"Write down all your inner struggles, your setbacks and successes, and grant them eternal life. This way your very essence, the personality of your soul, your spiritual attainments, your life's inner treasures, will live on forever in the lives of your spiritual heirs as generations come and go." - Rav Kalonoymus Kalman Sharpira zt"l, the Piaseczno Rebbe from Tzav V'Ziruz (The Rebbe's personal diary)

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Now I almost feel like a Chicagoian


Ok, after almost 4.5 years I think I've begun to feel like a Chicagoian.  From my days as an NCSYer, learning in E"Y, YU, and then working professionally for NCSY I've always been friendly with people from Chicago.  Having a core group of families that we were close here was a major draw to our choice to move here.  That being said, many people from Chicago who move to the East Coast have an almost hypnotic tranced induced manta that "Chicago is the best city".  I use to just shrug them off and smile.
I won't even touch the inyanim involved in the machloches, but I will say that reading some of the comments regarding this post at Beyond BT, I am very proud to live in Chicago.  I still call soda "soda", I only refer to Skokie "Yeshev'vah" as HTC, I have figured out what "kitty corner" is, and I know what a "gapers delay" is.

Base on the above linked post I'd like to offer a few local links that might be helpful to people.  These are in no particular order whatsoever.


Chicago Rabbinical Council's Guide to Chicago
Chicago Chessed Fund (which also includes Job Link and Simcha Link)
Chicago Center for Torah and Chessed (they run a multitude of chessed programs and minyanim daily)
Yeshiva Migdal Torah
JET (Jewish Educational Team)
CTN (Chicago Torah Network)
TLC (Torah Learning Center of Northbrook)
YU Torah Mitzion Kollel
Chicago Community Kollel
Skokie Community Kollel
Lubavitch Chabad of Illnois
Associated Talmud Torahs of Chicago
Walder Educational Pavilion of Torah Umesorah
Bernard Horwich JCC
Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metro Chicago
Jewish Child and Family Services
SHALVA (helping domestic violence victims )
Jewish Vocational Service
Midwest NCSY

5 comments:

  1. Good list.

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  2. Have you picked up their accent?

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  3. Well, I've been in New Jersey for twelve years now (in one capacity or another) and I still call soda "pop"...

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  4. but why dont you move to israel?it is much easer to fellow mizvot here, expecially kashrut.

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  5. Lev,
    Thanks. As we approach the Yom HaDin and the Shalosh Regolim, I'll daven that eventually we should move to the land that we are meant of live in.

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