CHICAGO, IL, August 13, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Charles Bernard Bernstein with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Mr. Bernstein celebrates many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during
The selection process.
Charles Bernard Bernstein was born in Chicago, Illinois, on June 24, 1941, to Norman & Adele (Shore) Bernstein.
From 1981 until his retirement at the end of 2016, Mr. Bernstein operated a solo law practice in Chicago, 1Ilinois. Before this, he took on the role of associate at four law firms: Axelrod, Goodman & Steiner from 1966 to 1967; Max & Herman Chill from 1967 to 1974; Joel Bellows & Associates from 1974 to 1981; and Marvin Sacks Ltd. in 1981. During his career, he handled a wide variety of matters, including appearing in the United States Supreme Court, the United States Courts of Appeals, and the Supreme Court of Arkansas. He also worked part time as basketball press director at the University of Chicago from 1967 to 1974.
Mr. Bernstein's higher academic pursuits began at the University of Chicago, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1962, and was Sports Editor of the Chicago Maroon for 2-1/2 years. From there, he attended DePaul University College of Law, obtaining a Doctor of Jurisprudence in 1965. He was admitted to the practice of law by the United States Supreme Court in 1972 and in the State of Illinois in 1965. At DePaul, he was a member of the Board of Editors of the DePaul Law Review, and received the American Jurisprudence Award for Excellence in Legal Philosophy in 1963. He received the My Brother's Keeper Award from the American Jewish Congress in 1977; the Kovod [Honor] Award from the Congregation Rodfei Zedek Men's Club in 1998; and was co-recipient of the Second Century award of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1999.
Mr. Bernstein has been involved in the community as an officer at the Congregation Rodfei Zedek from 1979-1993. He has also served on the board of the directors for the congregation from 1978 to 1993 and 2000 to 2011.
From 1997 to 2008, he was on the nominating committee of the Hyde Park Cooperative Society, a large, community owned grocery store.
Further maintaining an active presence in the community, Mr. Bernstein was a member of B'nai B'rith International, in which he was president of the Richard Gutstadt Lodge B'nai B'rith Lodge, during which time he received a certificate for meritorious service from the District Six Grand Lodge of B'nai B'rith in 1969. He also was a member of Nu Beta Epsilon Law Fraternity, the Chicago Historical Society, the Art Institute of Chicago, the American Jewish Historical Society, and in 2010, he was a founding member of the National Museum of American Jewish History.
In 1977, Mr. Bernstein was one of twelve founders and the only founder not residing on the East Coast, and subsequently became a past director, of the Jewish Genealogical Society (New York), which was envisioned as a national organization at its founding, and was one of the first local Jewish genealogical societies to be organized. It now has over 500 members. There are now over eighty such local Jewish Genealogical Societies in North America and internationally, with a total of over 10,000 members. Mr. Bernstein is also a member of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois.
In the field of Jewish Genealogy, Mr. Bernstein was half generation ahead of his time, having been seriously interested in the field since 1965. He has done considerable private research on families of personal interest to him and also has done professional research and consulting for genealogy clients for about thirty-five years. He has lectured widely on Jewish Genealogy, served as a scholar in residence at Camp Chi in Lake Delton, Wisconsin, for a family camping weekend sponsored by the Jewish Community Centers of Chicago, and conducted a short course on Jewish Genealogy at Anshe Emet Synagogue, one of Chicago's largest and most prestigious Conservative congregations.
Mr. Bernstein is the author or co-author of five books on Jewish Genealogy. The first was The Descendants of Moritz Loeb, A History of Community Service (Chicago, 1986). The next, which he co-authored with Stuart L. Cohen, was a state of the art family history, Torah and Technology: The History and Genealogy of the Anixter Family (Chicago, 1986). This book traces the descendants and collateral relatives of Chicago's second documentably ordained Orthodox rabbi of Russian birth, Rabbi Yehudah [Judah] Eliezer Anixter, whose great-grandsons became major industrialists by founding Anixter Brothers, Inc., a family business which grew into a New York Stock Exchange Corporation.
Mr. Bernstein's third book was The Rothschilds of Nordstetten: Their History and Genealogy (Chicago, 1989). This is the story of a prototypical German-Jewish family which settled in the Midwest in the middle of the Nineteenth Century and became prosperous and prominent. Mr. Bernstein discovered that Solomon R. Guggenheim of New York, founder of the museum, married into the family, a fact of which the Chicago members of the clan were unaware.
Mr. Bernstein's fourth book, which he co-authored with leading rabbinic geneologist Neil Rosenstein, is From King David to Baron David: The Genealogical Connections between Baron Guy de Rothschild and Baroness Alix de Rothschild (Elizabeth, New Jersey, 1989). The book discloses genealogical connections among members of this oft-written about family tree which were discovered by the authors and were previously unpublished.
The fifth was Chaya Ralbe Hovsha and Rabbi Yechiel Michel Hovsha and Their Descendants, the saga of a relative of Mr. Bernstein who presented him with a genealogical challenge by having seven children who emigrated from Lithuania and eventually settled in five different countries.
He also has contributed to newspaper articles which were scoops documenting Jewish genealogical connections of public figures which had not previously been revealed publically.
