Governor of Illinois has Ukrainian Roots

So many Americans and Canadians are of Ukrainian descent. Among them is Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois, a member of the family that built the Hyatt Hotels fortune. 

J.B. Pritzker | Biography, Governor, Illinois

https://www.britannica.com/biography/J-B-Pritzker

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These are the results for Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois' Ukrainian roots

AI Overview

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is of Jewish-Ukrainian descent. His great-grandfather and ancestors hailed from the Kyiv region (specifically from a town known as Velyki Prytsky). They immigrated to the United States in the 1880s to escape antisemitic violence and Tsarist pogroms in the Russian Empire. 

He is a member of the prominent Pritzker family, who owns the Hyatt hotel chain and is one of the wealthiest families in the United States. Before being elected governor, Pritzker played a role in the founding of multiple venture capital firms.

Here are a few key details regarding his family’s heritage and connection to Ukraine:

• Ancestral Origins: The family surname derives from their original village, Velyki Prytsky, southeast of Kyiv. His great-grandfather, Yakov Pritzker, managed a sugar factory in the Kyiv Governorate before his descendants fled to the United States. 
• Immigrant Experience: Pritzker's ancestors were sponsored to settle in Clinton, Iowa, before quickly moving to Chicago, where they initially slept in a train station on their first night in the city. 
• Political & Personal Stance: Pritzker frequently invokes his family's immigrant roots to show solidarity with Ukraine. Following the 2022 Russian invasion, his administration led state efforts to divest Illinois from Russian investments. 
• Family Ties: His sister, Penny Pritzker, has also been deeply involved in the region, having previously served as the U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine's Economic Recovery. 

The billionaire Chicago-based Pritzker family founded and largely controls the Hyatt Hotels Corporation. The hotel empire started in 1957 when Jay Pritzker impulsively bought his first airport motel for $2.2 million. Today, Hyatt operates over 1,500 luxury and resort properties worldwide. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Key Family Members & Leadership

• Jay Pritzker (1922–1999): The progenitor of the empire, co-founded the chain and established it into a global brand. [1, 2, 3, 4]
• Thomas J. Pritzker: Jay’s son, who served as executive chairman of Hyatt Hotels Corporation. In February 2026, he retired and stepped down from the board entirely after documents surfaced detailing his past social ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. [1, 2, 3]
• Mark Hoplamazian: The current leader of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation, who took over as Chairman of the Board and CEO following the departure of Thomas Pritzker. [1, 2]
• Penny Pritzker: Former U.S. Secretary of Commerce and a leading trustee of the family’s wealth, who also serves as an independent director on the Hyatt board. [1, 2]
• J.B. Pritzker: Jay's nephew and the current Governor of Illinois. [1, 2]

Corporate Evolution and Wealth

• Early Expansion: The brothers Jay, Donald, and Robert Pritzker built Hyatt into an internationally recognized luxury chain, introducing major innovations like the open atrium and global loyalty programs. [1, 2]
• Public Offering: The family transitioned the company into a publicly traded entity on the New York Stock Exchange in 2009 to help divide the sprawling fortune among dozens of heirs. [1, 2, 3]
• Current Portfolio: Brands under the massive Hyatt umbrella now encompass the Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt, Andaz, Miraval, and The Standard, all operating under the World of Hyatt loyalty program. [1]

A shift in momentum

Anne Applebaum documents the shift of momentum in the Ukraine-russia war in an essay in The Atlantic. Ukraine has changed world warfare forever and in the process created a stalemate at its border. Anne, an expert on Ukraine's history who wrote a definitive account of Stalin's Holodomor, outlines the possible moves Putin and Zelenskyy could make to end the war. A demilitarised zone like that between North and South Korea is a possibility. That would require concessions on Ukraine's part, but as there is nothing left where the russians conquered, there is little to recover but destroyed territory. The people are gone, the cultural institutions are gone. Is that the price for peace? 

Perhaps. And it would mean that Putin loses. He has lost his status in the world. He has sacrificed millions of his soldiers. He has gambled away russia's economic prospects. He will retreat to his palaces and shrink away to nothing. 

Happy Kyiv Day!

 

Kyiv is 1544 years old, based on its traditionally accepted founding date of 482 CE. Kyiv, not Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both banks of the Dniepro River. As of January 2022, the population of Kyiv was 2,952,301, making it the seventh-most populous city in Europe.

The city's name is said to derive from the name of Kyi, one of its four legendary founders, the others being brothers Schek and Horyv and sister Lebed. One of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe, it has passed through several stages of prominence and obscurity. It probably existed as a commercial centre as early as the 5th century. A Slavic settlement on the great trade route between Scandinavia and Constantinople, it was a Khazar tributary until its capture by the Varangians (Vikings) in the mid-9th century. Under Varangian rule, the city became the capital of Kyivan Rus, the first East Slavic state. Christianization of Kyivan Rus occurred in 988 CE, when Prince Volodymyr the Great made Eastern Orthodox Christianity the state religion. During the Siege of Kyiv (1240) by the Mongols, Kyiv was left in ruins. The Mongol invasions fractured Kievan Rus.

In contrast, Moscow is only 879 years old. You can't steal our history, Russia, and you didn't wipe out our culture or language. Slava Ukraini. The name Ukraine (Україна) broadly translates to "our country" or "homeland" in modern Ukrainian. Get out, Russia. 

The Ems Ukaz

 Ukrainian World Congress - Свiтовий Конґрес Українців

150 years ago, in 1876, the Russian imperial authorities issued the so-called Ems Ukaz — a secret and deliberately repressive decree aimed at systematically suppressing the Ukrainian language, culture, and any expressions of national identity.

It was one of the harshest tools of imperial policy, designed to push the Ukrainian language out of education, science, and public life. The decree broadly banned the printing and import of Ukrainian books, as well as theatre performances, concerts, public readings, and the wider use of the Ukrainian language.

In practice, it targeted the entire cultural infrastructure — from school textbooks to artistic life — attempting to make Ukrainian invisible and unwelcome. Did it succeed? We can clearly see the answer today.

150 years later, the Ukrainian language is not only alive. Millions speak it around the world. It is taught in hundreds of Saturday schools abroad, and increasingly studied by non-Ukrainians as well. The Ems Ukaz became a historic reminder: the Ukrainian language and identity cannot be erased.

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150 років тому цього дня, у 1876, російська імперська влада підписала так званий Емський указ — таємне й підступне розпорядження, спрямоване на системне придушення української мови, культури та будь-яких проявів національного життя.

Це був один із найжорсткіших інструментів імперської політики, спрямованої на те, щоб витіснити українське слово з освіти, науки й публічного простору. Указ масовано забороняв друк і ввезення українських книжок, театральні постановки, концерти, публічні читання та будь-яке широке використання української мови.

Фактично під удар потрапила вся культурна інфраструктура — від шкільних підручників до мистецьких подій. Українське слово намагалися зробити «невидимим» і «небажаним». Чи вдалося? Відповідь бачимо на власні очі.

Сьогодні, 150 років потому, українська мова не просто існує. Нею говорять мільйони у світі, її вивчають у сотнях суботніх шкіл за кордоном і дедалі частіше — іноземці. Емський указ став історичним нагадуванням: українську мову й ідентичність неможливо стерти.