Where Have All The Chicago Jewish Delicatessen's Gone?

As early as 1832, Jews coming from Eastern Europe settled in Chicago. Many sought to escape persecution and oppression in places like Bohemia, the Russian Empire, and Austria-Hungary. 

Chicago's earliest synagogue, "Kehilath Anshe Mayriv" (KAM), was founded in 1847. Fifteen years later, KAM had given birth to two splinter synagogues, the Polish-led and Orthodox-oriented "Kehilath B'nai Sholom" and the German-led and Reform-oriented "Sinai Congregation." These people spoke Hebrew, Yiddish, and Slavic languages like Russian, Polish, and Ukrainian. 

Jewish Market on Jefferson Street near 13th Street, Chicago, Illinois, 1907.

Jewish Market on Jefferson Street near 13th Street, Chicago, Illinois, 1907.

Enclaves of the Jewish population formed in Northern neighborhoods such as Lakeview, Edgewater, Albany Park, and on the South Side around Halsted and Maxwell streets. At one point, 55,000 Jews lived in the Maxwell Street area alone. 

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The 2020 estimate of the Chicago Jewish population is 319,600 Jewish adults and children who live in 175,800 Jewish households. An additional 100,700 non-Jewish individuals live in these households, for a total of 420,300 people in Jewish households.

From these strong roots, the Jewish community in Chicago today has grown to be the fifth-largest in the nation behind New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and number seven worldwide. 

Many decided to open businesses to serve their communities during this influx of Jewish immigrants. These entrepreneurs started to produce classic Ashkenazi Jewish food from Central and Eastern Europe, like the bagel and the bialy, and to sell it in a traditional delicatessen setting—the deli. 

Kishkes with Brown Sauce.

Now a hallmark of the patchwork of American culture, delis are famous for their oniony, peppery flavors and served awesome lox, corned beef,  pastrami,  gefilte fish, kishkes, whitefish salad, rye bread, and bagels . . . the list goes on and on! Aside from the food, they are beloved nationwide for their counter service and commitment to quality.

Ashkenaz Restaurant, 1432 West Morse Avenue, Rogers Park, Chicago.

Over the years, several famous delis in the Chicagoland area brought this excellent food to Chicagoans for years. While not all of them remain open today, a few greats include Leavitt's Delicatessen on Maxwell Street, The Bagel Nosh on State Street in the Rush Street area, Ashkenaz Deli in Rogers Park, D. B. Kaplan's in the Gold Coast, Mrs. Levy's Deli in the Loop, Manny's Restaurant and Delicatessen in the South Loop, Kaufman's Deli in Skokie, Fanny's Deli in Lincolnwood, and Morry's Delicatessen in Hyde Park.

Kosher Corned Beef Sandwiches Piled High!

There indeed used to be more delis in Chicago than there are now. Why are the numbers of this classic institution dwindling? There's no one answer—operating costs are high, tastes are changing, and the older patrons are shrinking and moving. However, the enthusiasm for this type of food is far from gone. New concepts and ideas are circulating, and with things like the slow food movement, the focus is returning to traditional methods and quality ingredients (some authentic imports).

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

#Jewish #JewishThemed #JewishLife

Lost Towns of Illinois - Byrneville, Illinois.

A portion of what is now a part of the Chicago suburb of Burr Ridge (on the DuPage County side of Burr Ridge), was known for a time as Byrneville, Illinois.

In the early 1900s, the unincorporated area now known as Palisades was called Byrneville in deference to the Byrneville Railroad Station. The Byrneville Railroad Station was located at the south end of Madison Street. The station was an important commercial site for the area’s dairy farmers who relied on the train to transport their goods to markets in other suburbs and Chicago proper.

Burr Ridge Middle School traces its heritage to the one-room schoolhouse originally known as Byrneville School. Byrneville School was later named Palisades School. In 1910, the community known as Byrneville built a one-room schoolhouse to save their children from a three-mile walk to Cass School. Anne M. Jeans was the first teacher, and she remained the sole teacher until 1947. Ms. Jeans renamed the school "Palisades" to reflect the rolling hills.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Removal of the "African Dip" dunk tank game from Riverview Amusement Park in Chicago, Illinois.

