Its still a constant topic of conversation in our house and the television hasnt been off the last few days. My youngest daughter is a camp counselor. Community. But neither can fathom participating in the community walk. Aiden McCarthys photo was shared across Chicago-area social media groups in the hours after the July 4 parade shooting in Highland Park, accompanied by pleas to help identify the 2-year-old who had been found at the scene bloodied and alone and to reunite him with his family. Like Squirrel Hill which is also home to almost exactly 15,000 Jews Highland Park boasts an array of synagogues spanning denominations, including multiple Reform congregations and the largest Chabad-Lubavitch center in the area, called the Central Avenue Synagogue. (Courtesy of Eshel). Highland Park synagogue-goers were also, active in the movement to free Soviet Jewry, in the 1970s and 80s. She didnt complain, Craig Goldstein told The New York Times. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Ohav Emeths rabbi, Eliyahu Kaufman, declined a JTA request for comment, as did Rabbi Steven Miodownik, who heads Congregation Ahavas Achim, another Orthodox synagogue nearby that shares a vaad, or rabbinic council, with Kaufmans synagogue. The Wildwood was a Jewish resort opened by German immigrants in Highland Park. I know that Highland Park has a significant Jewish population, but I don't have a sense for what % that is. An inspiring Jewish story happened on this season of NBCs American Ninja Warrior. Nobody will ever see it. And we see them with panic on their faces, terror in their eyes, he said. Howard Prager, a tuba player in the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band, said he thought he saw the shooter flee the scene. So everybodys affected a little differently.. She was 64. Several Highland Park mayors, including the incumbent Nancy Rotering, have been Jewish. And finally, evening entertainment will include a concert by Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band and a custom drone show in lieu of fireworks. While there are other Jewish concentrations elsewhere in the North Shore, Highland Parks still the original. No suspects after swastikas found on lawn of Highland Park Jewish While the Squirrel Hill shooters motive was clear, local police are still investigating the alleged Highland Park attacker, Robert Bobby Crimo III. Raichik is one of the most prominent purveyors of the slur that LGBTQ people seek to groom or otherwise harm children. Highland Park is a neighborhood in the southwestern corner of Saint Paul, . If You're Thinking of Living In/Highland Park, N.J.; Small in Size but Highland Park, St. Paul; Missouri. While authorities have not said what motivated the suspect, investigative groups have pointed to the suspect's social media posts as gravitating towards far-right ideas. According to a 2020 study of the metropolitan Chicago area by researchers at Brandeis University and the University of Chicago, Highland Park is 50% Jewish: about 15,000 of the suburbs 30,000 residents. The mass shooting left seven dead five of whom belonged to Jewish families and dozens more wounded by bullets or shrapnel. "But in most cases, they were all traumatized, and there wasn't a lot of back and forth discussion.". In Highland Park's Jewish community, few are - Jewish Exponent But as discussions of LGBTQ equality and visibility have taken center stage in the United States culture wars, even Jewish groups that advocate for LGBTQ rights have faced dilemmas about how to translate that support into action. The way he lived life, youd think he was still middle-aged, Maxwell Straus said in an interview. What if they hadnt been able to run? Meanwhile, the student president of the Jewish Allies & Queers group at Rutgers University, in the neighboring city of New Brunswick, was a featured speaker at a Pride flag-raising event the city had scheduled for Monday at a separate location. "We're supposed to celebrate Shabbat with with song and joy, and it was very subdued. Chesterfield; University City; Nebraska. And we're doing that here and we'll continue to do that.". By Gabe Friedman July 5, 2022,. Congregation Solel was led for a decade by Rabbi Robert Marx, a pioneering social justice activist who marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. and died last year at 93. Highland Park has at times been a bedroom community for nearby Rutgers University and Johnson & Johnson in New Brunswick, . The mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, one of the most heavily Jewish suburbs in the Chicago area, is at least the 300th in the United States this year. History of the Jews in Chicago Part of a series on Ethnic groups in Chicago Armenians [1] Afghans [2] African Americans Albanians [3] Appalachian Assyrians [4] Austrians [5] Belarusians Belgians [6] Bosnians Brazilians [7] Chinese Croatians [8] Czechs Dutch [9] English [10] Estonians [11] Finns [12] Germans Ghanaians [13] Guatemalans [14] Greeks Three members of Am Shalom, a Reform congregation in nearby Glencoe, were injured by the gunman and two went to the hospital with their injuries, according to Rabbi Steven Lowenstein, who said the injured did not want to release their names. As the flatbed began to roll and they struck up the klezmer in earnest, Maxwell Street tuba player Howard Prager noticed people dancing on the sidewalk. Mourners visit a memorial site after a mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Ill., July 6, 2022. A rabbi saying that a Pride flag