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Skokie
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North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie Rand McNally & Company headquarters
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North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie
North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, Ill.

Skokie

Illinois, United States
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Also known as: Niles Center
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Article History

Skokie, village, Cook county, northeastern Illinois, U.S. A suburb of Chicago, it is located 16 miles (26 km) north of downtown. Called Niles Center until 1940, Skokie (renamed for the Potawatomi word for “swamp”) was settled in 1834 by immigrants from Germany and Luxembourg. A trading centre in its early years, it was known primarily for its greenhouse produce. In the late 1920s a development boom followed the extension of railroad services through the village from Chicago. After World War II there was an influx of light industry. Printing and publishing are important, and in 1952 Rand McNally & Company (mapmaker and publisher) moved its international headquarters there from Chicago. Manufactures include pharmaceuticals, automotive and aircraft parts, tools, and metal castings.

Hebrew Theological College, established in Chicago in 1922, moved to Skokie in 1958. Skokie was a political flash point in the 1970s, when the neo-Nazi National Socialist Party of America won court approval to hold a demonstration in the village, which has traditionally been home to a large Jewish population (including many Holocaust survivors). The group later decided to forgo a demonstration there, and the incident became the subject of the television movie Skokie in 1981. It also sparked a movement among Chicago-area Holocaust survivors to tell their stories, and in 2009 the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center opened in the village. More than one-fifth of Skokie’s current residents are of Asian descent. The North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie (1996) showcases theatre and music performances. Inc. 1888. Pop. (2000) 63,348; (2010) 64,784.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.