Bus Tours 2014

Sunday, June 22, 2014
Chicago's Jewish West Side

Guide: Dr. Irving Cutler

A sentimental journey to historic Jewish sites and neighborhoods—from downtown to Maxwell Street, Lawndale, Garfield Park, Humboldt Park, and Wicker Park. We will stop in for a visit at the former KINS synagogue on Independence Blvd. (now an African American church) and the Garfield Park Conservatory. We will take a short walk through the new Maxwell Street Market (on Desplaines). Along the way we will pass the former Jewish People’s Institute (JPI), Mount Sinai Hospital, theaters, schools such as Marshall and Manley, and places associated with famous Jewish residents. Dr. Cutler is the author of The Jews of Chicago: From Shtetl to Suburb and Chicago’s Jewish West Side.

10:30 am— 4:30 pm Bernard Horwich JCC, 3003 West Touhy Avenue
11:00 am— 4:00 pm Marriott Hotel, 540 North Michigan Avenue (Rush Street Entrance)
$40 Member / $45 Non-member

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Sunday, July 27, 2014Chicago’s Jewish South Shore

Guide: Herbert Eiseman

As we travel south from the Loop, our expert guide will review the early history of Jewish Chicago. In South Shore we will track commercial streets where the Jewish community once thrived, observe buildings that once housed Jewish institutions, and discuss the history, development and uniqueness of this once thriving Jewish community. Beyond South Shore, we will visit several smaller South Side communities (Pill Hill, South Chicago, Jeffery Manor, and Roseland) where there was a Jewish presence from the late nineteenth into first two-thirds of twentieth century.

11:30 am — 5:30 pm Bernard Horwich JCC, 3003 West Touhy Avenue
12:00 pm — 5:00 pm Marriott Hotel, 540 North Michigan Avenue (Rush Street Entrance)
$40 Member / $45 Non-member

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Sunday, August 24
South Haven & Benton Harbor

Guide: Leah Axelrod

A delightful summer day trip. We will visit the Jewish communities of southwest Michigan to learn about their settlement and development, guided by Leah Axelrod, the CJHS tour maven. First, a stop at Benton Harbor’s Temple B’nai Sholom and the Jewish cemetery. Then a tour of Mary’s City of David, the unique communal colony recently placed on the National Register of Historic Places, where we will be served a vegetarian lunch. We will visit South Haven, known as “the Catskills of the Midwest” by Jewish Chicagoans seeking fresh air and fun in the days before AC and TV. Today it is again a thriving summer destination (those beaches, those peaches, those blueberries!) as well as home to a permanent year-round Jewish community. Be sure to pack a meal or a snack to enjoy at our last stop, Sinai Temple in Michigan City, Indiana, where Rabbi Remi Dickman will welcome us.

8:00 am — 8:30 pm Bernard Horwich JCC, 3003 West Touhy Avenue
8:30 am — 8:00 pm Marriott Hotel, 540 North Michigan Avenue (Rush Street Entrance)
$88 Member / $93 Non-member

Download registration form