Herbert Eiseman

Herb was born in Chicago in 1936 to German-Jewish immigrants. His extended family lived in the Woodlawn, Hyde Park and South Shore communities of Chicago’s South Side from the 1930s through the 1970s. During the 1930s, they welcomed family and friends fleeing the horrors of Nazi Germany. As a child, Herb witnessed the adjustments that the refugees had to make.

He attended public schools: Kozminski Elementary in Hyde Park and South Shore High School. He was Bar Mitzvahed at Congregation Rodfei Zedek when it was still located at its historic site at 54th Street and Greenwood Avenue. Upon completion of two years of service in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he returned to Chicago, where he attended the University of Illinois Branch at Navy Pier for two years before transferring to the flagship campus in Urbana-Champaign, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology. He subsequently earned a master’s degree from Roosevelt University’s Urban Studies Department.

Over the years, he worked in both the private and public sectors, including LBJ’s War on Poverty program. After retiring from city government, Herb worked as a tour guide in Chicago – indulging his passions for local history and architecture – before starting his own tour company, “Herb’s Tours – Chicago.” He gave tours in the city until the onset of the coronavirus.