Chicago Jewish Star
newspaper in Skokie, Illinois
The Chicago Jewish Star was an independent twice-monthly general interest Jewish newspaper based in Skokie, Illinois, and published from 1991 to 2018. It provided news analysis and opinion on local, national and international events of relevance to the Jewish community, with a focus on literature and arts, politics, and the Middle East. It was a continuation of The Jewish Star, a Canadian newspaper operated by the same principals from 1980 to 1990.
History
The Chicago Jewish Star was founded in 1990 by Douglas Wertheimer, editor and president of Star Media Group Inc., and Gila Wertheimer, associate editor, with its first issue appearing February 22, 1991. It entered a Chicago Jewish newspaper field dominated by the Jewish Federation-run, controlled-circulation JUF News (founded in 1972), and the long-running independent weekly The Sentinel (founded in 1911). The Jewish Star was the first new Jewish newspaper published solely for the Chicago area in nearly 75 years.
The Jewish Star was the first Jewish newspaper in Metro Chicago to receive news by fax or electronically; the first to be distributed for free at locations throughout Metro Chicago; the first to be distributed via its own street corner news boxes or City of Chicago newspaper newsrack kiosks; and the principals were the first to publish Jewish newspapers in both Canada and the United States.
After 27 years in print, the newspaper ceased publication with its May 2, 2018 issue.
Editorial, Advertising, Circulation, Design
Local news, editorial, advertising and design is generated mainly in-house, with additional news and feature contributions from syndicated columnists, news services and occasionally freelance writers. The editorial position has been independent; politically, its stance has changed on some issues.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Chicago Jewish Star” is newspaper in Skokie, Illinois. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Chicago, Jewish and Star, not as a finished interpretation.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16987009. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1991, 2018, 1980 and 1990.
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This entry incorporates text from “Chicago Jewish Star” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.