Interested in moving to Rochester, NY

tryinghard

Tue, Jan 31 2012, 2:09 pm

We have a great community, B'H.
My kids are not old enough for school, but the community is very involved in the school, and it's really a top-notch school. Their website is www.derechhatorah.org .
The mikvah is small and old, but they are in the midst of renovating it now, and it should be very nice when they finish. It has always been very clean and the mikvah ladies are warm and caring without being intrusive in any way. It is by appointment. The membership fee is $180 a year, or else $20 each time.
There is a pizza place run out of the Chabad House, but it has very limited hours. There is a butcher shop/deli and a bakery that are both somewhat controversial - depending on who you are asking, you may or may not eat there (gotta love Jewish politics Sad

)
As for shopping, what would you like to know? We don't have any frum stores, but Rochester is a medium sized city, and has most of the national chains. For groceries, there are a few options, Wegmans, Tops and PriceRite.

What else can I tell you?

tryinghard

Tue, Jan 31 2012, 2:28 pm

Abba's Pizza - 585-360-9723

Not a lot of any age - it's a small community Smile

Seriously, though, there are about 10 couples under the age of 30, and most of us live in the same apartment complex. There are more in their 30s, but it's less my crowd, so I can't guess it as well.
Housing - I think the median home price in the neighborhood where the frum community is located is around $150K. Apartment are between 700-1000 for a 2 bedroom - there are 2 complexes most convenient to the frum community. One has 2 bedrooms in the 700-800 range. The other was 900 3 years ago (I dont live there so I don't know more), but those are more of a tiny townhouse - upstairs, downstairs and basement. If you are interested in apartments I can give you more information than houses...

spring13

Tue, Jan 31 2012, 2:43 pm

I grew up there and often miss it; there's a lot to be said for the small-town life.

People sometimes forget that while the frum community there is small, the city itself isn't. It's not LA or NYC, but it's not small-town NJ or North Dakota either. So it has good resources as a city - excellent hospitals, universities, minor league sports teams, great libraries, that kind of thing - without the kind of overwhelming urbanness of a major metropolis. There are a few big malls, a nice farmer's market, and Wegmans, which is hands down the best supermarket anywhere, ever. You might want to buy skirts online or in Brooklyn or whatever, and you might stock up on certain items when you make trips to NYC (or wherever), but you won't be stuck shopping at Walmart because it's the only game in town or something.

People sometimes make a big deal over the weather. Yes, it tends to snow more than in NYC or NJ or points south, but they know how to handle it, and Rochester schools often have fewer snow days than places further south; the roads and sidewalks get plowed very efficiently. And summers are really nice!

In my experience, the community wants people to be there. Everyone knows that it's a small place, so everyone counts. When someone has a bris or other simcha, everyone is there for them in way that doesn't happen in bigger places.

OOTBubby

Tue, Jan 31 2012, 3:06 pm

DS was married in Rochester around 2 years ago. Our large family all came and we found it very difficult. We were told that if we want anything cholov yisroel beyond a small quantity (which needed to be ordered in advance) or pas yisroel bread we would need to provide it.

DD who drove from Lakewood came with a whole top carrier full of food. We also brought with us lots of deli from home for the pre-chasuna suppers.

We were told by our mechutonim (who are among the more yeshivish families there) not to buy from the local butcher or bakery. They do just find there, but aren't makpid on either CY or PY as we are. Plus some of our family is makpid on yoshon too which wasn't at all available either.

The community was very warm and as helpful as they could be. Our mechuteniste bought a case of raw bagels for us from Costco and a friend of hers brought them to the yeshiva and baked them for us to minimize the bread we needed to bring.

Everyone really went out of their way to welcome us and help us and we had a wonderful time.

spring13

Tue, Jan 31 2012, 3:23 pm

kb wrote:

What type of job opportunities do you have there?

