093_SR0300
LRB093 12226 KEF 17408 r
1 SENATE RESOLUTION
2 WHEREAS, The members of the Senate of the State of
3 Illinois were saddened to learn of the death of Rabbi Shlomo
4 Rapoport of Chicago on June 2, 2003; and
5 WHEREAS, Rabbi Rapoport retired in 1980 after serving as
6 principal for 35 years at the Ida Crown Jewish Academy
7 school, formerly called the Chicago Jewish Academy; and
8 WHEREAS, As a teenager, the future rabbi left his home in
9 Des Moines and came to Chicago to further his religious
10 education; he was ordained in 1940 by Skokie's Hebrew
11 Theological College, where he would receive a doctorate in
12 Hebrew literature 24 years later; he also had a bachelor's
13 degree in mathematics from the Illinois Institute of
14 Technology in the 1930s and a master's degree in mathematics
15 in 1941 from Northwestern University; and
16 WHEREAS, Rabbi Rapoport began teaching at the Chicago
17 Jewish Academy when it was formed in 1942 by the Associated
18 of Talmud Torahs, the central agency for religious Jewish
19 education in Chicago; it was the first Jewish high school
20 west of the Hudson River; under Rabbi Rapoport's guidance as
21 principal, it became one of the top private schools in
22 Chicago; and
23 WHEREAS, Rabbi Rapoport also founded the Hanna Sacks
24 Girls High School in 1967 and was a past president of the
25 Chicago Rabbinical Council, the Religious Zionists of
26 Chicago, and the Chicago Zionist Federation; and
27 WHEREAS, Early in his career, he served as rabbi of Achei
28 Yavneh Synagogue on Chicago's West Side; he was introduced to
29 his wife at a dinner hosted by her mother and the two started
30 talking, then dating, and married about three years later in
31 1945; and
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1 WHEREAS, Rabbi Rapoport was a stickler for proper
2 grammar, speech, and punctuation and he loved puns and word
3 play; and
4 WHEREAS, With a keen interest in current events and
5 American politics, he was an avid newspaper reader and
6 watcher of televised political debates and conventions; and
7 WHEREAS, Rabbi Rapoport's passing will be deeply felt by
8 many, especially his wife, Hilda; his daughters, Chaya
9 Schwartz, Gitelle Szydlowski, and Ashira Ozarowski; his two
10 brothers, Paul and Hershel; his sister, Mitzi Korb; and his
11 six grandchildren; therefore, be it
12 RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-THIRD GENERAL
13 ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the death of
14 Rabbi Shlomo Rapoport along with all who knew and loved him
15 and extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends;
16 and be it further
17 RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
18 presented to the family of Rabbi Shlomo Rapoport as an
19 expression of our deepest sympathy.