Latest news with #IllinoisHolocaustMuseumandEducationCenter
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
QC community interacts with Holocaust survivors through virtual reality
The Quad Cities community has a chance to see history from a different perspective. 'Learning history is not something that is static,' said Trevor Meyers, Muscatine Community College's student engagement and residential life coordinator. Muscatine Community College is offering the 'Journey Back: A Virtual Reality Experience' exhibit, which is open to the public. 'I thought that was pretty neat that we have technology like that now,' said Karlee Harris, a Louisa-Muscatine High School student. 'Journey Back' is an exhibit made possible through virtual headsets provided by the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. In total, there are five different films that cover the stories of various Holocaust survivors. 'It brings something to life and preserves these stories for posterity for years to come for when there are no more people that survived the Holocaust,' Meyers said. 'In each of these five films, it is a 360-immersive technology so you can look up, down, left, right, and all around you. You will see a video, pictures, or film.' For Harris, the virtual reality experience was eye-opening. 'I thought it was pretty interesting that we were actually able to see it and visually learn, since not everyone is a textbook reader and can be like, 'Oh, that's what happened,'' Harris said. 'We can see it now, we can see how people felt, how they acted, and how basically their lives were transformed by this one event in history.' 'All of these survivors are at least 80 years or older, and so unfortunately that means every day we are losing these stories because they are passing away,' Meyers said. '(By learning) from a survivor you become a carrier of their legacy.' Muscatine Community College will continue to host the exhibit until May 2, and it is free to attend. To learn how to get tickets, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Axios
07-03-2025
- General
- Axios
Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie to undergo major renovation
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie will undergo a renovation beginning this July. Driving the news: The Skokie museum announced Friday it will temporarily close in July for the changes, but will open a satellite museum at Chicago's former Museum of Broadcast Communications in River North. The big picture: The renovation of the second largest Holocaust museum in the U.S. is beginning 80 years after the end of the Holocaust, but while antisemitic incidents hit a record high in 2024, according to the ADL. Flashback: After Neo-Nazis marched in Skokie in 1977, Holocaust survivors in the largely Jewish community, formed the Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois. The group purchased a small Skokie storefront and made it available to the public. The current 65,000-square-foot museum opened in 2009. State of play: The renovations will modernize the structure and create a new welcome center designed to hold more guests and be more accessible. There will also be a redesigned auditorium, exhibition reflection space, and more restrooms, among other upgrades. What's next: The museum will close all exhibitions on June 2, but remain open for public programs and trainings. It will fully close on July 1. It will partially reopen on Jan. 2, 2026, with limited content, and fully reopen in late summer 2026. What's next: The satellite downtown museum is slated to open this July.
Chicago Tribune
07-03-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Illinois Holocaust Museum will close for renovations, with a temporary location opening downtown
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie has announced it will close this summer for renovations, with a partial reopening planned for early January 2026. In the meantime, a satellite location will open with some of the museum's more popular exhibits at the former site of the Museum of Broadcast Communications (360 N. State St.) in Chicago's River North neighborhood. The IHMEC first opened in Skokie in 2009 in a $45 million building designed by Chicago architect Stanley Tigerman — the project of what was the Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois, founded in 1981 in the wake of a threatened march by neo-Nazis in Skokie. In Friday's announcement, the museum said the renovations will modernize the building and expand and upgrade its Welcome Center and auditorium. The museum remains fully open until June 2, at which time it will close for all but limited public programs by reservation only. On July 1, the museum will fully close for construction, with the downtown satellite location opening that month. The online gift shop will continue to operate. A partial reopening in Skokie is projected for Jan. 2, 2026, with the satellite location remaining open, with a grand reopening in Skokie in the summer.
