WBEZ | Jewish

Reconciling Lives - German-Jewish Dialogue

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:33:00 -0500

Chair of the Association of Israelis of Central European Origin, Ambassador (retired) Reuven Merhav gives a keynote address, followed by a panel discussion and presentation of the book “Reconciling Lives”. Panelists include Ambassador Reuven Merhav, author and photographer Alvin Gilens, AJC Chicago Board Member Phil Dunn and German ARSP volunteer Pia Kulhawy, who will discuss the current status and future of German-Jewish Dialogue and Reconciliation.

The Jewish-American author Alvin Gilens presents his new book “Reconciling Lives”. This book features the stories of young German volunteers sent by Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP) to the US, Great Britain, Czech Republic and Israel, and the relationships they built with Holocaust survivors during a year of service. When Alvin Gilens first learned about ARSP over twenty years ago he found a healing force that moved him deeply. Hearing the powerful stories from German volunteers about their experiences of reconciliation with survivors of Nazi Germany, he recognized that those are stories that must be told.

Recorded live Tuesday, April 23, 2013 at Goethe-Institut Chicago.

Germans vs. Russians: The Origins of Chicago's Organized Jewish Community 1859-1923

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 10:21:00 -0500

Tobias Brinkmann speaks about Chicago’s Jewish community from the founding of the United Hebrew Relief Association in 1859 to the creation of Jewish Charities of Chicago in 1923, a time when organizations that served “German” (Central European) Jews merged with those that served “Russian” (Eastern European) Jews. Dr. Brinkmann's discussion assessed the highly charged conflicts between established members of the community and more recent immigrants, conflicts that had much to do with social status and assimilation and little to do with actual origins.

Dr. Tobias Brinkmann is Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and History at Penn State University. He is a member of the Academic Council of the American Jewish Historical Society and the Board of the Leo Baeck Institute in London. His most recent publication is Sundays at Sinai: A Jewish Congregation in Chicago.

Recorded live Saturday, April 21, 2013 at Spertus.

Download a PDF of Dr. Brinkmann's presentation below.

Jews and Magic in Medici Florence: The Secret World of Benedetto Blanis

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:29:00 -0500

In the 17th century, Jews in Florence’s tiny ghetto struggled to earn a living by any means possible, including loan-sharking, rag-picking, and second-hand dealing. They were often viewed as an uncanny people with rare supernatural powers. Historian Edward Goldberg shares how businessman and aspiring scholar Benedetto Blanis used this mystical misperception to his advantage, seeking a grand position at the Medici Court and winning the admiration of Don Giovanni de’ Medici.

Recorded live Tuesday, March 19, 2013 at Spertus.

A copy of Mr. Goldberg's presentation can be downloaded as a PDF below.

Sundays at Sinai: A Jewish Congregation in Chicago

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:54:00 -0600

First established 150 years ago, Chicago Sinai is one of America’s oldest Reform Jewish congregations. Its founders were upwardly mobile and civically committed men and women, founders and partners of banks and landmark businesses like Hart Schaffner & Marx, Sears & Roebuck, and the giant meatpacking firm Morris & Co. As modern Jews, Sinai’s members supported and led civic institutions and participated actively in Chicago politics. Perhaps most radically, their Sunday services, introduced in 1874 and still celebrated today, became a hallmark of the congregation.

The author of Sundays at Sinai, Tobias Brinkmann, will discuss with Daniel Greene, Vice President for Research and Academic Programs at the Newberry and author of The Jewish Origins of Cultural Pluralism: The Menorah Association and American Diversity. They will consider, among other things, how Tobias Brinkmann brings modern Jewish history, immigration, urban history, and religious history together to trace the roots of radical Reform Judaism from across the Atlantic to this rapidly growing American metropolis. Brinkmann shines a light on the development of an urban reform congregation, illuminating Chicago Sinai’s practices and history, and its contribution to Christian-Jewish dialogue in the United States. Chronicling Chicago Sinai’s radical beginnings in antebellum Chicago to the present, Sundays at Sinai is the extraordinary story of a leading Jewish Reform congregation in one of America’s great cities.

