History of the Jews in Illinois

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The history of the Jews in Illinois dates back to 1793, when

As of 2013, Illinois has a Jewish population of 297,935.[1] Approximately three-fourths of them live in Chicago. Peoria and Quincy have the second- and third-largest Jewish communities.

19th century

Chicago

See Jewish history in Chicago for further details.

Jews first settled in Chicago in the 1830s. Among the early arrivals was Henry Meyer, an agent of a Jewish colonization society formed in New York in 1842. He settled as a farmer in Cook County and recommended that some Jewish families move to Chicago. The state's first Jewish institutions were soon established in Chicago: the Jewish Burial-Ground Society (established 1846), and the congregations Anshe Ma'arab (1847), B'nai Sholom (1852), Sinai (1861). Since then, 75 more congregations have been organized, 68 of which are in Chicago.

Other cities

Outside of Chicago, there are eight congregations in seven cities, and numerous dispersed Jews that are members of the Jewish Federation of Southern Illinois.

• Bloomington
• Champaign
• Danville
• Kankakee
• Peoria
• Quincy
• Rockford
• Springfield
• In the 1990s there were around 2,000 Jews in southern Illinois that were united under the Southern Illinois Jewish Federation. The largest cities represented include Alton, Aurora, Belleville, East St. Louis, Cairo, Centralia, Carbondale, Granite City, Benton, Mattoon, and Robinson. Since then, some of these cities have regularly meeting congregations.
• A private Jewish cemetery housing a Jewish family since the 1830s in north Vandalia was desecrated in the early 20th century.

References

• [1]. By : Cyrus Adler & H. G. Friedmann
• Hyman L. Meites (ed.), History of the Jews of Chicago, Chicago Jewish Historical Society. 1924. (Facsimile ed. 1990). Quotes extensively from History of St. Clair County, Brink, McDonough and Co.. 1881.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)