Event calendar
Chicago Sukkah Design Festival Opening Celebration
Join us for the Opening Celebration of the fifth annual Chicago Sukkah Design Festival! Visitors will experience the new crop of unique sukkahs for the first time and learn more about the Jewish harvest holiday of Sukkot. Over the course of the afternoon, attendees will enjoy food, art-making activities, participatory workshops, communal dance, and live music performances. Family friendly!
1:00–1:30 pm: Afrofuturist dance workshop, a participatory, communal experience led by Ytasha Womack, a critically acclaimed author, filmmaker, dancer, and champion of the imagination. Beats and grooves by DJ Shannon Harris.
1:00–4:00 pm: Lulav Workshop with the Jewish Museum of Chicago (JMC). Take part in an experimental lulav creation workshop utilizing recycled materials and plants native to Illinois. Participants will be invited to assemble a “local lulav” made with native plants, such as corn husk (palm), autumn leaves (myrtle), pussy willow (willow), and pumpkin (etrog). JMC volunteers will guide participants in braiding or weaving the dried plants together, intentionally selecting decorative materials in a range of colors and textures, and creating a distilled sukkot narrative using foam core stamps on strips of muslin.
1:00–4:00 pm: CCRx Imagination Station hosts hands-on artmaking. This mobile community program from the Creative Chicago Reuse Exchange (CCRx) and T.H.U.G. Hippie brings free, family-friendly activities that combine physical movement and creative reuse workshops to neighborhoods across Chicago’s South and West sides.
1:30-2:15 pm: Big Citi Band performance on the Boulevard.
2:15–3:00 pm: Tromblau &Friends performance and dancing. The Chicago music collective led by trombonist, composer, and DJ Emma Blau. The group blends original jazz, Jewish liturgical music, and Black American music traditions.
3:00–4:00 pm: Big Citi Band performance on the Boulevard.
4:00–4:15 pm: The Celestial Ministries Youth Drum Line, a North Lawndale music program that builds leadership and music skills for young people, will bring the beat and get the crowd ready to hoop and holler.
4:15–5:00 pm: Cake Walk with Ytasha Womack, plus more food, more movement, and more fun. End your day with a sweet treat if you land on the right number.
No RSVP required. Join us!
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More about the festival:
We’re thrilled to announce that the Chicago Sukkah Design Festival (CSDF) returns for its 5th edition, opening SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 and running through October 19! Link in bio for full schedule of 2026 public programs.
CSDF brings together neighbors, community organizations, designers, artists, students, and faith leaders to co-create sukkahs—structures inspired by Jewish tradition—reimagined as places of belonging, solidarity, and hope. CSDF models how interfaith and intercultural collaboration can transform contested histories into shared futures. By anchoring the sukkahs in ongoing neighborhood use, we aspire to cultivate living monuments to resilience: ‘third spaces’ that celebrate our collective humanity, and offer sanctuary for reflection, dialogue, and action toward a more just and compassionate world.
During CSDF, the landscape of unique sukkah structures is open daily to the public and activated with programming. After CSDF, each sukkah is relocated and re-installed at the organizations that co-designed them as permanent program spaces, including as an outdoor exercise station, drum circle oasis, nature play pavilion, and teen hang-out hut.
Artistic Director: @couldbearchitecture
Community Design Director: @architectureforpublicbenefit
Venue Director: @lawndalepopupspot, @jonathanmkelley
Public Program Director: @jaclynjacunski
Festival Lot Steward: @reshorna.fitzpatrick
Partnership Advisor: @oacchicago
Fiscal Agent: @designmuseumchi
2026 Design/Build Contributors: @bkedesign, Wekeana Lassiter @studio_otherwise, @bnmo.design, @adaptive_operations, @ordersarchitecture
2026 Community Organization Participants: @celestialorg, @neighborspace, @lcfc_fitness, @_thefirehouse_
2026 Program Partners: @ysolstar, @dj_shannon_harris, @jewishmuseumchicago, @tromblau, @flava_a_soul_food_joint, @eateverydayfeast, @rabbilizzi, @jcrcchicago, @faithinplace, @workingbikes, @equiticity, @chicagomuseum, and many more!
Film Screening: The Klezmer Project with JVP
🍿 Movie night! 🎥 Jewish Museum Chicago & JVP Chicago’s Education Committee present a screening of The Klezmer Project. Sunday March 22 @ 1:30pm, RSVP at link in story for location ✨
Argentinian cameraman Leandro makes a living from filming Jewish weddings. At one of his jobs, he falls in love with Paloma, the clarinetist of the wedding band. To seduce her he pretends to be shooting a documentary film about Klezmer, the traditional Yiddish folk music. What Leandro does not know is that his “fake” film project will take him on an unscripted journey throughout Eastern Europe in search of the last remaining Klezmer melodies.