Recorded live Tuesday, December 18, 2012 at The Newberry Library.

How the deli became Jewish (and American)

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 08:00:00 -0600

Growing up in Long Island, Ted Merwin had a weekly ritual essential to his family’s Jewish identity — and I’m not talking about celebrating Shabbat. They didn’t really do that, as they were quite secular. But every Sunday night his grandparents would make the trek from Queens for dinner, and he would run around the corner to the neighborhood deli. The order was always the same: a pound of turkey, a pound of roast beef, a dozen slices of seeded rye bread and a small, squat container gravy. It wasn’t the traditional trio of Jewish deli meat (pastrami, corned beef and tongue) but Merwin “would walk in the kitchen door and put it down on the kitchen table. And within five minutes there was not a crumb — there was not a speck, there was not a morsel — of that food left on that table! It was almost as if a Biblical plague, you know like the locusts, had come in and just devoured everything.”

Merwin and his family were hungry for more than just food, though. “For us it was a sense of our Jewishness that was kind of sweeping over us,” he said. “It was almost as if our sense of connection to our Jewishness had come in like the tide.”

I can relate. I was Bat Mitzvahed and I still go to temple on the High Holidays. I go home for Passover and try to recite yahrzeit for my deceased grandparents. But nothing makes me feel more Jewish than eating potato latkes with a side of kosher pickles at Manny’s.

But Merwin, now a scholar of Jewish history and culture who’s writing a book on the history of the delicatessen, amazed me with a recent lecture, in which he asserted that the deli did not always have such a central place in the heart of Jewish American culture. In fact, in the late 1800s, American Jews were backing away from the traditional foods they had brought over with them from Eastern Europe. “The Jewish women were being taught — just like the Polish women and the Italian women and the other immigrant women — that American food is not colorful. It is not spicy,” Merwin said. It was all about assimilation. “They were already being seen as not fitting into American society,” he added. “To eat all this peppery, garlicky pastrami or whatever? No way.”

The story of how delis eventually claimed their place in American culinary history is a good one (more on that in a minute) and one that deserves some attention now that they may be an endangered species of restaurants. Personally, I can’t imagine a world without delis. But a 2009 New York Times article detailed a dwindling number of Jewish delis in cities that were formerly strongholds — a decline from 12 to two in Newark, New Jersey, for example. New York’s famed Stage Deli closed just last month after 75 years in business and an often heated rivalry with nearby Carnegie’s. I hope it’s just a fluke.

While you ponder that, check out Merwin’s account of the Jewish deli rise to prominence. The story ropes in Harpo Marx, the mob — even Chicago’s own Black Sox! — as well as corned beef sandwiches the size of your head. Listen — and get hungry — with the audio above.

Dynamic Range showcases hidden gems unearthed from Chicago Amplified’s vast archive of public events and appears on weekends. Ted Merwin spoke at an event presented by Culinary Historians of Chicago in December of 2012. Click here to hear the event in its entirety.

How mah jongg became American (and Jewish)

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 12:26:00 -0500

If you’re a Jewish woman of a certain age, you’ve probably played mah jongg. Or if you’re like me, a Jewish woman of another age - in my case, 30 - you probably remember your grandmother playing mah jongg.

I have faint memories of the green, felt-covered card table, neat racks lined up along its edges, and in the center, a pile of smooth tiles whose purpose was a mystery to me. Grandma Flo owned her own mah jongg set, kept in a felt-lined, faux-leather kind of attaché case. My parents inherited it, but gave the set to friends, thinking they’d never use it again. Their friends gave the set back when they learned my mother was taking lessons last year. Apparently all the women in my parents’ Florida retirement community play, and she didn’t want to be left out!

But it’s not an obvious mix, this complicated Chinese game played with intricate domino-like tiles, and bubbe. So how’d we get here?

If there is an answer to why my grandmother’s generation of Jewish women took to mah jongg, it starts back in 1893, when an early version of the game made its American debut in Chicago at the World’s Columbian Exhibition.

