Today’s Jewish Birthday: J.B. Pritzker

J.B. Pritzker was born January 19, 1965, in Palo Alto, California to Hyatt Hotel magnate Donald Pritzker and his wife Sue Sandel. He obtained a BA in political science from Duke University, and a law degree from Northwestern University School of Law.  He chaired ChicagoNEXT, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s council on innovation and technology, and was appointed in 2003 as chair of the Illinois Human Rights Commission by Gov. Rod Blagojevich. In 2008, he served as national co-chair of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in the primaries, and supported Barack Obama in the general election.

As a Democratic  candidate, Pritzker finished third in a 1998 bid for the congressional seat won by Jan Schakowsky, and 20 years later, he ran successfully for governor of Illinois, spending an estimated $42 million of his own money through the primary and $171.5 million to defeat Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner in the general election.  He was easily reelected in 2022.

In 2019, he signed legislation giving women the absolute right to decide for themselves whether to have an abortion, another bill legalizing cannabis for use by adults, and a third one requiring schools in Illinois to be affirming and inclusive of transgender and non-binary students.  In 2023, he signed a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

As the multibillionaire president of the Pritzker Family Foundation, he has made funding of early childhood education a priority.   He became chairman of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center , which opened in 2008.  In 2015, he and his wife P.K. Muenster donated $100 million to Northwestern University in honor of his great-grandfather, Nicholas J. Pritzker.  The law school was renamed as the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.

The Pritzkers have a daughter Teddi and a son, Donny.

Tomorrow, January 20: George Burns

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SDJW condensation of a Wikipedia article