Film Screening: Everything You Have Is Yours with JVP
JVP Chicago’s Education Committee and Jewish Museum Chicago are kicking off their brand-new screening series in the new year. Join us on at 3:30 pm on January 25th for Everything You Have Is Yours, accompanied by a panel with Shayna Silverstain, Sarah Marks Minisohn, and the film’s subject Hadar Ahuvia.
The film follows choreographer Hadar Ahuvia as she “interrogates the roots of the Israeli folk dances she grew up dancing with her mother in the U.S.” Together with Jewish, Israeli, and Palestinian dancers and choreographers in NYC, Ahuvia works to re-understand the power of dance and stories.
RSVP for location and get more information at the link in our bio!
Tantshoyz with Upshtat Zingerai at Chicago Humanities Festival
Tantshoyz with Upshtat Zingerai at Chicago Humanities Festival
Press | Mini Tapes: The Journey is the Destination for the Jewish Museum of Chicago - Chicago Humanities
Photo Credits| Chana Shapiro, link to full photo album
Pushcart Judaica Pop-Up Market
Pushcart Judaica Pop-Up Market
Photo Credits: Carter Wright, @carterwrightphoto on Instagram
Artist Fellowship: JewMuChi x Buddy
Artist Fellowship: JewMuChi x Buddy at Chicago Cultural Center
Teshuva of Land Stories
Teshuva of Land Stories with Ollie Schwartz & Linke Fligl Legacy
Full of song, reflection, ritual, and lineage exploration, this workshop is great for communities interested in indigenous sovereignty, reparations, ancestral healing and connection. Participants explore personal relationships with land through a "Land Stories” practice, a ritual for sharing & witnessing our complex & evolving stories of loss, connection, home, & quest for accountable relationship with place. From there, we will screen the documentary capturing 7 years of communal work towards the right relationship with land at Linke Fligl, a queer Jewish farm & cultural organizing project on Schaghticoke land (NY). This workshop and accompanying mini-documentary were put together by the team at Linke Fligl from 2016-2023. We have toured the workshop at the Allied Media Conference, with Jews For Racial and Economic Justice, at the Jewish Farmer Network Conference, and on tour with Pushcart. We would love to bring it to your community!
Touching a Talis Text(ile)
Touching a Talis Text(ile) with The Lace Midrash
Annie and Rosemary will host an hour of Talmud study with some Marxist themes of fabric manufacturing and an hour of hands-on wool manipulation to learn about each of the steps mentioned in the text from between shearing a sheep and producing a garment, manipulating wool from the Masafer Yatta region of Palestine. Then we will spend an hour in close reading of a Talmud text that acknowledges how much work goes into producing a textile. No knowledge of Hebrew is required for the text study, but you will probably end up learning some. Snacks provided. Masks required. Wheelchair ramp provided.
Entering High Holy Days Through Creative Practice
Entering High Holy Days through Creative Practice in partnership with Pushcart Judaica
A week of Jewish arts in Chicago ft. a pop up market, fellowship exhibit, and community workshops throughout the week! In partnership with:Chicago Athletic Association, Buddy, Hairpin Art Center, ACRE, Pushcart Judaica, Lace Midrash, and Songs for Ceasefire.
More information below:
Creative Workshop #1 |Teshuva of Land Stories with Ollie
Creative Workshop #2 | Touching a Talis Text(ile) with The Lace Midrash, offered by Annie and Rosemary
Artist Fellowship: JewMuChi x Buddy |Exhibitions & Programming at Chicago Cultural Center
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Pushcart Judaica was born in 5783 / 2022 out of a need for easily accessible, ethically sourced Judaica that reflects the vibrance of our tradition and uplifts the work of queer, trans, disabled, Sephardi, Mizrahi and Jews of Color artists and craftspeople within our communities. The name “Pushcart” is inspired by the 11,000 pushcart merchants of early 1900's on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, who peddled their wares by foot in wooden "pushcarts" as a way to survive and provide for their community as recent immigrants. Our goal is for the Northeast corner of the Jewish diaspora (US, Canada, & Europe) to be able to easily access workshops and teachings, ritual items, books, and art that reflect liberatory values, handcrafted beauty, and queer brilliance.
Over the course of 2023 Pushcart's Pop Up Tour travels the northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest with an estimated 15 stops within the so-called US and Canada. So far Pushcart has been to Baltimore, DC, Philly, Minnneaolis, Chicago, and Detroit and Chicago. Each stop is a chance to come together as a local Jewish community to celebrate Jewish arts and culture of the region, as well as to bring Jewish art and ritual items from other regions to you! Pop ups include offerings from over 100 Jewish artists in the Pushcart store for sale alongside a smorgasbord of local Jewish food, music, art, kids activities, adult learning, body work, song circles, fundraisers for mutual aid or local BIPOC groups in relationship with the local Jewish community. We can't wait to celebrate with you!