The game was on display alongside dominoes and other examples of foreign “folklore” and games. According to Melissa Martens, director of collections and exhibitions at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York and a mah jongg expert, it was then popularized by businessman Joseph Babcock, an American who had traveled to China with Standard Oil. He patented an American version of the game with its current (and curious) double-G spelling.

The game became immensely popular with the general American public in the roaring ‘20s, Martens says, with close ties to flapper culture and a love of anything that smacked of the exotic East. The game was so popular that Chinese manufacturers ran short of the animal bones they needed to make the tiles. Bones from Chicago’s Union Stock Yards were shipped to Chinese manufacturers to meet the demand, Martens says.

Still, this early popularity with America’s general public doesn’t explain the special place mah jongg now holds in the hearts of temple sisterhoods all over America.

Martens says asking why mah jongg was so widely adopted by American Jews “is like asking why Jews like Chinese food.” We just do. I’m not so sure about that. I thought everyone knew Jews love Chinese food because Chinese restaurants used to be the only ones open on Christmas.

You have to go a few decades further to understand why mah jongg gained a foothold in Jewish culture, to pre-World War II America. American Jews were more assimilated then, and more financially stable. And they were looking for a philanthropic cause. Listen above as Martens connects the historical dots.

Dynamic Range showcases hidden gems unearthed from Chicago Amplified’s vast archive of public events and appears on weekends. Melissa Martens spoke at an event presented by the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in January, 2011. Click here to hear the event in its entirety.

Chicago festival highlights evolving Polish cinema

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 17:25:00 -0600

Last weekend, the 23rd annual Polish Film Festival of America kicked off in Chicago with the premiere of In Darkness, the new film by Agnieszka Holland. Considered a leading figure in Poland's New Wave, Agnieszka's films include Europa Europa and The Secret Garden.

Holland came to Chicago for the debut of In Darkness. Worldview film contributor Milos Stehlik sat down with her to discuss the importance of the festival and Polish film.

The Polish Film Festival, the largest festival of its kind outside of Poland, runs in Chicago and the surrounding area through November 20.

An error-filled errand in Brooklyn

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:54:00 -0500

We do The Interview Show each month in Chicago, but last week we brought it to Brooklyn’s Union Hall. I love it there, but I did not do Brooklyn very well.

My mistake was venturing out from where I was staying on the morning of the show.

But I had to find a computer printer. I type up questions for each interview, and before each show, I print them, cut out the sentences and tape them to index cards, because I aim to turn everything I do in life into an arts and crafts project.

I didn’t want to go FedEx Office Cougar Mellencamp Kinkos or whatever it’s called now. It's rarely a smooth transaction there. My theory is there was one original Kinkos employee and all the rest are just ever-fading photo copies of that guy.

So, I went to a place called Away We Go Postal. This was a less-wise choice.

First, it took 15 minutes for the guy behind the counter to set me up with a computer. He couldn’t get his mouse to work. The woman working next to him had a working mouse, but she was on the phone with a friend. It seemed like a fun call.

Eventually, I was set up, and I printed out my pages. The printer was behind the counter, and the guy handed me my 25 or so pages and got ready to ring me up. But the ink was very faded — hard-on-the-eyes, tension-headache-inducing faded — and so, I said exactly what every other human being would have said in my shoes. Which was: “Um, these are faded. ”

To which the woman behind the counter, looking up for the first time from her phone call, interrupted me:

“Are they legible?”

“Well, yeah, um, they’re legible, but . . .”

“Then you have to pay for them.”

I tried to challenge her, but my challenge hit a snag when I couldn’t remember the term “ink cartridge.”

“Don’t you have one of those little things you put in a printer that, you know, makes the printouts darker — what are they called again, you stick them in and then …”

To which the guy answered, “No, we don’t.” We have one ink cartridge that will last us until we go out of business.

And then the woman repeated, “Are they legible?”

I paid for the printouts.

