Lois Weisberg (May 6, 1925 – January 13, 2016) was the first Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for the

City of Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, from 1989 until January 2011. She was profiled by writer

Malcolm Gladwell Malcolm Timothy Gladwell (born 3 September 1963) is an English-born Canadian journalist, author, and public speaker. He has been a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' since 1996. He has published seven books: '' The Tipping Point: How Little T ...

in a 1999 ''New Yorker'' essay, "Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg"; Gladwell, who called Weisberg a "connector" and included the essay about her in his book ''

The Tipping Point ''The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference'' is the debut book by Malcolm Gladwell, first published by Little, Brown in 2000. Gladwell defines a tipping point as "the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling po ...

'', asked: "She's a grandmother, she lives in a big house in Chicago, and you've never heard of her. Does she run the world?" Weisberg was appointed by Mayor

Harold Washington Harold Lee Washington (April 15, 1922 – November 25, 1987) was an American lawyer and politician who was the 51st Mayor of Chicago. Washington became the first African American to be elected as the city's mayor in April 1983. He served as ma ...

to head the city's Office of Event Planning (in the Department of Cultural Affairs) in 1983. She helped establish the Gallery 37 program, which gathered Chicago youths to a vacant block in downtown Chicago to make art; she also created the

Chicago Blues Festival The Chicago Blues Festival is an annual event held in June, that features three days of performances by top-tier blues musicians, both old favorites and the up-and-coming. It is hosted by the Chicago, Illinois, City of Chicago Department of Cu ...

, the Chicago Gospel Festival, multiple citywide neighborhood festivals, and the Chicago Holiday Sharing It Program. She launched Chicago's

Cows on Parade CowParade is an international public art exhibit that has featured in major world cities. Fiberglass sculptures of cows are decorated by local artists, and distributed over the city centre, in public places such as train stations, important avenu ...

exhibit, the first in the US. Before her appointment in city government, she helped found the

Chicago Cultural Center The Chicago Cultural Center, opened in 1897, is a Chicago Landmark building operated by Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events that houses the city's official reception venue where the Mayor of Chicago has welcomed preside ...

and Friends of the Park. She was given many civic and arts awards, including the

League of Women Voters The League of Women Voters (LWV or the League) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan political organization in the United States. Founded in 1920, its ongoing major activities include registering voters, providing voter information, and advocating for vot ...

Civic Contribution Award,

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's Public Official of the Year Award, the Harold Washington History Maker Award, an honorary Doctorate from Chicago's

Spertus Institute Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership (Spertus College or Spertus) is a private educational center in Chicago, Illinois. Spertus offers learning opportunities that are "rooted in Jewish wisdom and culture and open to all" although ...

, and the ''

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'' "Chicagoan of the Year" award.

Family

Born Lois Porges in Chicago to a lawyer father and homemaker mother on May 6, 1925, she initially pursued an acting career, but soon realized she would rather work behind the scenes. She married Leonard Solomon, and they had two daughters: Jerilyn yffe(d. 2011) and Kiki llenby She and Solomon divorced, and she married lawyer (and later judge) Bernard Weisberg. They had two sons:

Jacob Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. J ...

and Joseph (Joe). Jacob became editor of '' Slate online magazine'' and co-founded with Gladwell the audio content publisher

Pushkin Industries Pushkin Industries is an American publisher of podcasts and audiobooks. It was co-founded in 2018 by Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg. As of 2021, it hosts over 25 podcasts. History The company was co-founded in 2018 by Malcolm Gladwell and Jac ...

. Joe is a former CIA agent turned television writer-producer. Judge Weisberg died in 1999.

Awards

In 2014, Weisberg received an inaugural Fifth Star award from the City of Chicago. In a 2009 interview with '' Chicago Life'', she reported not always enjoying the process of fundraising, "Even since I first started with the Shaw celebration in 1956, I've never really liked asking people for money. I don't mind asking people for money for something I'm not involved with, and I bet a lot of people feel that way."

Death

Weisberg died in

Palmetto Bay, Florida Palmetto Bay is a suburban incorporated village in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The population was 24,439 as of the 2020 US census. Palmetto Bay includes three neighborhoods that were former census-designated places, Cutler, R ...

, aged 90. She had been ill for a short time.

References

External links

* Malcolm Gladwell
Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg

Profile
chicagomag.com; accessed January 17, 2016.
Notice of death of Lois Weisberg
newyorker.com; accessed January 17, 2016. {{DEFAULTSORT:Weisberg, Lois 1925 births 2016 deaths People from Chicago American activists American socialites 20th-century American Jews People from Palmetto Bay, Florida 21st-century American Jews