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Skokie heaves sigh of relief
By Dennis Byrne
Political and religious leaders expressed
relief Friday that Sunday’s scheduled Nazi
march in Skokie has been called off.
“What has happened is now history,” said
village president Albert J. Smith. “But I
would be remiss if I did not express the
gratitude of every Skokie resident for the
magnificent outpouring of support we received from both Christians and Jews from
around the world.
“Today we look forward to a return to
peace and tranquility - long a hallmark of
the Skokie lifestyle. . . . We are thankful for
this decision and equally proud of our village’s unwavering stand on the issue involved.
“Rabbi Hayim G. Perelmuter resident of
the Chicago Board of Rabbis, said there may
have been at least one useful outcome of the
threatened march.
“It was an affront to constructive forces
everywhere - not just against the Jews,” he
said. “If that lesson was learned, then it may
have served a useful purpose.”
With the threat of the march gone in the
heavily Jewish suburb, residents went about
getting their lives back to normal.
IT WASN’T JUST the threat of the march
that bothered these private people. There
was the media attention, with reporters and
photographers sticking microphones, cameras and note pads in their faces, asking
what they thought about the march, what
should be done, what they would do.
And there were the thousands of people,
some peaceful and some apparently bent on
violence, ready to pour into town from all
over the nation. And there was the prospect
of thousands of law enforcement officials
and troops rolling in to set up their security
perimeter and checkpoints.
There was the thought of all this hate and
all these outsiders using their town, stomping across the private perspectives and cherished memories of their own community.
Brown shirts on Lincoln Av., where generations of kids have passed heading for an ice
cream at the corner store on warm summer
days?
Up the street, an old Army tank has
reposed in front of an American Legion post
for as long as most people can remember.
But the threatened march made the thought
of military equipment rolling down the
street real.
LIKE HUNDREDS of other communities
and neighborhoods in the Chicago area, what
is most remarkable about Skokie history is
simply the collective memories and private
perspectives of generations of people.
Skokie began building its own recollections in the late 1800s, when German and
Luxenbourg settlers began draining the
swamps that ran from what is now about
Touhy Av. to the Skokie lagoons. They filled
in the swamps with farms and greenhouses,
providing vegetables and flowers for Chicago. The village itself was incorporated in
1888 as Niles Center, but in 1938 the name
was changed to Skokie, which means
“swamp,” to avoid confusion with the nearby village of Niles.
For years, the population totalled only
several hundred. But things changed in 1926
when the city transit system extended its L
line to Dempster St. and a year later when
Samuel Insull built his Skokie Valley Route
of the old North Shore electrified rail line
through the community. It gave the community excellent transportation, and combined
with widespread real estate speculation going on in many suburbs, people started to
pour in.
Developers subdivided the farm land installing streets, sidewalks and utilities in
anticipation of even a bigger boom. But the
Turn to Page 54
�Skokie sigh
of real relief
Continued from Page 5
Depression ended the speculation, and tens
of thousands of lots on tree-lined streets
stood vacant until the next boom in the
1950s.
Now, the population in “the world’s largest village” stands at about 66,500. Mostly,
it’s a community of single-family homes,
selling now for an average of about $70,000.
Median family income in 1976 was estimated
at $25,400. Urbanalogist Pierre de Vise, who
periodically lists suburbs by their socioeconomic characteristics, ranked Skokie 37th
last year, compared with 44th in 1970.
THE NAZIS HAD picked Skokie as their
target because of its large Jewish population.
Even so, the Nazis and the media have
sometimes overestimated its size, calling the
community predominantly Jewish. Although
no firm figures are available, the best estimates are that 30 to 40 per cent the population is Jewish.
Also uncertain is the exact number of
Holocaust survivors - either those who
actually survived the Nazi death camps or
those who had close relatives die in the
atrocities - who live in Skokie. It is estimated that, based on surveys of the Jewish
congregations, a remarkable one out of 10
residents of Skokie may be a Holocaust
survivor.
Also without precise explanation is why
so many Jews migrated to Skokie. Rabbi
Karl Weiner of the congregation Judea Mizpah in Skokie pointed out that Jews did not
establish themselves in the community until
after World War II.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Attempted Nazi March in Skokie, 1977 and 1978, Digital Collection
Description
An account of the resource
<p>During the late 1970s, a small group of neo-Nazis based in Chicago attempted to hold a rally in the Village of Skokie, Illinois, a community that was known to have a large Jewish population. Local officials resisted the group’s efforts through by passing a series of ordinances aimed at preventing demonstrations or parades by hate groups. The ordinances were ultimately overturned following a series of state and federal lawsuits because they infringed on the group’s First Amendment rights and the neo-Nazis were issued a permit to demonstrate in Skokie. However, instead of facing the growing number of organized counter-demonstrators, the group held rallies in Federal Plaza and in Marquette Park in Chicago. <br /><br />Visit <a title="Attempted Nazi March in Skokie" href="https://skokiehistory.omeka.net/exhibits/show/attempted-nazi-march/timeline">Skokie Public Library's online exhibit</a> to see the events as they unfolded. The library's digital collection, seen here, includes newspaper articles, editorials, recordings from the Skokie Village Board of Trustees meetings, a memoir written by a local clergywoman, and two documentary films.</p>
<p>For further information, you can find more resources in the library. If you have questions or comments send us an <a title="email Skokie Public Library" href="mailto:tellus@skokielibrary.info">email </a>or call us at 847-673-3733.</p>
Relation
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<h3><a title="Attempted Nazi March in Skokie" href="https://skokiehistory.omeka.net/exhibits/show/attempted-nazi-march/timeline">Attempted Nazi March in Skokie online exhibit</a></h3>
Subject
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Skokie History
Creator
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Skokie Public Library
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Skokie heaves sigh of relief
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Byrne, Dennis
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
Political and religious leaders express relief that the scheduled June 25, 1978 National Socialist Party of America (Nazi) march in Skokie is called off.
Date
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6/25/1978
Subject
The topic of the resource
Demonstrations -- Illinois -- Skokie
National Socialist Party of America
Smith, Albert J., 1915-1993
Source
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Chicago Sun-Times, Sunday, June 25, 1978, Sun-Times Co., Chicago, IL
Rights Holder
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©Sun-Times Co., Chicago, IL
Rights
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In Copyright http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Identifier
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cst780625b.pdf
Language
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eng
Temporal Coverage
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1970s (1970-1979)
Contributor
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Skokie Public Library, Reference Department
newspaper clippings