Politico
24-02-2025
- Business
- Politico
How Pritzker's speech was written
Happy Monday, Illinois. Savor the sunshine. TOP TALKER FIGURE OF SPEECH: Gov. JB Pritzker's highly talked-about State of the State and Budget Address last week was written much the same way as his previous six speeches were penned. Anne Caprara, the governor's chief of staff, wrote the speech working with the governor to decide on the message he wants to deliver. About the process: 'It starts with asking, 'What's the major element of the budget?' 'What story do we have to tell about the budget?'' explained Caprara in an interview with Playbook. Pritzker's team knew in late summer that 'this was going to be a challenging year,' Caprara said. 'But as the governor noted and addressed, the projections changed, even as we were getting close to the speech.' The message was simple: Spending this year needs to be kept in check because there are so many unknowns about the ripple effect of the federal government's cuts. Pritzker is worried about President Donald Trump's executive orders possibly jeopardizing federal funds going to Illinois. And Caprara said, 'We felt pretty strongly that we had to address that.' But these speeches are also meant to engage Illinois residents about why the budget matters. 'There's always some story that we try to put into the speech — something that's relevant to the time,' Caprara said, recalling a speech during the Covid years in which Pritzker talked about hospitals in Springfield during the Spanish flu. This year, the focus was Trump's efforts to 'dismantle government,' Caprara said. 'JB has said to me continually that he is really concerned about the parallels between what's happening right now and what Germany experienced,' she said, recalling her first meeting with Pritzker and learning that he was a student of the Holocaust after helping establish the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. Since Trump's inauguration, the governor 'has been really alarmed' about how Trump and Elon Musk 'are approaching the executive orders and the degree to which they're rooting out words and people.' Pritzker talked with Caprara, saying he wanted to address the warning signs. 'I don't think I can go into the speech and not talk about what's happening,' Caprara recalled him saying. There was no push-back within Pritzker's team about comparing the Trump administration and the Nazi era, something that Republicans have criticized. 'There was a lot of conversation about it, like 'How do we do this, and how do we do it the right way?' But I wouldn't say that there was any hesitation,' Caprara said. 'This is the moment and the message that we need to deliver and if it gets a lot of attention, we feel like people need to hear it.' Getting the message across: 'We are very careful with the language,' Caprara said. 'But I don't think I'm being hyperbolic when I say that the people around me working in government and others who email me are extremely alarmed [about what's happening in Washington]. They're texting and emailing asking 'What should I be doing and why isn't somebody saying something about how bad it is?'' Over the past two weeks, the speech was passed back and forth to Pritzker and his top aides, including the governor's speech writer, Joe Miller, Deputy Governor Andy Manar and Budget Director Alexis Sturm for fact-checking, tweaks and edits. The speech was written by the time former House Speaker Michael Madigan was convicted on corruption charges, so a reference to him was added later. Caprara dismissed critics who say the speech was an effort to promote Pritzker's political stature. Not so, she said. The governor 'feels a moral obligation and also he thinks it's the right thing to do.' MORE ON THE SPEECH: Pritzker turned heads by comparing Trump administration to Nazi Germany. But will voters be moved? by the Tribune's Rick Pearson RELATED Pritzker sits down with Psaki: 'Yes, the system is rigged' against the working class, Pritzker said in a wide-ranging interview on 'The Blueprint with Jen Psaki,' a new MSNBC podcast. The governor said fellow Democrats 'need to be really clear, really clear, focusing on the things that really matter.' Pritzker said raising the federal minimum wage should have been an issue during the 2024 presidential campaign. 