goes against a synagogues values is sending a message, intentional or not, to their congregants and beyond, some of whom look to that flag as a lifeline, said the parent, Randi Ostrove. Most of the days events require registration, part of an enhanced security plan. , a pioneering social justice activist who marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. and died last year at 93. There are always different events in the community that are appropriate . assistant director for program marketing at JCC Chicago and a fellow single mother who was part of the camp group last year have been talking about taking their kids to the drone show together. . Foster had ordered four Pride flags removed from a public street weeks prior at the request of two local rabbis. No place is safe.. The HDC Board of Directors is composed of community volunteers elected to serve two-year terms. But that did not happen. And even if they cant, I definitely want people to know that if they need help, or they need service, they can contact us anytime.. What if they had picked a different spot on the route? The shooting at Highland Park's July 4 parade killed seven people, six of whom were officially identified on Tuesday: Katherine Goldstein (aged 64), Irena McCarthy (35), Kevin McCarthy (37),. The event went amazingly well, Kabakov said. Several public commenters including a handful who identified as LGBTQ Orthodox Jews had come to the meeting to express outrage and speak out against the flags removal. Although some parts of the Orthodox community have become open to LGBTQ inclusion in recent years, others remain more skeptical of its place in observant Jewish spaces. Tcath said that the worst for Highland Park involved antisemitic hockey fans from neighboring towns, who in the 1980s and 90s would throw bagels onto the ice when their children played against Highland Park, to try to intimidate and embarrass them. No one will. we are reminded of our responsibility as a community to address the root causes of gun violence . Since its founding 40 years ago, Maxwell Street has been deeply intertwined with the citys Jewish life, playing more than 1,000 events, including weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs, according to Lori Lippitz, its founder and artistic director. They are 6 years old.. So had the rabbi of another Orthodox congregation about half a mile away. (One of the two victims identified so far, Jacki Sundheim, was the bnei mitzvah and event coordinator for the North Shore Congregation Israel in the neighboring suburb of Glencoe.). A local Orthodox parent of an LGBTQ child, who contacted Kabakov in distress, told JTA that as a result of the controversy, Highland Park residents had raised more than $1,200 for Jewish Queer Youth, another organization advocating for LGBTQ Jews in Orthodox spaces. Jewish synagogue employee among six victims of Highland Park 4th of July shooting, Six dead in shooting at July 4 parade in Chicago suburb, suspect captured, police say, U.S. envoy: If this happened in another country, wouldnt we call it antisemitism?, Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. All Rights Reserved. This is our joy, and this is our spirit, and this is our. Video from the scene showed people running for their lives as a Klezmer band played a jaunty tune from the back of a red, white and blue-decked pickup truck. What you need to know about Highland Park, the Chicago suburb rattled In the absence of kids on bikes and musicians on floats, Carp said, Im imagining its going to be this quiet walk, which just feels hard and heavy. For Skolnick, It very much feels like a funeral procession, she said. Nearly 12 months on, people are still asking themselves impossible questions. Few members of the community were left unaffected by the shooting. The town is rich in other 20th-century Jewish history, too. "Sadly, New Jersey is not immune to anti-Jewish animus," Cohen said. As such, they warrant a priority response from everyone." Anyone with information should call the Highland Park Police detective bureau at (732) 572-3800. This past April, around the Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day, antisemitic flyers were found scattered throughout Highland Park and other North Shore communities (they shared qualities with others distributed in several other cities over the past year by the antisemitic Goyim Defense League group). Therell be hugs and laughter and playing and tootling around, he said. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search. Like Squirrel Hill which is also home to almost exactly 15,000 Jews Highland Park boasts an array of synagogues spanning denominations, including multiple Reform congregations and the largest Chabad-Lubavitch center in the area, called the Central Avenue Synagogue. Yet, she added, We worry about the future of Orthodox LGBTQ+ people., Orthodox leaders, she said, are lagging behind in fully integrating what was true all along, that LGBTQ+ people are part of their shuls whether they know it or not.. Around one third of the population of Highland Park's 30,000 residents are Jewish and the town features synagogues from multiple denominations, with substantial Jewish populations in many of the neighboring . Ive had both of my communities pressure me at various times about giving up the other community, Kaplan said, but insisted that each could learn something from the other. I cant imagine being in a crowd, said Ron Krit, the national director of the Life & Legacy program at the Harold