Jewish Illinois: Devon Avenue, West Rogers Park and Skokie
Illinois holds roughly 298,000 Jews, nearly all of them in and around Chicago. The most interesting thing about the community right now is a conversation it is having with itself about one street.
Devon Avenue
For decades Devon Avenue in West Rogers Park was the Jewish shopping street of Chicago. Kosher butchers, bakeries, Judaica shops, bookstores.
It is not that any more. The stretch is now majority South Asian, and the Jewish businesses have followed their customers to the suburbs. Rosenblums World of Judaica is the clearest example: bought at its Devon Avenue location in 1990, it moved to Skokie. Its owner Avrom Fox described Devon as no longer commercially viable as a shopping district.
The Jewish Community Council of West Rogers Park lists the revival of Devon Avenue between California and Kedzie among its stated goals. Community leaders describe the street as dormant rather than dead.
What makes the conversation unusual is how the Council's director, Shalom Klein, frames it: the commitment is to a good West Rogers Park, and it does not need to be a Jewish neighbourhood to be that. That is a more honest position than most such campaigns take.
Challah If Ya Hear Me, from our Jewish food shirts. Printed to order, shipped anywhere in Illinois.
Skokie
The suburb that absorbed much of what left the city. Skokie carries a particular weight in American Jewish memory: in 1977 and 1978, a planned neo-Nazi march there became a national legal fight over free speech, precisely because so many Holocaust survivors lived in the village.
The case is still taught in American law schools. For the people who lived through it, it was not an abstraction about the First Amendment.
Where Jewish Chicago Is Now
The Chicago-Naperville metropolitan area counts about 295,000 Jews, with roughly 291,800 in the city proper and its immediate ring. West Ridge and West Rogers Park retain Orthodox communities. Skokie holds a substantial share. The pattern is the familiar American one: an urban core that thinned as the suburbs filled.
Chicago is the counter-example to Pittsburgh. Where Pittsburgh's Jews stayed in the city and concentrated in Squirrel Hill, Chicago's moved outward, and Devon Avenue is what that looks like from street level.
From our Yiddish shirts and Jewish humor. See also our funny Jewish shirts.
Common Questions
How many Jews live in Illinois?
Roughly 298,000, with about 295,000 in the Chicago metropolitan area.
What happened to Devon Avenue?
It was Chicago's Jewish shopping street for decades. The Jewish population moved to the suburbs and the businesses followed. The street is now majority South Asian, and community groups are working on a revival.
Why is Skokie significant?
A planned neo-Nazi march in 1977 and 1978 became a landmark American free-speech case, fought in a village where many Holocaust survivors lived.
Where do Jews live in Chicago today?
West Ridge and West Rogers Park keep Orthodox communities inside the city; Skokie and other northern suburbs hold a large share.
From the MoT Shop
We print Jewish and pro-Israel designs to order and ship across the United States. Browse our Jewish streetwear, our Star of David and Jewish symbols collection, or read our guide to Jewish humour.
