“We pledge to never let the world forget how brutally Nazi Germany annihilated six million of our people, including one and a half million innocent children. We look back and see how we emerged a strong and victorious people. We can proudly say, coming from unprecedented persecution, we still retain a strong devotion to and love of Judaism and our heritage.

We gave birth to a new generation, witnessed the establishment of the State of Israel and contributed to the further development of our nation.

We hope and pray that bigotry, anti-Semitism and terrorism will cease against our people and that our brethren in the State of Israel will be able to live in peace with their neighbors and be prosperous together forever and ever.”

– Charles Lipshitz, z”l-Last Survivor President of Sheerit Hapleitah of Metropolitan Chicago

Our Story

How Sheerit Hapleitah of Metropolitan Chicago Began

After the Holocaust, many survivors settled in Chicago and its neighboring suburbs, predominately Skokie. While survivors tried to build normal lives and raise their families, they had a need to be involved in organizational work. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, survivors started cultural groups like New Citizens Club, Ezra, Laor and United Chicago Jews of Hungarian Descent.

The groups fostered an environment which allowed people with similar histories to get together to celebrate their lives, while at the same time to feel comfortable lamenting the loss and tragedy they endured. Survivors and their families also participated in an annual memorial service in memory of the six million Jews murdered by Nazi Germany and their collaborators. The annual ceremony coincided with Yom Hashoah and was co-sponsored by various Jewish organizations. The groups’ activities also included charity work as survivors recognized that it was important to give back.

In the mid 1970s, The Zionist Organization of Chicago announced that it would no longer sponsor the annual memorial Yom Hashoah commemoration. That’s when the various Survivor groups decided to join together as the nonprofit Sheerit Hapleitah- which translated from Hebrew means Surviving Remnants of the Leftover of the Destruction. Sheerit Hapleitah of Metropolitan Chicago, as the survivor groups’ umbrella organization, pledged that the annual Yom Hashoah Memorial Service would continue into perpetuity. Sheerit Hapleitah organized resistance to the planned Nazi march in Skokie, and later erected a monument to Holocaust victims on Skokie village property outside the Skokie Public Library.

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