Founding President
Dr. Alexander M. Dushkin
1974 ribbon-cutting ceremony marking the Spertus move to 618 S. Michigan Avenue
From left: Maurice Spertus, Milton Ratner, Mayor Richard J. Daley, Herman Spertus
Current Spertus President/CEO
Dr. Howard A. Sulkin
Photo by Cheri Eisenberg
An 18th-century brass menorah from the Spertus collection was used at the White House to celebrate Hanukkah, 2003.
Photo by Paul Morse.
Rendering of new Spertus facility courtesy of Krueck & Sexton Architects. Facility will be located just north of the current Spertus location.
History of Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies
Spertus Institute, then named College of Jewish Studies, was founded in 1924. In its first year it offered three courses—Jewish history, religion and language. The courses were offered on Tuesday and Thursday nights, and students could enroll in all three for the grand sum of $15. The early response was encouraging, and two years later, the College offered four different types of diplomas that reflected its educational and communal mission: Hebrew teacher, Sunday school teacher, club leader and club supervisor.
At the time of its founding, the College was a division of The Board of Jewish Education of Metropolitan Chicago, established with the primary purpose of training teachers and leaders for formal and informal Jewish educational programs. As such, the College was the first American Jewish teacher training school established west of Philadelphia. Its founding president, Dr. Alexander Dushkin, was Superintendent of the BJE and a pioneer in American Jewish education. Dushkin later established the Department of Education at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
In its first years, the College served primarily first generation immigrants. As this generation was succeed by their American born children and grandchildren, the College focused its resources in response to their expanded educational, cultural and professional expectations, without diluting its essential core: the study of Judaism.
In the 1940s, under the leadership of Dr. Leo Honor and Rabbi Samuel Blumenfield, the identity of the College as a distinct institution began to emerge. In 1942, it was authorized to grant degrees by the Illinois Department of Education. In 1944, the BJE authorized the College to have its own charter and its own Board of Governors. In its charter, issued in 1945, the institutional mission was defined as "Maintaining and operating a College in which youths and adults may receive an education on a college and post graduate level in…any subject relating to Jews and Judaism." This represented an expansion of The College's original mission of being primarily a teachers' training institution.
From the 1940s until the 1960s, the College served as the central institution in Chicago and in the American Midwest for the training of Jewish educators and as the central institution in Chicago for Hebrew culture, thereby expressing the ideology of Cultural Zionism that characterized its early history, programs and curricula. By 1948, a Department of Graduate Studies offering bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees had been initiated. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, cantors and choir directors were trained for synagogues through its Institute for Jewish Music. From the 1940s until the mid 1960s, the College operated a summer camp, Camp Sharon, and initiated and substantially expanded Continuing Education programs in Chicago and surrounding suburbs. Many renowned refugee scholars who migrated to America to escape Hitler served on the Spertus faculty during these years.
In 1968, Maurice Spertus donated his tremendous collection of Jewish ceremonial objects to the College, thus beginning the Spertus Museum. In 1970, the College of Jewish Studies honored the outstanding and ongoing support of families of Maurice and his brother Herman Spertus by changing its name to the Spertus College of Judaica. In 1974, Spertus moved from its longtime location at 72 E. 11th Street to the former IBM headquarters at 618 S. Michigan Avenue. That same year, Norman and Helen Asher, recognizing the importance of a first class library, endowed what is now the Norman and Helen Asher Library. The Asher Library also includes the Targ Center for Jewish Music and the Chicago Jewish Archives.
The College received its accreditation for the baccalaureate degree from the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools in 1971. Accreditation at the master's and doctoral levels followed in 1976 and 1992, respectively. Also in 1971, Spertus College started the first college level course in the Midwest in Holocaust Studies, and in 1975 Spertus Museum created the Bernard and Rochelle Zell Holocaust Memorial, the first permanent Holocaust exhibition in North America, an important resource for Chicago-area teachers and students, and the centerpiece of the Bernard and Rochelle Zell Center for Holocaust Studies.
In 1984, Dr. Howard A. Sulkin became the organization's seventh president. It was Dr. Sulkin's priority to bring together all the different resources and communities that comprised Spertus into a unified, cooperative force.
Spertus College now offers eight post graduate degrees, and through distance learning options serves students in 36 U.S. states and six foreign countries. The Spertus Center for Nonprofit Management provides working professionals with tools to succeed in the nonprofit and public service sectors, through its Master’s program and continuing education opportunities.
Spertus Museum has developed into a world class Jewish museum, which in addition to housing a vast collection of Jewish art and artifacts, hosts cutting edge exhibitions exploring the Jewish experience and its relation to broader culture.
The Asher Library now contains over 110,000 books plus extensive collections of periodicals, films on video and DVD, sound recordings, Hebrew manuscripts, rare books and maps. The Chicago Jewish Archives has expanded rapidly in recent years due to the increased interest among Jews in preserving and exploring the history of their families and community.
In 1987, Spertus College established The Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Center for the Study of Eastern European Jewry. Jointly sponsored with the Archdiocese of Chicago, the Center is dedicated to promoting interfaith dialogue and increased understanding between Eastern European and Jewish communities.
In 1993, Spertus College of Judaica officially became The Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, reflecting its multidisciplinary identity. Along with the name change, reflecting its multifaceted approach to the study of Jewish culture, came a renewed declaration of our institutional goals and new long term strategies on how to implement them.
Appealing to a variety of audiences of all ages, Spertus today serves both scholarly and casual learners of all backgrounds, on-site and via distance learning, through a tremendous wealth of programs, educational opportunities, exhibitions and cultural offerings that share a common purpose: to enhance understanding of the Jewish experience.
Through innovative programs and projects, Spertus has positioned itself to hand down this learning for generations to come. Enabled through the dedicated efforts of its many friends and supporters, Spertus has become a world class institution of Jewish learning and culture.
To better serve the growing needs of its students and visitors, in November 2007 Spertus opened a dazzling new facility on South Michigan Avenue in Chicago's cultural and education corridor. The new structure, featuring a creative, contemporary design by the award-winning firm of Krueck & Sexton Architects, offers state-of-the-art resources to meet the needs of those who use Spertus' many services.
In its new home, Spertus continues its mission of exploring and sharing the multifaceted and ever-vital Jewish experience.
return to top