Grinspoon Foundation. Several weeks before the Highland Park July 4 mass shooting Joel S. on Twitter: ""While some in Highland Park portrayed the divide These are areas that have within them an Orthodox Jewish community in which there is a sizable and cohesive population, which has its own eruvs, community organizations, . . In 2014, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency included Highland Park in an article on communities across the country that were, melding Jewish pride into their ceremonies for July 4. , which that year fell on Friday, just before Shabbat. I think it might be very jarring, this year for sure, to just go rolling down the streets where people were shot down, Lippitz said.That ground was a battleground. A parade observer, local Jewish entrepreneur Candice Crane, laughed and took pictures with her husband and two of her young children. Rabbi Yosef Schanowitz said that at the Seudah Shlishit, a third meal of the Sabbath that is usually held in synagogue between afternoon and evening services on Saturday, the congregation took some time to reflect. Skolnick and her friend, Ilana Carp assistant director for program marketing at JCC Chicago and a fellow single mother who was part of the camp group last year have been talking about taking their kids to the drone show together. Several of them were at the parade yesterday in Highland Park, Dan Elbaum, the Jewish Agencys North American head and a resident of neighboring Deerfield, tweeted following the attack. Serving the Jewish community - Highland Park, IL - Michael Teplitsky honored for dedication, volunteerism They drove in a daze to their next parade before anyone could really grasp what had just taken place and then back home after they learned every other event in the area was ultimately canceled. Her anxiety comes in waves, and she was surprised to find it triggered by the warming weather and start of camp. The recent. But the feeling would last for only a few bars. She attended the parade with her older daughter so that Cassie could reunite with friends from high school, Craig Goldstein, a hospital physician, told the newspaper. Lippitz said she understands why. My moms childhood friend Jacki Lovi Sundheim was killed today in the Highland Park shooting. A view of the Mizrahi Grill kosher restaurant in Highland Park. This is an extraordinary year, said city manager Ghida Neukirch. Congregation Solel was led for a decade by. The city of Highland Park has reinstated four Pride flags two rabbis had asked the mayor to take down. Nearly all modern interpretations of Orthodox law forbid same-sex relations, though recently a number of Orthodox public figures. That fundraiser drew nearly $2 million in its first 12 hours. Where is Highland Park? What we know about affluent Chicago suburb In Highland Park, he told JTA, they prefer the Israeli flag., The report captures Highland Parks sky-high levels of Jewish pride and provides yet another example of how Mondays shooting that killed at least seven people at a July 4 parade there struck the heart of one of the countrys idyllic suburban Jewish capitals. (About 3% of the Jews in Highland Park and its surrounding towns are Israeli, the study also found.). Chicagos North Shore has spent a year mourning the victims of last years Fourth of July parade in the heavily Jewish city of Highland Park. In Highland Park's Jewish community, few are untouched by deadly mass Do I feel that this was a targeted attack on the Jewish community? asked local resident Steve Altschul, who was several hundred meters away from the shooting and fled with his family. "We may never know what hate or evil sparked a mad manan . "My youngest daughter is a camp counselor. Highland Park Kosher & Jewish Guide, Vacations & Trips: the biggest web guide for Kosher Restaurants & Eateries, Hotels, Vacation Rentals, Synagogues, Mikvahs, Minyans / Shuls, Shabbat Meals, Rooms & Hospitality, Chabad - for the Jewish Observant Traveler in Highland Park Illinois . (JTA) In 2014, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency included Highland Park in an article on communities across the country that were melding Jewish pride into their ceremonies for July 4, which that year fell on Friday, just before Shabbat. The town has avoided large-scale antisemitic incidents throughout the 20th century even as nearby Skokie became the site of a nationwide neo-Nazi march and the center of a landmark Supreme Court case in the late 1970s, and as West Rogers Park on Chicagos far northwest side saw a white supremacist shoot to kill multiple Orthodox Jews leaving services in 1999. Headlines National In Highland Park's Jewish community, few are untouched by deadly mass shooting By JTA - July 6, 2022 0 A family embraces while observing the scene of a mass shooting at a July 4th parade in downtown Highland Park, Illinois, July 5, 2022. Highland Park, Illinois - Wikipedia According to a 2020 study of the metropolitan Chicago area by researchers at Brandeis University and the University of Chicago, Highland Park is 50% Jewish: about 15,000 of the suburb's. But also at the same time, knowing that we can do so much to bring so much light and goodness into the world.". Its members are committed to performing at other Chicago-area July 4 parades next week. I did have a conversation, a very private conversation, with a rabbi, and a request was made, Foster told constituents at the council meeting on June 20. Highland Parks, median household income was $147,067 in 2020. , according to the