'The minimum wage, federally, is $7.25. You can't live on that — $14, 000 a year. Here in Illinois, we raised the minimum wage to $15. But federally, it's $7.25. Republicans want to keep it at $7.25. ... We should have been talking about that. Why was that not on the campaign trail?' Listen to the interview here. THE BUZZ A TRUMP VISIT: Lara Trump, the former co-chair of the Republican National Committee and daughter-in-law of the president, visited Illinois on Friday making a bold statement that Illinois could turn red in 2028 — and she revealed some insight about President Donald Trump's executive moves. She had stats: 'Donald Trump in 2016 got 38 percent of the vote here. In 2020, 40 percent of the vote. In 2024, he got 45 percent of the vote in the state of Illinois. I want you guys to understand something. We are about to turn the state of Illinois in the next presidential election to a red state,' Trump told a crowd of 500 at Venuti's Italian restaurant in Addison. The event was a fundraiser for McHenry County GOPAC. Lara Trump also offered a glimpse into the thinking of the president's recent executive actions. During his first term, she said, the president was told repeatedly, 'You need to fit into this specific mold. And so he tried to fit into that mold, and he got a lot of great things accomplished.' That changed in his second term: He's 'looking at things differently,' Lara Trump said. The president 'isn't trying to fit in that mold anymore. He said, 'You know what? I'm going to come into this White House, and I'm going to do things my way this time.'' ABC 7's Liz Nagy has more. SPOTTED: Illinois GOP Chair Kathy Salvi, House Republican Leader Tony McCombie and Republican state Reps. Martin McLaughlin, John Cabello, Jed Davis, Regan Deering, Bradley Fritts, Amy Grant, Jeff Keicher, Patrick Sheehan, Dennis Tipsword, Dan Ugaste and Tom Weber. Also in the room: Former state Sen. Darren Bailey, who's mulling a run for office again. 'Stay tuned,' he says. If you are Jen Psaki, Playbook would like to hear from you! Email: skapos@ WHERE'S JB No official public events WHERE's BRANDON No official public events Where's Toni No official public events Have a tip, suggestion, birthday, new job or a complaint? Email skapos@ BUSINESS OF POLITICS — FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: A new poll is offering a hypothetical race for Chicago mayor. The primary is two years away on Feb. 23, 2027. The survey includes 11 potential candidates whose names have been batted about, and it also highlights the priority issues for voters. The poll was conducted by M3 Strategies and commissioned and paid for by Urban Center, a C-4 nonprofit organization that's headed by Juan Rangel. M3 did polling for Paul Vallas during his 2023 mayoral campaign, and Rangel also endorsed Vallas that year. The poll surveyed 696 likely Chicago voters Feb. 20-21 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.71 percentage points. The results: The poll shows Mayor Brandon Johnson's support at 8.2 percent with a 79.9 percent unfavorable rating — trailing Vallas, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias and State Comptroller Susana Mendoza. The full polling memo is here. THE STATEWIDES — Financial impacts of federal action stir anxiety for Illinois farmers, by Ashley Soriano and the Medill Illinois News Bureau — Lawmakers weigh whether to legalize 'medical aid in dying,' by Capitol News' Andrew Adams — Black and brown veterans call on Gov. Pritzker for pardons to avoid deportations, by The Triibe's Tonia Hill — In Chicago, City touts mission to target employee ties to hate groups; community demands police be the priority, by the Tribune's Alice Yin and Adriana Pérez COOK COUNTY AND COLLARS — SCOOP: Liz Nicholson, the Democratic fundraiser who for years worked for the Illinois Senate Democrats, is throwing her hat in the ring to run for office. She's filed paperwork to run for Cook County Board of Review. Nicholson is talking to potential donors and looking for endorsements. She hopes to win the seat of incumbent Commissioner Samantha Steele, who's come under scrutiny for a wrongful termination case that the county had to settle and for being caught on tape in a drunken-driving case. — In Cicero: Esteban Rodriguez is receiving high-profile endorsements in his bid for town president. Congressman Jonathan Jackson (IL-01) and New York Congressman Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, are both backing Rodriguez in his bid to unseat Larry Dominick. — In Dolton: Embattled Mayor Tiffany Henyard faces election challenge from one of her 'Dream Team' members: 'Trustee Jason House is trying to oust her from her post,' by the Sun-Times' Violet Miller. DAY IN COURT — Highland Park mass shooting survivors hope for justice, resolution as trial begins Monday: 'The trial is expected to be a particularly emotional one: Lake County prosecutors have said they intend to call as witnesses many of the 48 people who were wounded on July 4, 2022,' by the Tribune's Angie Leventis Lourgos. — Trial set to start Monday for Plainfield landlord charged with killing 6-year-old Palestinian American boy, by the Sun-Times' Sophie Sherry. Reader Digest We asked what sport builds political character. Jeremy Coster: 'Cross country and track and field. The events are individual and generally grueling, but your individual contribution affects the team's score in the end.' Graham Grady: 'Mud Wrestling, obviously!' Charles Keller: 'A golf outing scramble because you know the winners are cheating but you feel ok about it because you won a skin.' Ed Mazur: 