And left in a huff, my mood brightening only when I saw a Target. I had to go in. My son wanted me to bring him back a Beyblade. These are cheap plastic tops with names like “Storm Pegasus” and “Dark Gasher.” They cost $10. The Beybladium, the official, plastic oversized dog bowl to spin these tops, is sold separately! Plus, I read The New York Times every day, and every third article is about how all the stores in Brooklyn are artisanal, so I wanted to see what an artisanal Target looked like.

It was spectacular. I’d never seen anything like it.

On my way out, a limited-edition Beyblade now all mine, I had to go the bathroom. And I didn’t, dear reader, wash my hands. The Target bathroom was packed, and I had in my backpack a little bottle of Purell I started to reach for. But before I could grab it, a teenager yelled: “That’s nasty! You got to wash your hands, man!”

For some reason, I walked over to him and showed him the Purell bottle. We then had an awkward conversation.

By the time I got outside, all I wanted to do was get to Union Hall and put my ill-fated journey behind me. That’s when I heard someone yell to me, “Are you Jewish?” That’s not a question you’d ever get asked in Chicago, unless it’s 1997, you are dating my now-wife and having your first conversation with her father.

But in Brooklyn, this happens. Lubavitch Jews ask it. Young, earnest ones, often. They want you to wear the Tefillin. It’s a little black box you put on your head that looks, well, kind of like an ink cartridge. (For a real description of what they are and mean, go here.)

Anyhow, I couldn't lie to him. So, I went over to him and found myself agreeing to wear the tefillin. I wanted to know how he identified me as Jewish. Was it my nose? Was it the hair on my back sticking out of the top of my shirt again? Was it the Purell in my hand? The correct answer, as I learned later, was that he asks everyone except burly blond men over 6’5”.

He took out a kepah (yarmulke) and asked me to put it on. It was the dirtiest thing I’d ever seen meant to be put on one's head. I think if one more head lice had been in there, they would have had a minion. Hello!

So, I refused. The kid weighed my answer. He calculated how many people he’d successfully stopped that day. Maybe he asked God for guidance. Either way, he let me proceed kepah-less. He put the box on my head, which, with two black straps hanging from it, looks like a strange electric device.

As he led me through my assigned lines in Hebrew, I said a silent prayer to not be electrocuted, at least not until after the show.

Chicago a cappella performs sacred Jewish music from their new album

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:52:00 -0500

The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, begins Wednesday night at sundown and the High Holidays will conclude 10 days later with Yom Kippur. Each holiday has prayers and songs that are heard only on these specific days. Now, many more can enjoy them thanks to the group Chicago a cappella. Days of Awe and Rejoicing: Radiant Gems of Jewish Music is their new CD. Members of the group came to WBEZ's Jim and Kay Maybe Performance Studio to sing a few songs and talk about the project with Eight Forty Eight’s Jason Marck.

Chicago A Cappella-Shehechianu

Chicago A Cappella-Reader's Kaddish from the N'ilah Service

Chicago A Cappella-Oseh Shalom

Evanston favors vacant lot over school

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 10:00:00 -0500

Communities are having a problem with vacant properties in this recession. They’re struggling to generate tax revenues, properties are deteriorating with neglect, and neighboring property values are plummeting. Most towns are scrambling to find new tenants for these buildings: businesses, homeowners, anyone.

But that’s not always the case in north suburban Evanston. When it comes to empty industrial land, the city’s actually turning down offers. It’s hoping that manufacturers will return someday.

DAVIS: Let’s walk around, okay?

Moshe Davis has found his dream. It’s a dark, damp, abandoned building in southwest Evanston.

DAVIS: As you walk over here, walk on the right.

You have to side-step puddles of standing water in the building's corridors.

Davis is chair of the Joan Dachs Bais Yaakov elementary school on Chicago’s North Side. It’s an Orthodox Jewish private school. A few years ago the school’s board bought this old building. It used to be an audio electronics company.

DAVIS: This is where the deliveries would have come and that kind of stuff. And in my mind I see over here a basketball court or two, and that kind of thing, a gym, maybe, or something like that.

