Ronald Litke
By Ronald Litke
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News As Purim approaches, antisemitic attacks leave Chicago neighborhood on edge
When an Orthodox husband and wife and their two children approached the entrance to B’nai Reuven, a Chabad-Lubovitch shul in Chicago’s West Rogers Park, last Shabbat, their greeter was an armed security guard. “What has been happening here we’ve seen before,” said the husband, Avram, who refused to give his last name, citing concerns for…
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News Should Biden pick Rahm Emanuel? In Chicago, everybody has a opinion.
To start a vigorous political argument just say, “Rahm Emanuel.” Whether you’re in Chicago, where he was a mayor and congressman and investment banker, or in Washington, where he worked with Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, the diminutive middle son of the three Emanuel brothers is trending upwards — for this week at least…
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Culture Remembering Jerry Krause — The Nebbish Hero Of Chicago Sports
He was perhaps the ultimate sports management nebbish. Jerry Krause, a scout and general manager in professional baseball and basketball, died yesterday at 77 from what appeared to be multiple health problems. Often referred to, for news expediency, as “the architect” of the six-time (in only eight years) champion Chicago Bulls of the 1990s, Krause’s…
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Culture Music and Pomegranates Merge at Greater Chicago Jewish Festival
In 1980 Skokie, Ill. lawyer Michael Lorge and about 20 of his friends were trying to create a positive Jewish community response for what they saw as an identity in trouble. Though Israel and Egypt had established diplomatic relations in January, only three months later five Palestinian Arabs from the Iraqi-backed Arab Liberation Front raided…
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Music Who Knew Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Son Is Revolutionizing World Music?
Jewish roots are emerging in contemporary music from remarkably diverse performers who are often not Jewish. Beyond the intriguing klezmer revival, there’s a steadily growing movement of typically classically trained musicians who are discovering mostly European Jewish music as a base for alchemical combinations of past and present. When classical guitarist Denis Azabagic, originally from…
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Art In Chicago, All Roads Led to Lois Weisberg
A New Yorker profile written by Malcolm Gladwell in 1999 made Lois Weisberg, Chicago’s commissioner of cultural affairs, famous because, Gladwell wrote, she was among those “who make the world work.” Weisberg appeared in Gladwell’s best-selling book “The Tipping Point,” largely because of her facility with viral networking and her dedication to all kinds of…
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Culture Of World’s Fairs, Cellphones and 10 Other Facts About Jewish Illinois
1) 297,885 Jews live in Illinois. 2) The first recorded Jewish resident in Illinois was John Hays who lived in Cahokia, near the Missouri border. He was a farmer, trader, and soldier, and served as St. Clair County’s postmaster until 1798, when he was appointed sheriff. 3) Music entrepreneur Sol Bloom developed the Midway Plaisance,…
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Yiddish World Frankie’s Menorah (a Yiddish Hanukkah story)
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