Chicago Artists for Palestine: Exhibition & Fundraiser
Chicago Artists for Palestine: Exhibition & Fundraiser
From January through April Lilli Sher, Manager of Programs & Fundraising and Gabriel Chalfin-Piney, founding director started connecting with displaced, separated or injured families throughout Gaza, Palestine and alongside organizers in Cairo, Egypt. We raised a total of $11,645. 100% of these funds were sent to the following families:
Alaa & Family
Dr. Ola & Family
Fawze al-Najjar & Family
Jomana Hassan &Family
Mkadmh Siblings
Nabil, Baraa & Ameer Abu-Mettleq
Reem Mkadmh & family
We hosted four separate fundraisers with art donations by 64 Chicago artists. Two of the fundraisers are documented on our Instagram page and were virtual auctions. The other two fundraiser-art auctions are documented below.
Kleztronica fundraiser with Upshtat Zingerai and Chaia
Kleztronica with performances by Upshtat Zingerai and Chaia: Fundraiser for Displaced Families
“Ring in the spring with a whirlwind of beats and heritage at Dorothy’s Kleztronica party! Picture vibrant Yiddish melodies colliding with pulsating electronic rhythms, creating an electrifying fusion that’ll make your heart race! It’s a wild celebration where tradition meets the avant-garde, where the old world and the new collide on the dance floor. With a rocking klezmer band featuring Hannah Mira Friedland and an epic DJ set by Chaia (all the way from New York!), we can ensure you’ll be dancing the night away. Come join us for an unforgettable evening where boundaries blur, love is in the air, and joy knows no limits – because at Dorothy, the party never stops! We want everyone to stay safe - this event requires masks & air filtration will be available throughout the space thanks to Clean Air Club! Masks will be provided at the door.”
Hannukah JMC Interest Gathering
Hannukah JMC Interest Gathering
At this gathering, attendees will work together with the leaders of the Jewish Museum of Chicago to envision the Museum’s ideological and practical framework, exploring questions such as what it means to build an institution while upholding a core set of liberatory, anti-zionist, and non-hierarchical values. This session, held in conjunction with the current Comfort Station exhibition, Lights and Perfections by Casey Carsel, is open to all and will begin with a candle-lighting for the 7th day of Hanukkah. Small nosh provided.
When Souls Stick at Comfort Station
When Souls Stick at Comfort Station by Jess Bass & Gabriel Chalfin-Piney
Exhibition Statement: טייקִיָאד —hereness — doikayt —
Here and then exists simultaneously in the present as it is retold, rehearsed, reshaped. Through archiving Jewish folktales, studying incantation bowls and Jewish households from the Aramaic period to now, When Souls Stick collages and interprets Jewish history and mysticism to discuss the human impulse, throughout time, to imbue matter with souls and Purposes. The exhibition, corresponding performances and workshops explore how non-conscious objects come to life through mystical encounters, making bonds through human attachments. In our tale, the Dybbuk (the vengeful ghost), Golem (the savior and destroyer), Ziz (sky and ruler of all birds) and Leviathan (the primordial sea monster) join in a familial affair, connected yet estranged, woven through the sharing of space. Through activated encounters, demons and angels appear. The audience is asked to engage and move with the performers, following the Anti-Zionist diasporic concept of Doikayt, translated from Yiddish as “hereness.”
As curators, organizers and artists, Jess Bass and Gabriel Chalfin-Piney are committed to creating multi-sensory and accessible experiences through interactive installation and performance. Their collaborative work has been exhibited in NY and Chicago, and featured in Hyperallergic, ArtNews and Artnet.
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This was the beginning of Jewish Museum of Chicago programming and the launch of the community-donated Jewish Museum of Chicago Library. All programming was offered at no cost and a total of 472 people visited the exhibition. Jewish Museum of Chicago Library Donations were accepted every Sunday for the length of the exhibition. Jess and Gabriel received a $6000 DCASE grant and used 100% of the funds to pay each of the collaborators in the exhibition, performers, documentors and workshop teachers.
Liberation Seder and the founding of Jewish Museum Chicago
Liberation Seder and the founding of Jewish Museum Chicago
This Seder was collaboratively set into motion by Katie Rauth and Gabriel Chalfin-Piney. The menu, table setting, servingware and space remain a collective effort towards creating space for ritual and storytelling. The food was cooked by both of the artists, the candles and tableware were made by Gabriel Chalfin-Piney, the bowls and serving trays made by a local ceramicist who wishes to remain anonymous and Katie Rauth hosted the event. The event was offered at no-cost to participants.