The usual range. There are several hospitals and universities/colleges, several quality public school systems. Again it's a city, not a farm hamlet on the prairie a million miles from anywhere.

tryinghard

Tue, Jan 31 2012, 3:30 pm

OOTBubby wrote:

The community was very warm and as helpful as they could be. Our mechuteniste bought a case of raw bagels for us from Costco and a friend of hers brought them to the yeshiva and baked them for us to minimize the bread we needed to bring.

...I wish! unfortunately, that was from BJs, not Costco, as we don't have one, sadly Smile

OOTBubby

Tue, Jan 31 2012, 3:35 pm

tryinghard wrote:

OOTBubby wrote:

...I wish! unfortunately, that was from BJs, not Costco, as we don't have one, sadly Smile

I guess it was BJs -- I just knew it wasn't Sam's Club which it what we have nearby here. Those bagels were a tremendous help.

OOTBubby

Tue, Jan 31 2012, 3:39 pm

kb wrote:

Is there really no Cholov Yisroel there?
And how would you categorize the 'type' of people who live there hashcafically?

When we were there there were CY items available by special order through Chabad. Not in the stores.

tryinghard

Tue, Jan 31 2012, 4:06 pm

OOTBubby wrote:

kb wrote:

Is there really no Cholov Yisroel there?
And how would you categorize the 'type' of people who live there hashcafically?

When we were there there were CY items available by special order through Chabad. Not in the stores.

AFAIK the only people in Rochester who are makpid on CY are the Chabad families. They order in, as OOTBubby said, and it is possible to order through them. Additionally, you can order cheese through the yeshiva (I think this is CY, but not sure).

There is a MO shul, a "regular" Orthodox shul, a Sephardi shul (Rabbi is frum, congregation mixed), Chabad and a yeshiva. The yeshiva is a branch of Chofetz Chaim. A lot of the community is affiliated with the yeshiva, and the elementary school is as well (there is also a community day school which has grown progressively more modern since the yeshiva's day school opened, and at this point, it is not an attractive option for most of the Shomer Shabbos community). Most of the "regular" shul sends their kids to the yeshiva's day school. I'm not sure how else to describe the community hashkafically - do you have a specific question?

grace413

Tue, Jan 31 2012, 4:25 pm

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

I'm reading this with nostalgia. My grandmother passed away a few months ago, and so I doubt I'll ever be back.

The last time I was in Rochester, to visit my grandmother, was before most posters here were born. The Jewish community was in a totally different part of town back then. I have vague memories of going to shul on Joseph Avenue when I visited as a child.

nylon

Tue, Jan 31 2012, 4:49 pm

I went to college there. My knowledge of the frum community is limited, but it's a nice small city with more to do than you'd expect. The economy used to be based around Xerox, Kodak, and Bausch & Lomb, but as they've declined, other companies have sprung up. If you've been elsewhere upstate, Rochester feels more "white collar" than Buffalo or Syracuse, because it doesn't have a heavy industry background. And yes, Wegmans is the best supermarket! I still have college friends up there. It's very family friendly and low key.

The weather is variable. Snowfall can vary dramatically depending on where in town you are.

Fun fact: Because of the way the winds come off the lake, Rochester gets more snow than Toronto, which is just about opposite. (It's too far for a day trip, over 3 hours, but it's a good overnight destination.) As you go inland, snow totals go up--so Syracuse is snowier than Rochester, and Rochester is snowier than Buffalo (which is at the "wrong" end of Lake Erie).

spring13

Tue, Jan 31 2012, 4:50 pm

kb wrote:

Do most people in the community have:
tv / internet / watch movies

Men wear black hats (in the young-ish community)
Shabbos / every day all the time / to davening

Basically - can you stereotype people living there?

There's a big mix, and people don't only associate with their own kind, if you know what I mean. It's not all or even mostly one kind or another.

Most young men wear black hats (especially those affiliated with the yeshiva in some way). Most people use internet, but tv/movies is going to be a big variation. It's not especially chareidi overall, but there's a definite yeshivish population.

This is out of town, not mini-Lakewood or mini-Teaneck. Things play out differently in a community this size; people are generally willing to take you as you come.