IN-DEPTH: Amid Israel–Hamas War, Orthodox Jews and Muslims Still Side by Side in Chicago’s Demographic Churn

The Willis Tower (C), formerly known as the Sears Tower, dominates the southern end of the downtown skyline in Chicago, Ill., on March 4, 2015. Scott Olson/Getty Images

Some Americans may be perplexed by the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that swept the country after Hamas’s Oct. 7 sneak attack, which took the lives of more than 1,400 Israelis, including many civilians.

An aerial picture shows the abandoned site of the weekend music festival attacked by Hamas terrorists near Kibbutz Reim in the Negev desert in southern Israel, on Oct. 10, 2023. Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images

If so, they should acquaint themselves with the ethnic makeup and political leanings of young Americans. In a less white, less conservative United States, Israeli Jews are increasingly identified with white, Western colonialism. Hostility against them is thus close to being socially sanctioned.

“Demographics is destiny,” Elon Musk mused on his website, X, formerly known as Twitter, in response to footage of similar protests in London.

“Demographics is destiny” is axiomatic—true of any nation during any period, regardless of the moralistic formulations that pettifog it. Along Chicago’s Devon Avenue, another prolific X user’s line comes to mind: “Invade the world, invite the world.”

Steve Sailer’s frequent quip doesn’t amount to an axiom, universally true across time and space. It’s a specific response to America’s foreign policy after former President George W. Bush initiated the Global War on Terror (GWOT). Yet, it never seems so true as it does in neighborhoods where refugees and other migrants from those countries have flocked.

Iraqis, Afghans, Yemenis, and many more can all be found on and near Devon in West Rogers Park. Although House and Senate Republicans have introduced legislation to bar Palestinian resettlement in the United States, it isn’t hard to imagine Gazans among the neon-lined storefronts.

Afghan refugee women register to be seen by a doctor inside the medical tent at Liberty Village on Joint Base McGuire-Dix- Lakehurst, N.J., on Dec. 2, 2021. Barbara Davidson/Pool via AP

Head west down the heavily Muslim strip, and you’ll soon reach something that may seem surprising: a quiet, declining neighborhood of Orthodox Jews.

“There’s kind of a love-hate relationship that the Muslims have with the Orthodox Jews,” said Carmi Lawrence, managing director of the Synagogue Security Council of North America, in an interview with The Epoch Times on Oct. 13.

Born and raised in nearby Highland Park, Mr. Lawrence knows the area’s Jewish community well. In some ways, it isn’t unique. Mr. Lawrence noted that devout Muslims and Orthodox Jews live near each other in other American cities.

He explained that both groups frown on things accepted in more secular environs—for example, loud gatherings and revealing female clothing.

“From that perspective, they [Muslims] would rather have Orthodox Jewish neighbors than your standard, everyday American,” he said.

And yet, while the post-GWOT Muslim community is burgeoning, Jewish West Rogers Park seems to be slowly dying out.

Rabbi Leonard Matanky, leader of Congregation K.I.N.S. in West Rogers Park and dean of the Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Skokie, told The Epoch Times that the community along Devon flourished after World War II. Over subsequent decades, many moved out to the suburbs. The remainder has been concentrated, like the pellet in a centrifuge tube: as the less religious have trickled away, some Orthodox Jews have remained.

‘Calling 911 Is Not a Plan’

The afternoon of Oct. 13, Hamas’s “Day of Rage,” was gray and drizzly along Devon. Shabbat, the Jewish sabbath, would begin in just hours. Synagogues were locked.

At the Dunkin Donuts off Troy (the honorary Torah V’Chesed Drive), Chiam Naiditch sat at a table with a walkie-talkie, a grave look on his face. Mr. Naiditch is the president of MAGEN Chicago, another synagogue security organization.

“People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf”: Richard Grenier’s words, meant to capture a message in the writing of George Orwell, might seem to refer to police, soldiers, and others exercising force in some official capacity.

Yet, to men like Mr. Naiditch and Mr. Lawrence, those sources of order don’t seem like enough anymore.

Mr. Lawrence said his organization was motivated by the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting, which claimed eleven lives.

“That kind of demonstrated to the Jewish community in North America, at least, that calling 911 is not a plan. It’s more like a hope and a prayer,” he said.

His group trains first responders who can act during the critical window before law enforcement arrives.

