Emerging Jewish Communities Showcase in New York

Date:
06 Apr, 2008

Description:
Your next community is coming to visit you!

Pursue your dream of a professionally enriching, religiously and personally rewarding life in a community with affordable homes in a friendly, supportive neighborhood, where you can be a key person, helping to bolster the Torah environment.

On Sunday, April 6, 2008, at New York’s Grand Hyatt Hotel, the OU will showcase a dozen growing Jewish communities from around North America. You will meet community representatives and learn directly from them about:

• synagogues, day schools and yeshivot
• kosher stores and other Jewish communal resources
• exciting and lucrative job opportunities
• affordable housing
• close-knit and warm communities
• Torah atmosphere in which to raise children
• rewarding retirement opportunities

List of Communities:

Charleston, South Carolina
Columbus, Ohio
Denver, Colorado
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Houston, Texas
Indianapolis, Indianapolis
Memphis, Tennessee
Oakland, California
Omaha, Nebraska
San Diego, California
Seattle, Washington

Sunday, April 6, 2008, 11:30 am – 6:00 pm

Register in advance for the chance to win valuable prizes!

Contact:
For more information and for reservations, call 212.613.8188

It's sad that New Yorkers need a conference to realize that there are viable Jewish communities outside of the tri-state area.

I know several of the communities listed, and they are far from viable for someone who wants an active and prospering community with the options of kosher groceries, eateries, lots of shiurim, a choice of shuls and schools, and decent shidduch prospects.

Sometimes people want to go to a community where there aren't dueling shuls or are looking for a tight-knit community.

Sometimes housing prices outweigh the other issues. As for shidduchim, that's kind of laughable- check out the NY scene, everyone's complaining and people from the proverbial OOT are still coming here.

I don't get the kosher groceries thing, even in small Jewish communities there is at least one grocery store that carries kosher meat and cheese.
How many shiurim do you need?
I understand the problem with schools, but if you are going to move to one of these areas you obviously should have checked it out and decided that you were happy with the school the community has before moving there (same goes for the shul).
Why do you need 15 minyanim for 300 people?

I think its a cool idea!

If the store doesn't carry items that you need or want, say CY or certain shechita, but you're still willing to there-- you can order from the nearest (even if it's far) large city with kosher stuff or start a kosher co-op and order in bulk,etc.

At least this is planting seeds in the minds of people that don't think that life exists beyond Livingston, NJ to the west, Westchester or Monsey to the North, Plainview, NY to the east and Baltimore to the south.

You're wasting your breath. Most people are waiting for the yeshivish equivalent of that Chassidish community that moved en masse to upstate New York.

Deal worked for a while til some of the people moved back to Brooklyn.

Hmm... anyone want to purchase a few hundred acres and start a commune...I mean community?

Did you see the frum Waterburry Ct website?
ETA- that site is a thread in and of itself.....

I'm in a community now with probably fewer than a dozen frum families (and a few older singles) and people STILL manage to form factions and find a shul that they won't daven at, or a local yiddishe business they won't support. They might be desperate enough to come together to form a community, but I wouldn't call that "close-knit".

I'd rather be in NYC where I have the option to be rejected by a myriad of guys who think they're too good for me, than to be stuck here, where there isn't even anyone my AGE who is single (and darn few that're married, too). As much as people complain about shidduchim in NYC, it is easier to date there than it is a place where there is NO ONE to date (or darn few prospects). Shidduch dating in these areas most likely will mean having to travel out of town.

I can understand living somewhere for the housing costs, or to be close to not-yet-frum relatives, but I think the lack of amenities outweighs the benefits in communities that are mamash tiny.



The grocery here is so limited, I have to order a whole case of c"y milk in advance, and freeze it. I also pay almost $5 per half-gallon. Yogurt is $2 per small container. Meat ranges from $1-3 per pound MORE than it was in brooklyn. My selection in general is limited, and I can get no fresh pastries or most baked goods here. Cheeses are limited to shredded or sliced of only a few varieties, and anything specialty I might want needs to be ordered in bulk. So yes, I very much miss the ability to go to a kosher grocery and pick up whatever I need without having to order it a week in advance and get enough to feed a platoon. I also miss competitive pricing. When you're the only game in town, you can charge whatever you like and people like myself are stuck either paying it or going without (which isn't an option when it comes to milk and a toddler).

