History of the Jews in Illinois

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The history of the Jews in Illinois dates back to 1793, when John Hays, the region's first postmaster, settled in Cahokia from his native New York. The most prominent Jew in Illinois' early days was Abraham Jonas (politician), who moved to Quincy from Cincinnati in 1838. In 1842 he was elected to the Illinois Legislature, where he met Abraham Lincoln, and became his lifelong friend. Another early Jewish settler was Cap. Samuel Noah, the first Jewish graduate of West Point, who taught school at Mount Pulaski, Illinois in the late 1840s.

As of 2013, Illinois has a Jewish population of 297,935.^[1] Approximately three-fourths of them live in Chicago. Peoria and Quincy have the second- and third-largest Jewish communities.