachs could takeits place with Goldblatts, A.M.Rothschild, Henry C. Lytton,Maurice L. Rothchild, and MandelBrothers on the list of JewishMerchant Princes of State Street.The immigrant boy who arrived ona foreign shore alone and abandonedhad achieved the American Dream.

Sadly, MBS had little time toenjoy this achievement. He died justfour months later, on September 23,1957, at the age of 61. He isinterred in Rosehill Cemetery.

In the archives of the SpertusInstitute, 610 South MichiganAvenue, there are Morris B. Sachsscrapbooks that cover the business,political, and philanthropic aspectsof the last thirty years of his life.

Photos taken at the celebrationof the 1,000th Amateur Hourbroadcast picture him with MCDon McNeil. Posed with them,individually: wife Anna, daughterRhoda (see page 7), daughter Zenia,son MBS, Junior; also Rabbi RalphSimon of Congregation RodfeiZedek, Dr. Preston Bradley of thePeople’s Church, and Brother Basilof DeLaSalle Academy. Also shown,John Balaban of WBKB-TV and Sun-Times columnist Irv Kupcinet.No politicians are included. �

RICHARD REEDER is the author of Chicago Sketches. He teaches literaturecourses in the Oakton College Emeritus Program. He has taught courses on thewritings of Jewish authors Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, Ben Hecht, NelsonAlgren, and Joseph Epstein. He created the Chicago Jewish Authors LiterarySeries and is on the board of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. Richard hashis own literary blog, www.aliteraryreeder.wordpress.com.

President’s Column Continued from page 2

Chicago Metro History Fair award-winning entry, “Benny Goodman& Teddy Wilson: Changing the Face of Jazz.”

Benny Goodman was born in Chicago, the ninth of twelvechildren of poor Jewish immigrants (were there any other kind?)from Russia. Goodman was introduced to the clarinet at Hull-Houseand Congregation Kehilath Jacob in the Lawndale neighborhood.

The Goodman orchestra’s landmark August 21, 1935 concert atthe Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles, brought young fans, who,primed by radio airplay of his music, broke into wild applause anddancing. Word spread of the exciting new music. The Jitterbugappeared as a new dance craze in which so many of us participated.

On the weekend of November 1-2, 2013, the Music Institute ofChicago presented a gala Benny Goodman Festival at Nichols MusicHall in Evanston. Howard Reich reported in the Chicago Tribune:“[Goodman’s] phenomenally fluid technique and robust, exuberanttone still represent high points in the evolution of jazz clarinet andstand as crowning achievements of the Swing Era.”

Clarinetist Victor Goines, who directs jazz studies atNorthwestern University’sBienen School of Music, emceedand led the Friday eveningprogram. Howard Reichcommented: “Rare is theclarinetist—then or now—whocould finesse the intricacies ofthis music at all tempos whilemaintaining as gorgeous a soundas Goines routinely produced.”

Our CJH editor was present,and she reported that the VictorGoines Quartet, the MusicInstitute of Chicago jazz facultyand guests, and vocalist TammyMcCann had the multi-genera-tional capacity crowd cheering,

clapping, and bobbing their heads to such favorites as Liza, Bodyand Soul, I Got Rhythm, How High the Moon, And The Angels Sing,and Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn. Jewish seniors in the audience helpedGoines with the pronunciation of this Yiddish title, but, alas, theydidn’t venture to get up and jitterbug. �

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Membership in the Society isopen to all interested personsand organizations, and includes:• A subscription to ChicagoJewish History.• Free admission to Societypublic programs. Generaladmission is $10 per person. • Discounts on Society tours.• 10% discount on purchases atthe elegant Spertus Shop.• Membership runs on acalendar year, from Januarythrough December. Newmembers joining after July 1stare given an initial membershipthrough December of thefollowing year.

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About the Society

IN THIS ISSUE• Morris B. Sachs: A Chicago Original• Albany Park: The Singer Pharmacy• Martha Newman: Suburban Pioneer• Sophia Gutt Goodman: “Home Kid”

Tribute Cards for Celebrations or Memorials The card designfeatures the Society’s handsome logo. Inside, our mission statement andspace for your personal message. Pack of five cards & envelopes $18.00.Individual cards can be mailed for you from our office at $5.00 per card,postage included. Mail your order and check to the CJHS office, 610 South Michigan Avenue, Room 803. Chicago IL 60605-1901.You may also order online at our website.

Our History and MissionThe Chicago Jewish HistoricalSociety was founded in 1977,and is in part an outgrowth oflocal Jewish participation in the United States BicentennialCelebration of 1976 at anexhibition mounted at theMuseum of Science and Industryby the Jewish Federation ofMetropolitan Chicago and theAmerican Jewish Congress. Now in our 36th “double chai”year, the mission of the Society

continues to be the discovery,collection, and dissemination ofinformation about the Jewishexperience in the Chicago areathrough publications, openmeetings, tours, and educationaloutreach to youth. The Society doesnot maintain its own archives, butseeks out written, spoken, andphotographic records and artifacts,and responsibly arranges for theirdonation to Jewish archives.

All Issues of Our Society Periodical from 1977 to thePresent are Digitized and Posted on Our Website:

www.chicagojewishhistory.orgAll the issues, dating back to the first typewritten pages of Society News,are now posted in pdf format. Simply click on “Publications,” and scrolldown through the years. Enjoy reading the publications edited, in turn,by Roberta Bernstein, Irwin J. Suloway z”l, Joe Kraus, and Bev Chubat.

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