Much of the reason people are deserting my area is because of the lack of jewish schools. The shul rav had his toddler in a secular Montessori school before picking up and leaving. Many people are home-schooling, or not schooling at all. As kids get older, you're probably looking at sending them away to yeshiva, because you simply don't have any options locally. And if you DO have a school nearby, it's likely the only one and your default choice, good or bad, because you just have no other choice. Here, the only schooling options are a "hebrew school" that is mostly goyim who wanted a private, non-catholic school; homeschooling; or sending your child 3-4 hours away to live with a family and go to a chassidishe school.

As far as shiurim and minyanim go, some people like having options as to when they daven and what they're learning. In these small communities, shiurim are rarely offered every night of the week (allowing people to work them into their schedule) and often the topics aren't varied much beyond parsha, tanya, and maybe daf yoimi.

People do choose to live in communities like this, but it's ridiculous to compare them to NYC or even Chicago, or suggest that they offer anywhere near the same amount of amenities and conveniences for the frum family.

No, why?

I've seen it, but can't find it now. It's a community that was created around the yeshiva that leased a closed UCONN campus.

The question is- there are communities that are new and ones that are trying to revive themselves, is there or should there be a priority to one or the other?

For example, Perth Amboy, Paterson- both were mentioned last week as having yeshivot, they were Jewish communities of yesteryear-- what about Newark, Linden, etc.? Even in the NY area there are fledgling communities hoping to stay afloat- places in the Bronx and Queens- like Sunnyside, Astoria and Jackson Heights come to mind.

http://blueridgewaterbury.com/index.html

The pictures of the backs of girls' heads and of the woman with her faced blurred out are seriously creepy.

i also think this is a cool idea.

I think I have an issue with the word 'emerging' when describing the communities-- some of these cities have long Jewish histories.




Will they have issues with EE or can they specify who the homes are for?

they should call them reviving or resurging... but that has a more negative sound to it


I dont know anything about it, other than the website. I wonder why prices are not listed?

wow, we should really stop complaining about our local prices then.

i also think this conference is a great idea, although i can't picture myself anywhere besides brooklyn.

I have to ask.
Why would a frum family choose to stay there?

Because it's not always so easy to pick up and move, whether it's practically speaking because of jobs and housing prices, or emotionally that you've lived there for a long time and you're attached to it.

Oh, I should also mention that the prices of produce here (fresh, not specialty) is also MUCH higher and not nearly as fresh as it was in Brooklyn. Say what you want about big cities, but there are certain standards of living that are higher or cheaper because of the massive volume.



Most don't. They had a kollel here for a few years that disbanded, a troubled boys' yeshiva that disintegrated, and the majority of people who were frum and were paid to move in and "start a community" moved out. Those that frummed out here, picked up and moved to thriving jewish communities. One family stayed because the husband was offered a position in shul, another because they owned and ran a business, and the last are chabad shluchim that have been here for several decades. No one else stays more than a year or so, and it's almost invariably a stepping stone to somewhere else that has a thriving community and opportunities for their children. A few older singles who frummed out hold on, presumably because they don't need the same things a family does and they're comfortable in their old lifestyle. At any rate, I would never recommend anyone move to one of these dying communities, especially if one has children.

pardon my ignorance (i'm VERY bad with american geography), but why - there are no farms around and it has to be transported to your place?

not to mention the convenience factor...

I'm in a farming community, actually, but during the winter produce is shipped in, and it's horribly expensive and very poor quality.

Actually I hope it fails to attract people from Brooklyn, the very people who are voicing the complaints about how can Jews live in places like that.
A bunch of Brooklyn Jews coming into a community is pretty sure to ruin it. Look at Atlanta. It used to be a nice friendly place. The last time I was there no one said a word to me in shul. I might as well have been in Baltimore.
Of the places listed only Charleston has any appeal.

A few of them have appeal for me...mostly the places where it's above fifty degrees right now. Also Denver.

Why do I have a hunch that some people at this convention pronounced that as "house-ton" instead of "Hue's-ton"?

I read it that way in my head...