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In historical writing and analysis, PRESENTISM introduces present-day ideas and perspectives into depictions or interpretations of the past. Presentism is a form of cultural bias that creates a distorted understanding of the subject matter. Reading modern notions of morality into the past is committing the error of presentism. Historical accounts are written by people and can be slanted, so I try my hardest to present fact-based and well-researched articles.

Facts don't require one's approval or acceptance.

I present [PG-13] articles without regard to race, color, political party, or religious beliefs, including Atheism, national origin, citizenship status, gender, LGBTQ+ status, disability, military status, or educational level. What I present are facts — NOT Alternative Facts — about the subject. You won't find articles or readers' comments that spread rumors, lies, hateful statements, and people instigating arguments or fights.

FOR HISTORICAL CLARITY

When I write about the INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, I follow this historical terminology:

• The use of old commonly used terms, disrespectful today, i.e., REDMAN or REDMEN, SAVAGES, and HALF-BREED are explained in this article.

Writing about AFRICAN-AMERICAN history, I follow these race terms:

• "NEGRO" was the term used until the mid-1960s.
• "BLACK" started being used in the mid-1960s.
• "AFRICAN-AMERICAN" [Afro-American] began usage in the late 1980s.

— PLEASE PRACTICE HISTORICISM —

THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PAST IN ITS OWN CONTEXT.

 

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Nationally, in August of 1963, over 200,000 blacks and whites had marched on Washington, D.C., and heard Martin Luther King, Jr.'s stirring "I Have a Dream" speech. President John F. Kennedy promised sweeping new civil rights legislation but was assassinated in Dallas that November. The new president, Lyndon Johnson, however, made good on Kennedy's promise; the most comprehensive civil rights act in U.S. history was pushed through Congress in the first half of 1964.

Riverview Amusement Park, Chicago, Illinois.

Locally, 1963 had been the year the civil rights movement came home to Chicago. Independent black aldermanic candidates challenged the Daley machine in the February elections. The Mayor himself was booed off the stage at an NAACP rally in Grant Park. A "brush-fire" of sit-in demonstrations erupted at South Side classrooms in protest of school segregation, culminating in a one-day school boycott, when virtually every black student in the system stayed home and thousands of protesters marched on City Hall.

These events had particular resonance at Riverview. Six days after the start of the 1964 season, Chicago Daily News columnist Mike Royko reported that—after 55 years—"The Dip" game had been removed from the park. [Daily News, 5/21/64]

Forest Park Amusement Park, Forest Park, Illinois.

This sideshow dunk tank game was once reportedly called, “Dunk the N***er,” later “The African Dip,” and finally “The Dip.” The black men would tease, provoke and otherwise try to disrupt the pitcher’s aim. The Blacks were careful not to say anything too insulting, lest they stir up the racism (and provoke violence) that was at the heart of the game. But they would and could get away with belittling their adversaries’ athletic skill or throwing ability in a way that was amusing. If their comments (i.e. If you were heavy, they’d call you "meatball." If you were with a girl, they might have said something like, "Hey fella, that ain’t the same girl you were with yesterday!") distracted the player, got them to laugh, or the crowd to laugh at the player, or caused the hurler to lose concentration, chances were the player would pony-up more money for another go at the game.

Park publicist Dorothy Strong told Royko: "...the man who had that concession was elderly. He just wanted to give it up and retire. He said he had had it and was tired. I think he said something about going to Florida." But Royko found the concessionaire, George F. Starr, at home in suburban Algonquin, and Starr said that Riverview had asked him to take out the Dip. "They were afraid of a boycott—afraid we'd have trouble—They claim they were getting letters from people who objected to the game." (In later years, this would be exaggerated into one of the major 'old wives' tales' of Riverview lore; that there were actual picket lines—organized by the NAACP, no less—protesting at the park till the Dip was removed. Nothing of the sort ever happened.)

To the end, Starr—whose father-in-law, Adolph Doerr, had started the concession at Riverview in 1909—didn't see anything wrong with the game, even claiming it was 'integrated': "We had white men working the counter—and colored boys working in the traps." When asked by Royko why he didn't fully integrate the Dips, using black and white men in the three cages, Starr replied he would have, but had only one dressing room. "You can't have whites and Negroes using the same dressing room," he said.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.