Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies is a leading center for Jewish learning and culture in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Illinois. Not affiliated with any single branch of Judaism

Judaism

Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

, Spertus offers opportunities for people of all backgrounds to learn about and explore the Jewish experience. Its main campus is located at 610 S. Michigan Avenue in an award-winning facility designed by Chicago’s Krueck and Sexton Architects

Krueck and Sexton Architects

Krueck and Sexton Architects is an architecture firm located in Chicago. The firm was originally established in 1979 by Ronald Krueck and Keith Olsen under Krueck Olsen Architects, with Mark Sexton joining the company the following year...

. Spertus offers graduate degrees in Jewish Studies, Jewish Education, and Nonprofit Management (accredited by North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools , also known as the North Central Association, is a membership organization, consisting of colleges, universities, and schools in 19 U.S. states, that is engaged in educational accreditation...

), as well as a range of public educational and cultural programs including lectures, exhibits, live performances, and film. The building also houses a 400-seat theater, space for community events, kosher catering facilities, and a book and gift shop.

Honorary degree recipients from 1949 to 2011 have included Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, the Hon. Abba Eban, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, author, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, author Isaac Bashevis Singer, author and feminist Betty Friedan, actor Leonard Nimoy, and Hazzan Alberto Mizrahi.

New facility

Spertus opened an award-winning, new, environmentally sustainable facility at 610 S. Michigan Avenue in November 2007. Designed by Chicago-based Krueck and Sexton Architects

Krueck and Sexton Architects

Krueck and Sexton Architects is an architecture firm located in Chicago. The firm was originally established in 1979 by Ronald Krueck and Keith Olsen under Krueck Olsen Architects, with Mark Sexton joining the company the following year...

, the building features interconnected interior spaces and one-of-a-kind, ten-story faceted window wall that provides spectacular views of the Chicago skyline, Grant Park

Grant Park (Chicago)

Grant Park, with between the downtown Chicago Loop and Lake Michigan, offers many different attractions in its large open space. The park is generally flat. It is also crossed by large boulevards and even a bed of sunken railroad tracks...

, and Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...

. This window wall is built from 726 individual pieces of glass in 556 different shapes.

Like the surrounding buildings, many constructed in the period of architectural innovation that followed the Great Chicago Fire

Great Chicago Fire

The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871, killing hundreds and destroying about in Chicago, Illinois. Though the fire was one of the largest U.S...

 of 1871, this building is forward-looking in its design and use of materials, while maintaining respect for its important setting. Like the bays of its 19th- and 20th-century neighbors, the facets that create the façade’s dynamic crystalline form allow light to extend into the narrow building, while expanding the views enjoyed from inside. The geometry of the façade is unique because the surface is constantly tilting in three dimensions, resulting in individual units of glass that are parallelograms rather than rectangles. At the same time, the average size of each of the façade's individual panes of glass is consistent with the standard size of the windows in the buildings up and down Michigan Avenue

Michigan Avenue (Chicago)

Michigan Avenue is a major north-south street in Chicago which runs at 100 east south of the Chicago River and at 132 East north of the river from 12628 south to 950 north in the Chicago street address system...

.

The Spertus building was the first new construction in the Historic Michigan Boulevard District

Historic Michigan Boulevard District

The Historic Michigan Boulevard District is a historic district in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States encompassing Michigan Avenue between 11th or Roosevelt Road , depending on the source, and Randolph Streets and named after the nearby Great Lake...

 after the area was designated a Chicago Landmark in 2002. The cost of the Spertus project was more than $50 million.

Faculty and management

Dr. Hal M Lewis is the eighth President and Chief Executive Officer of Spertus, installed in 2009. An expert in Jewish leadership, he is the author of From Sanctuary to Boardroom: A Jewish Approach to Leadership and Models and Meanings in the History of Jewish Leadership . Dr. Lewis has a DJS from Spertus.

Dr. Dean P. Bell is Dean and Chief Academic Officer of Spertus. He has a PhD and MA from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BA from University of Chicago, and is the author of Jews in the Early Modern World .

See also

• Hebrew Theological College
  Hebrew Theological College
  The Hebrew Theological College, known as "Skokie Yeshiva," is a Yeshiva in Skokie, Illinois which also functions as a private university on campus. The primary focus of the Yeshiva is to teach Torah and Jewish traditions...
  
  : Jewish seminary in Skokie
  Skokie, Illinois
  Skokie is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Its name comes from a Native American word for "fire". A Chicago suburb, for many years Skokie promoted itself as "The World's Largest Village". Its population, per the 2000 census, was 63,348...
  
  
• Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center
  Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center
  The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is the main memorial and educational center for The Holocaust in the Midwestern United States...
  
  : Museum in Skokie
  Skokie, Illinois
  Skokie is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Its name comes from a Native American word for "fire". A Chicago suburb, for many years Skokie promoted itself as "The World's Largest Village". Its population, per the 2000 census, was 63,348...
  
  

External links

• Spertus Institute - official site