City overview

Chicago pairs world-class architecture, museums and a long Lake Michigan shoreline with one of the largest Orthodox communities in the Midwest. Most kosher restaurants, bakeries, groceries and shuls sit in West Rogers Park and Peterson Park on the city's Far North Side, along Devon Avenue, Touhy Avenue and California Avenue, and continue just over the city line into Lincolnwood and Skokie, home to several large Modern Orthodox shuls and a full kosher supermarket. Downtown, the Gold Coast, River North, the Loop, the South Loop and Lakeview each have a Chabad house, and Lakeview has a Modern Orthodox shul steps from the lakefront. Kosher supervision in the city is overwhelmingly by the Chicago Rabbinical Council (cRc).

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Eruv

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Chicago has several separate eruvin, and a visitor should check each one's status every Friday. The West Rogers Park eruv (Chicago Eruv Inc., hotline 773-743-7882) and the Lincolnwood/Peterson Park eruv (hotline 847-677-3788, status at eruvstat.us/lincolnwood) are connected to each other and to the Skokie eruv (hotline 847-679-3788), so it is possible to carry between West Rogers Park, Peterson Park, Lincolnwood and Skokie when all are up. In Lakeview, the Jack Strulowitz Lakefront Eruv surrounds Anshe Sholom B'nai Israel and the nearby lakefront (status at eruvstat.us/lakeview). In Hyde Park, the South Side Eruv runs from 43rd Street to 67th Street between the Rock Island Metra tracks and Lake Park Avenue, and does not include East Hyde Park (status at eruvstat.us/southside). There is no eruv downtown, so hotels in the Loop, River North, the Gold Coast and the South Loop are outside every eruv.

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