Census Bureau, more than twice the national median. HP still strong | Jewish Chicago (The JUF Magazine) @ Jewish United Fund It's a very warm community," Sommer said. But she said at the Borough Council meeting that the affected flags had been flying directly in front of a congregation that was located near the music festival being staged the weekend of June 9. Serving the Jewish community | Highland Park, IL Patch They continued to play even as a handful of people began running toward them, against the flow of the parade. There is a cultural divide between the rabbis and the LGBTQ+ community, Miryam Kabakov, executive director of the nonprofit Eshel, which supports LGBTQ Orthodox Jews and their families, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about the flag controversy. May her memory be a blessing, one Twitter user posted, describing himself as filled with rage.. Highland Park became the city's primary Jewish neighborhood after most of the Jewish population moved from the Summit-University neighborhood in the mid-1900s . Irina McCarthy had been the same age when she immigrated to the U.S. with her Russian Jewish family, How the Highland Park shooter destroyed a Russian Jewish familys American dream, Skolnick, 53, who had loved the Highland Park parade since childhood, had organized about 100 families from, JCC Chicagos Z Frank Apachi Day Camp in neighboring Northbrook, For months after escaping with her own twin daughters and frantically contacting the families shed gathered for the event, she felt safe only at home and at camp. "But beyond the Jewish part, it's a tight-knit community in general." . Elissa Kaplan, an LGBTQ Orthodox Jew, told the crowd at the council meeting that her dual identities made her a potential model and bridge for the community. While some in Highland Park portrayed the divide as one between the Orthodox Jewish and LGBTQ communities, others cautioned against viewing the two groups as completely separate. "We also went around the table, and people had an opportunity to express themselveswhere they had been [during the shooting], and the effect that it had on them, and who they knew that may have been hurt, and so on," Rabbi Yosef Schanowitz said. This is our joy, and this is our spirit, and this is our ruach, and lets dance., And yes, their classic opener, Freylekhs fun der khupe, which they never got to finish playing last year, is in the lineup. Highland Parks Jewish history dates back to the turn of the 20th century, when Tcath said Jewish families began spending parts of their summers in the area. The flagship Modern Orthodox campus, Yeshiva University, has cited its status as a religious institution in an, over its refusal to recognize an LGBTQ student group. Upon hearing this years itinerary, his first thought as a tuba player whos always considered July 4 to be his big day was that hed love to play. Several ran into Starbucks. This year Lippitz has signed them up to perform at. Her anxiety comes in waves, and she was surprised to find it triggered by the warming weather and, . Were happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. But there also support from the city, which connected people with specialized mental health counselors, from Jewish institutions, and from one another. Several Highland Park mayors, including the incumbent Nancy Rotering, have been Jewish. It has also been the hometown for several famous Jews, from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid screenwriter, Rachel Brosnahan, who is not Jewish but has said her upbringing around Jewish friends helped inform her performance. Katherine Goldstein (middle) is shown in this photo. Hes not there yet, but one day, I will definitely go to a parade again, he said. Highland Parks median household income was $147,067 in 2020, according to the Census Bureau, more than twice the national median. Elusive Freedom: One Year After Highland Park | Menachem Creditor | The while also respecting the religious sensitivities of our Orthodox Jewish community . In 2019, Highland Park High School yearbooks had to be edited. History of the Jews in Chicago - Wikipedia Courtesy of North Shore Congregation Israel, As the shooting made national headlines, local Jewish institutions went into crisis mode. Highland Park: Chicago's Jewish suburb - Welcome to Unpacked Highland Parks Jewish history dates back to the turn of the 20th century, when Tcath said Jewish families began spending parts of their summers in the area. Highland Park resident receives Chicago Jewish Federation's - Patch The Chicago Sun Times reported that Kevin McCarthy had died shielding his son from the gunfire. The shooting at Highland Park's July 4 parade killed seven people, six of whom were officially identified on Tuesday: Katherine Goldstein (aged 64), Irena McCarthy (35), Kevin McCarthy (37),. (Courtesy: Highland Park Historical Society) It will haunt me forever. The city of Highland Park condemned anti-Semitism and "all acts of hate," saying it "stands in solidarity with our Jewish community." According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Highland Park is . For decades, the Orthodox world has struggled with whether and how to accept LGBTQ people. We saw the panic and terror in their eyes.. Free Sign Up, The report captures Highland Parks sky-high levels of Jewish pride and provides yet another example of how Mondays shooting that killed at least seven people at a July 4 parade there struck the heart of one of the countrys idyllic suburban Jewish capitals.