Building Jewish Power in a Dangerous World: Jake Arvey, his 24th Ward and the Chicago Machine

Have you heard of the Golem of North Lawndale? Professor Peri Arnold will walk us through the rise of a remarkably gifted politician, Jake Arvey, in Chicago’s most concentrated Jewish community (North Lawndale) during the 1920s and 1930s. Beyond the biographical story, we will learn how Jake Arvey gained legitimacy within the Jewish community and how he turned that legitimacy into power to advance Jewish interests. Peri E. Arnold studies American politics and the presidency and is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Notre Dame.

 

Peri E. Arnold studied American politics and the presidency and is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Notre Dame. He graduated from Roosevelt University and received a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago. Arnold is the author of Making the Managerial Presidency, which won the Louis Brownlow Book Prize.  He also authored Remaking the Presidency, Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson as well numerous articles and essays.  In 2006 Arnold was elected a fellow of  the National Academy of Public Administration.