His most interesting discovery, while researching a tip for Seth Gitel of the Forward newspaper which was published on August 5, 1999, documented that Hillary Clinton had a Jewish step-grandfather named Max Rosenberg, who lived at Devon and Campbell in the heavily Jewish West Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. This work earned Mr. Bernstein an appearance 01 the NBC 10:00 P.M. news and a page-length article was written about him in the Chicago Jewish News.
Mr. Bernstein also researched the Jewish ancestry of Senator John Kerry for Lynn Sweet, head of the Washington Bureau of the Chicago Sun-Times.
Mr. Bernstein also was a consultant to the authors of three well-known books in the field of Jewish Genealogy. The first was Finding Our Fathers: A Guidebook to Jewish Genealogy (Random House, New York, 1977), by Dan Rottenberg. This book was the pioneer in the field and helped to publicize and popularize Jewish Genealogy. Mr. Bernstein is mentioned twice in the book. He had introduced Mr. Rottenberg to Jewish Genealogy as a "separate discipline". Before that, Mr. Rottenberg was an accomplished genealogist but was unaware of specifically Jewish sources. Rottenberg's book led to the popularizing of Jewish Genealogy and the formation of many Jewish Genealogical Societies around the world.
The second book Mr. Bernstein worked on was An Orphan in History (Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1982), by Paul Cowan, a well-known Chicago-born New York author. This book was the Jewish Book of the Month Club selection for October, 1982. Mr. Bernstein did much of the Chicago research for this book and is acknowledged on page 1. Paul Cowan was the son of Louis G. Cowan, radio and TV producer and inventor of The Quiz Kids radio show. Louis Cowan was a great-grandson of a rabbi in Lithuania, Rabbi Jacob Cohen, but the family assimilated upon its immigration from Lithuania to America. Louis changed his name from Cohen to Cowan and did not disclose his intense Jewish roots to his children, but Paul eventually discovered them.
The third book was The Margolis Family (1984) by Dr. Neil Rosenstein, in which Mr. Bernstein published Chuck's discovery that the Pulitzer Prize winning author MacKinlay Kantor was a descendant of a rabbinical family.
Pursuant to invitation, Mr. Bernstein is a contributor to Volume I of the Encyclopedia of Jewish Genealogy, Arthur Kurzweil & Miriam Weiner, eds. (Northvale, NJ, and London: Jason Aronson, Inc., 1991). Mr. Bernstein also was the consultant, researcher and editor of the published autobiography of the Chicago Jewish communal leader and folding carton industrialist, Eli Field: Eli: The Story of a Patriarch (Chicago, 2001).
Mr. Bernstein has also spoken to groups on various topics related to Jewish Genealogy and Chicago Jewish History. For example, one of his talks was The Genesis of Chicago Jewry: Chicago Jewish History from 1841 to the Eve of the Civil War.
Mr. Bernstein has submitted two articles to the Chicago Jewish News, a weekly publication, both of which were published. The first, which he co-researched and co-authored with his colleague, Stuart L. Cohen, is The Jewish History of Barack Obama 's House, published on December 16, 2008. One of the "factoids" the authors uncovered was that the house was once a rabbinical seminary. The second article in the Chicago Jewish News was The Last Jew of South Shore Gardens, published on November 22, 2010, reporting on the death of the last Jewish resident of a neighborhood which once had a thriving Jewish population.
As a founding member in 1977, Mr. Bernstein also maintained involvement with the Chicago Jewish Historical Society over the years as treasurer from 1977 to 1979, vice president from 1979 to 1982, director from 1977 to 2009, and program chairman for twelve years, during which time he produced approximately sixty programs. He also served as treasurer and on the executive committee of the Chicago Pops Orchestra Association from 1975 to 1981.
For his many achievements in the field, Mr. Bernstein received the Second Century Award from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1999. One year prior to receiving this, he was the recipient of the Kovod Award from the Men's Club of Congregation Rodfei Zedek. In 1977, he was honored with the My Brother's Keeper Award from the American Jewish Congress.
At the beginning of his career, he earned the American Jurisprudence Award for Excellence in Legal Philosophy in 1963. Mr. Bernstein has previously been featured in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law, Who's Who in the Midwest, Who's Who in the World, Who's Who of Emerging Leaders, Who's Who in American Jewry, and Who's Who in World Jewry.
In recognition of outstanding contributions to his profession and the Marquis Who's Who community, Charles Bernard Bernstein has been featured on the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement website. Please visit www.ltachievers.com for more information about this honor.
Mr. Bernstein was married in Chicago, Illinois, on August 7, 1968, to the former Roberta Lesner, presently the retired Administrator of the M.D.-Ph.D. Program of the University of Illinois College of Medicine. She is listed in Who's Who of American Women. They are the parents of three sons: Rabbi Edward C. Bernstein, of Boynton Beach, Florida, who is a chaplain and is listed in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World; Rabbi Louis C. Bernstein, a Jewish studies educator, residing in Chicago; and Henry J. Bernstein, a Jewish studies educator, residing in Chicago. The three sons have earned eight university degrees among them.
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