Davis thinks this property is perfect for Joan Dachs’s boys school. The school’s facilities in Chicago’s West Ridge neighborhood are cramped. When the board bought the property in Evanston, Davis knew they were taking a gamble. The property is designated for industrial use, but the board believed Evanston would change that.

First, the building had sat on the market for years. Second, Davis says industry has been fleeing Evanston, moving to other suburbs. And, who wouldn’t want a bustling, healthy school to revitalize an empty shell?

DAVIS: We see it as a blight on the community, the vacancy of this building.

And in the remote possibility that Evanston would not change the property’s zoning, so what?

DAVIS: We'll do a cost analysis, we sell the property, no problem. And quite frankly, we would have sold the property.

Yeah. That was 2006, when you could sell property. But Davis never imagined what would come next. Evanston refused to change the zoning, and the real estate market fell apart. Davis can’t sell the property now, even though he's tried.

DAVIS: As businessmen I don’t think any of us have encountered this kind of resistance. It’s the kind of thing that’s ... not just not rational. We can’t figure it out.

Five years after buying it, Joan Dachs has sunk millions of dollars into purchase and maintenance. Davis has spent tens of thousands on property taxes. And, Joan Dachs students still attend class in their crowded Chicago facility.

The school has filed a lawsuit against Evanston.

SIEGEL: On principle, it just seemed to me that Evanston should continue to have areas available for tax-yielding, light industrial uses.

This is Jack Siegel. Siegel used to be Evanston’s attorney, and he handled the city’s side of this case when it started.

I talked to him because Evanston officials wouldn’t comment to me about this case, since it’s still in court. Siegel says Evanston officials always considered tax ramifications of land use applications. He says Evanston has to.

SIEGEL: Without doing a scientific investigation, I would think that Evanston probably has a greater percentage of its land devoted to exempt purposes than any other municipality in the Chicago area.

Siegel puts that percentage at 45 percent. In other words, nearly half of Evanston’s land is used by religious, non-profit or educational institutions that don’t have to pay property taxes.

That’s not an issue for other suburbs.

SIEGEL: In the 60s and the 70s, Arlington Heights and Schaumburg, like so many other communities in particular the Northwest and Southwest suburbs, were expanding, because there was so much unincorporated land. Evanston has been landlocked forever.

Evanston has a workaround: It’s called “payment in lieu of taxes.” It’s a sum of money that tax-exempt landholders agree to give the city voluntarily. Not taxes, exactly, but maybe close to what taxes would be if the land were owned by a business or a resident.

Moshe Davis says the school is ready to negotiate something like that. But Evanston isn’t interested. That’s because if the city allows the land to be used for a tax-exempt purposes ... it’ll stay that way forever — even if the school one day decides to leave Evanston.

Attorney Jack Siegel says keeping the land vacant is better than putting a school on it. He says Evanston shouldn’t give up on the idea that industry will come back. And he isn’t the only one who thinks that.

Evanston resident Michelle Hays lives 1.5 miles away from the property. But she testified at a planning commission meeting in 2008 because she feels the issue directly affects her.

HAYS: Just because it’s vacant doesn’t mean it doesn’t have the potential to become a viable commercial property at some point.

Hays says she understands that the property couldn’t be sold to an industrial tenant. But we’ve been in a recession. Hays says when the economy recovers, maybe an industrial tenant will come along. And for Hays it’s not just about losing part of Evanston’s tax base. She says there are other benefits of keeping Evanston’s few remaining industrial districts set aside for those purposes.

HAYS: Right around the corner is one of the poorest census areas in Evanston, and those people need jobs. And very often, commercial entities are the ones that provide jobs for the very, very low-income, unskilled people in Evanston.

Hays says she doesn’t have anything against the Joan Dachs school coming to Evanston. The problem, she says, is how the school board went about it: buying first and then assuming the city would change the zoning for the school’s needs. Hays says Evanston is the sort of place where residents expect to have input on those kinds of matters — right from the beginning.

Music Button: Band of Frequencies, "The Pass", from the CD Under The Sun OST, (Ubiquity)