Celebrating Jewish joy

JUF Young Families hosted its first Jewish-American Heritage Month celebration at the Chicago History Museum featuring actors to portray notable Jewish-Americans, such including Dr. Jonas Salk. (Photo credit: Lynn Renee Photography)

From ringing in the Jewish New Year at an urban farm in Downers Grove to celebrating Chanukah at a venerated improv theater in Lincoln Park, JUF Young Families has spent more than a decade creating meaningful moments of Jewish joy for families throughout the Chicagoland area. JUF Young Families brings together the broader Chicagoland Jewish community to celebrate the Jewish holidays, exploring the city’s major museums and suburban hidden gems.

“We find ways to meet families where they are and often pick landmark destinations for our events,” explained Alice Mintz, Senior Program Associate in JUF’s Young Families department. “Families already want to go to the Field Museum or the Arboretum. We just find a way to show off these uniquely Chicago places through a Jewish lens.”

Through accessible, low-barrier programming options, JUF Young Families makes it easy and affordable for a family with young children to venture out on a Sunday afternoon and take advantage of all Chicagoland has to offer.

In May 2026, JUF Young Families hosted its first Jewish-American Heritage Month celebration at the Chicago History Museum. Mintz described choosing the museum as a “no-brainer,” as it was already set up to explore and celebrate Chicago history-makers, and is a “gem of a Chicago museum that is already easily digestible for a family with young kids.”

The event highlighted the contributions of notable Jewish-Americans by hiring actors to portray Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, baseball player Hank Greenberg, poet Emma Lazarus, and vaccine-pioneer Dr. Jonas Salk. Kids practiced their swings with Greenberg and wrote poetry with Lazarus, while parents snacked on black-and-white cookies, pickles, and Dr. Brown’s sodas (all uniquely Jewish-American products). A musician serenaded the group with songs written or performed by Jewish-American singer/songwriters, and kids danced to songs by Paul Simon and Pink.

“It was so nice to come to an event that celebrated being Jewish, American, and a Chicagoan, all at the same time,” shared a parent after the event.

This fall, JUF Young Families will host an event exploring the story of Noah’s Ark on Oct. 18 at the newly renovated Lamb’s Farm in Libertyville. “We haven’t held a large-scale event at Lamb’s Farm and it’s a location that many families are excited to explore,” Mintz said. “You see it right off the highway as you drive north from the city, and it’s a destination where families are always meaning to go—we just make it easier for them to do it.”

Parashat Noach, the Torah portion dedicated to the story of Noah’s Ark, will be read on Shabbat the same weekend of the event and families will engage in activities meant to engage even the youngest crowd in the story’s themes, like responsibility, chesed (loving-kindness), optimism, and hope.

Since JUF Young Families is the implementing partner for PJ Library, the organization that sends out free monthly books to Jewish families in Chicago and internationally, there will be plenty of Noah’s Ark-themed PJ Library books on hand for families to read and take home. There will also be ample time to explore the farmyard and meet the animals.

This October event will kick-off a year of programming in the Young Families sphere that will span from a slime museum in the city to a Chanukah theatrical performance in Evanston and beyond.

To learn more, please email [email protected]. To register for the Noah’s Ark event at Lamb’s Farm, visit tinyurl.com/NoahsArkatLambsFarm.

Dara Cameron is the Director of the Young Families department at JUF.