'Tackle football. It emphasizes teamwork and getting knocked down and resuming the path.' Gail Morse: 'Baseball: patience to play small ball, power to be exerted when needed and strategy, strategy, strategy!' Jeff Nathan: 'Golf. It's the only sport that is totally up to you to enforce the rules. With a hat tip to John Cleese: 'A man who would cheat at golf will cheat at anything.'' Kathy Posner: 'Curling. It's strategic teamwork, precise execution and a lot of yelling at people sweeping.' Andy Shaw: 'Bowling. It requires a proficient use of big balls.' Judith Weinstein: 'Fencing. It's as much a psychological sport as a physical one. You've got to be nimble, stay on guard and remain in your strip [lane]. Trash talking gets you banned. And the odds of head trauma are practically zero.' Next question: Is it necessary to learn cursive writing? Email skapos@ KEEPING UP WITH THE DELEGATION — Congressman Sean Casten is among Democratic lawmakers speaking out against Elon Musk for telling federal employees to explain their work — or be let go. 'This is a good opportunity for mass civil disobedience,' Casten wrote on X. — Sen. Tammy Duckworth and Congressman Jesús 'Chuy' García (IL-4) were among elected officials joining Chicago hospitality and restaurant industry leaders over lunch Sunday to discuss how Trump's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation raids were affecting business. THE NATIONAL TAKE — What Germany's election means for America — and the world, by POLITICO's Nahal Toosi — Email starts power clash between Musk and agency leaders — even the Trump loyalists, by POLITICO's Irie Sentner — Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills tells Trump she will see him in court over transgender rights, by POLITICO's Eugene Daniels IN MEMORIAM — Jerry Butler dead at 85; singer known as 'Iceman' also had a long career in Cook County politics, by the Sun-Times' Maureen O'Donnell. TRIVIA FRIDAY's ANSWER: Congrats to Robert Christie and Matthew Beaudet for correctly answering that George H.W. Bush was the last Republican presidential candidate to win Illinois when he defeated Democrat Michael Dukakis in 1988. TODAY's QUESTION: What do John Belushi and Bob Woodward have in common? Email skapos@ HAPPY BIRTHDAY Former Gov. George Ryan, former state Rep. Mark Batinick, adviser to the Cook County sheriff David Feller, Ravinia Festival CFO Peggy Papaioannou and Skillman Foundation CEO Angelique Williams-Power -30-
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker Scorches Trump, Musk In Speech: 'We Don't Have Kings In America'
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) warned of a 'five-alarm fire' on Wednesday as he likened President Donald Trump's administration to Nazi Germany in an explosive speech. 'We don't have kings in America and I don't intend to bend the knee to one,' declared Pritzker in his State of the State address. The comments from Pritzker arrived just minutes before the president seemingly compared himself to a 'king' on his Truth Social platform and days after he ripped an apocryphal quote from Napoleon where he declared that 'he who saves his Country violates no Law.' Earlier in the speech, Pritzker called out Trump as well as billionaire Elon Musk over the administration's federal cost-cutting crusade and warned that the state budget 'can't make up for the damage that is done' to those in Illinois, adding that red state governors are also dealing with the impact of cuts. Pritzker — who helped create the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center — went on to touch on the history of neo-Nazis in the state who failed to march in Skokie, a community that was noted for its population of Holocaust survivors, in 1978. 'The root that tears apart your house's foundation begins as a seed, a seed of distrust and hate and blame. The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn't arrive overnight, it started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame,' he said. 'I'm watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now.' The governor later returned to speak on Nazi Germany, noting that it took the Nazis less than two months to 'dismantle a constitutional republic.' 'And all I'm saying is that when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control,' he said. Pritzker again reflected on the Nazis' failed march in Skokie and how an attempt to hold the event in Chicago was met with thousands of counter-protesters. 'It was Illinoisans who smothered those embers before they could burn into a flame,' he said. 'Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the tragic spirit of despair overcome us when our country needs us the most.' Trump Warns Zelenskyy To Quickly Negotiate War's End With Russia Or Risk Not Having A Nation To Lead Trump Says Federal Government Should 'Take Over' D.C., Backing Congressional GOP Push Trump Again Claims He Put Musk 'In Charge' Of DOGE, Contradicting His Own DOJ
