The history of the Jews in Ohio dates back to 1793, when John Hays settled in Cahokia from his native New York. Hays served as the region's first postmaster. 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, who became lifelong friends. 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.
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As of 2013, Illinois has a Jewish population of 297,935.
Chicago
See Jewish history in Chicago for further details.
Jews first settled in Chicago in the 1830s. Among the early arrivals was Henry Meyer, an agent of a Jewish colonization society formed in New York in 1842. He settled as a farmer in Cook County and recommended that some Jewish families move to Chicago. Soon, in Chicago were created the first Jewish institutions in the state: the Jewish Burial-Ground Society (established 1846), and the congregations Anshe Ma'arab (1847), B'nai Sholom (1852), Sinai (1861). Since, seventy-five more congregations have been organized, sixty-eight of which are in Chicago.
Other cities
Outside of Chicago exist 8 congregations in 7 cities, and numerous dispersed Jews that are members of the Jewish Federation of Southern Illinois.
20th century and present-day
There are an estimated 300,000 Jewish inhabitants of Illinois, three-fourths of those living in Chicago. Peoria and Quincy have the largest communities outside of Chicago.