“Our constituency is any Jew that goes to synagogue,” he said.

“That said, I think the Orthodox community is a little more vulnerable and a little more thirsty for this kind of training,” he added, pointing out that Orthodox Jews go to synagogue multiple times a day.

Not every lesson they teach requires volunteers to carry guns. Yet, in Mr. Lawrence’s view, Jews’ communal safety in their houses of worship now depends on the force of arms.

He believes it’s appropriate for visible Jews to carry legal weapons—maybe even a necessity in light of recent events.

Mr. Lawrence was disgusted by the anti-Israel protests across the world after Hamas’s attack.

“Nobody feels the need to cover up those shameful sentiments of the joy in seeing Jewish blood spilled,” he said.

Palestine supporters rally outside the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia, on Oct. 9, 2023. Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

Hamas’s “Day of Rage” wasn’t without violence likely or definitively tied to it. In Beijing, an Israeli diplomat suffered a knife attack. In France, a Chechen-origin man was accused of stabbing three school employees. One of them died.

But things were quieter at home.

“My sense is that Chicago has been a cakewalk compared to Europe,” Mr. Lawrence said.

‘Governments Are Fighting, But Civilians Are Suffering’

While Hamas’s “Day of Rage” left no great mark on Devon Avenue, a nearby incident on Oct. 16 illuminated another danger.

In suburban Plainfield, a 71-year-old man allegedly stabbed a Palestinian woman and her 6-year-old boy, killing the child. The violence is thought to have been motivated by the Israel–Hamas war.

Neither anger nor sadness permeated one West Rogers Park mosque on Oct. 13. Groups of men recited their rounds of prayers, a few soft words and fragments familiar to the untrained ear: “Allah,” God, and “salaam,” peace.

By Oct. 12, Israeli airstrikes on Gaza had drawn condemnation from the United Nations, as had Hamas’s attacks. The U.N. estimated that 290 Palestinian children had already died. Palestinian civilians who have fled south following an Israeli evacuation order have also faced Israeli airstrikes.

“It’s very sad for all of humanity, because civilians are dying on both sides,” one imam told The Epoch Times.

Palestinian women walk by buildings destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, on Oct. 16, 2023. Hatem Moussa/AP

Rabbi Matanky too decried the deaths of civilians in his interview.

“The people at the top—they are just fighting for power,” the unnamed imam said.

“I cannot take a stand on either [side],” he added, stressing that he didn’t have enough information about what is happening on the ground.

“Governments are fighting, but civilians are suffering a lot,” said another man, Sohail, who explained to The Epoch Times he had come to the mosque to hear prayer.

He questioned how so many Palestinian civilians could now be dying, given the strength of Israel’s intelligence.

The apparent Israeli intelligence failure that enabled Hamas to massacre civilians on Oct. 7 raises its own questions.

“This was Israel’s 911,” Mr. Lawrence said, pointing out that the United States’ 911 had also involved intelligence failures.

Peace and Force

After Hamas’s “Day of Rage,” Hezbollah called for its own “Day of Unprecedented Anger” after the Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital in Gaza suffered a missile strike. The BBC has backed off of early claims the bombing was perpetrated by Israel, and the U.S. National Security Council has indicated Israel was not the perpetrator.

On Oct. 22, K.I.N.S. and Ida Crown will respond to the “Day of Unprecedented Anger” with their “Day of Chesed.”

“Chesed,” in Hebrew, means benevolence and loving-kindness.

Rabbi Matanky had a suggestion for anyone hoping to show solidarity with the “Day of Chesed.”

“Find ways to show humanity to others,” he said.

Jerusalem's Western Wall with the golden Dome of the Rock near Al-Aqsa mosque in the background. Genevieve Long/The Epoch Times

Isaiah, accepted as a prophet by Jews, Christians, and Muslims, speaks in the Christian Book of Isaiah of “the prince of peace”—in that faith’s teaching, Jesus of Nazareth. And, as many have observed, the Arabic “salaam” and the Hebrew “shalom” derive from the same Semitic root. “Peace,” in translation, may simply be a hope for the hereafter, difficult to achieve in this life—in some cases, perhaps only attainable through the sort of coercion that makes a mockery of the concept.

Every religion has its way of praying for peace. But the terms of any ceasefire matter. On Devon Avenue, there is coexistence in the moment amid demographic churn.