Another Jewish fixture to leave Devon Avenue for the suburbs-Rosenblum's bookstore has followed Chicago's Jewish community through several neighborhoods
Rosenblum's World of Judaica Latest to Leave For decades, Devon Avenue was a bustling rendezvous for Chicago's Jewish community, a street whose butchers and bakers had a regular mantra. "Who's next? Who's next?" they'd shout, trying to keep order amid a forest of waving arms. Shoppers would exchange bits of gossip with older folks stationed on street-corner benches; frantic buyers would beg a last-minute challah or brisket from shopkeepers closing up for Sabbath. But the scene on the 2900 block of West Devon Avenue was much different on a recent weekday afternoon: Where once drivers waited to pounce on a just-empty parking spot, hardly a car was visible. The stretch of Devon from California Avenue to the Chicago River (at Kedzie Avenue) is palpably changing. Rosenblum's, which has been a fixture for 37 years, soon will exit the area, joining a host of other Jewish businesses to leave. Chicago Hebrew Bookstore, Rosenblum's competi...