Tobias Brinkmann will speak in person on “Networks and Chains: The Paths of Jewish Migrants from Central and Eastern Europe to Chicago Before 1914,” based on his book about Reform Jews in Chicago,  for the May 21, 2023, JGSI hybrid meeting.

"Networks and Chains: The Paths of Jewish Migrants from Central and Eastern Europe to Chicago Before 1914” is the title of an in-person presentation by Penn State University associate professor Tobias Brinkmann for the Sunday, May 21, 2023, hybrid meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois.

He will be speaking in person at Temple Beth-El, 3610 Dundee Road, Northbrook, Illinois, and via Zoom at 2 p.m. CDT.

The JGSI meeting facilities at Temple Beth-El will open at 12:45 p.m. CDT to accommodate those who want to use or borrow genealogy library materials, get help with genealogy websites or ask genealogical questions before the main program begins at 2 p.m.

Register/RSVP by clicking the button at left. Participants may register for both online and in-person events if they are undecided. 

This talk is based on the study “Sundays at Sinai” (2012, University of Chicago Press) about a prominent Chicago Reform congregation. “Sundays at Sinai” is not a detailed institutional history, but rather an attempt to tell the dramatic story of Chicago from its earliest days to the 21st century, through the lens of a Jewish congregation whose members included leading business figures, intellectuals, philanthropists and social reformers.

The book evolved from a German-language dissertation about Jewish migration from Central Europe to Chicago before 1914. For this project, Tobias retraced the paths of migrants from villages in different regions in southwestern Germany to the U.S. Midwest. Census records and address books illustrate that many migrants who arrived before the Civil War did not move straight to Chicago but spent years, even decades, in small towns in the wider vicinity of Chicago. The founders of Sinai Congregation overwhelmingly hailed from a few villages west of Worms, Germany. They belonged to a tight-knit social network whose members had intermarried for generations.

The talk will focus on migration routes and networks. Tobias will present several individual cases to show how it is possible to (partly) reconstruct migrations by using census records and other sources.

Tobias Brinkmann, who has a master’s degree from Indiana University and a Ph.D. from Technical University Berlin, is the Malvin and Lea Bank Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and History and the director of the Jewish Studies Program at Penn State University. His study “Between Borders: Jewish Migrants and Refugees from Eastern Europe after 1860” will be published by Oxford University Press in 2023. “Sundays at Sinai: A Jewish Congregation in Chicago” was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2012. Among his other scholarly publications is “Points of Passage: Jewish Transmigrants from Eastern Europe in Scandinavia, Germany, and Britain 1880-1914 “(New York: Berghahn, 2013).

Please keep in mind that JGSI will maintain certain procedures for our in-person meetings. These include:

• We request all attendees to in-person meetings be vaccinated.
• Face masks are strongly recommended.
• Water will be provided; however, no food will be allowed at this time.
• Seating will be set up to allow for social distancing.
• And MOST IMPORTANT, if you are sick or not feeling well or recently tested positive for COVID, please do not come into TBE.

The JGSI meeting facilities at Temple Beth-El will open at 12:45 p.m. for those who want to use or borrow genealogy library materials, get help with genealogy websites or ask genealogical questions from genealogy expert volunteers before the main program begins at 2 p.m.

At each in-person JGSI monthly meeting, its “help desk” will operated from 12:45 to 1:50 p.m. Member volunteers will access online databases and answer genealogical questions one-on-one for members and visitors as time allows.

The JGSI library has more than 800 volumes of interest to Jewish family historians. Many are available for borrowing by JGSI members for a limited time. All are available for perusing from 12:45 to 1:50 p.m. at each regular monthly meeting.

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping members collect, preserve, and perpetuate the records and history of their ancestors. JGSI is a resource for the worldwide Jewish community to research their Chicago-area roots. The JGSI motto is “Members Helping Members Since 1981.” The group has more than 300 members and is affiliated with the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies.

JGSI members have access to useful and informative online family history research resources, including a members’ forum, more than 70 video recordings of past speakers’ presentations, monthly JGSI E-News, quarterly Morasha JGSI newsletter, and much more. Members as well as non-members can look for their ancestors on the free searchable JGSI Jewish Chicago Database.

For more information, see https://jgsi.org or phone 312-666-0100.