An Accidental Anarchist

How I Got Drawn into the Lazarus Averbuch Affair Sunday, June 12 at 2 pm Lazarus Averbuch’s story is shaped liked a bagel. We know what happened before he presented himself on the doorstep of the home of Chicago’s Chief of Police on March 2, 1908, and we know that, in the aftermath of his killing, voices from throughout the city weighed in about whether he was an anarchist assassin or an unfortunate boy who happened into the wrong place. In the middle, though, we have a hole, a mystery about the few minutes that cost him his life.

In the century since he died, Averbuch’s haunting story has been explored by writers, activists, and historians, including Jane Addams, Emma Goldman, Ben Reitman, and Harold Ickes, as well as Aleksandar Hemon in his recent National Book Award finalist The Lazarus Project.

For this year's Horwitz lecture, Spertus is please to welcome Dr. Joe Kraus, co-author with Walter Roth of An Accidental Anarchist, to address the mystery of the Lazarus Averbuch affair.

Dr. Joe Kraus teaches American literature and creative writing at the University of Scranton. His work has appeared, among other places, in The American Scholar, Oleander Review, Southern Humanities Review, and Riverteeth. He was nominated for a 2010 Pushcart Prize and won the 2008 Moment Magazine/Karma Foundation prize for short fiction on a Jewish theme.

$18 | $10 for Spertus members | $8 for students

Or call 312.322.1773 312.322.1773 .

This program is the Horwitz Family Lecture in Jewish History.