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Ranchleigh- Baltimore
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amother


 

Post Mon, Sep 29 2014, 7:07 am
I grew up in Baltimore. I think the previous poster had a lot of good points...

My parents were fairly MO. But we kids went to Bais Yaakov and TA, until the youngest went to Rambam (which has since closed, and wasn't open while I was in school)..

There were MO kids in Bais Yaakov in my day, though few in my particular grade. In my class, the more MO kids were BTs or kids of BTs so they moved more to the right afterward or totally off the derech. My father used to be the only father at PTA with a kipa serugah. My parents thought there were too few religious kids at Beth Tefillah and didn't want me not be able to participate in non-kosher birthday parties... They also felt 'better too religious than not religious at all'

Most of the families like my parents that we knew, sent their kids to Bais Yaakov/TA and they turned out mostly right wing MO or plain frum, or Yeshivish.. (I have a sister who became yeshivish) And with time, lots of the women my mothers age started to wear sheitels or at least have ones that they occasionally wore...

You don't realize how right wing Baltimore is until you live in other places.... my father davens at Shomrei -- I'm always surprised by the amount of black hats when we visit....

I'd see if you can find a shul you are comfortable with and take it from there.... There probably still is a van to take kids to Washington DC area schools - you might want to look into Hebrew Academy of Greater Washington too for your oldest.
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abby1776




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 29 2014, 8:29 am
If you want to pm me I have good friends who are Left MO and send their kids to Beth Tefilah and I can put you in touch with them.
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nylon




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 29 2014, 8:31 am
There are 2 different schools in the Silver Spring area.

Yeshiva of Greater Washington is more RW.

Berman Hebrew Academy is MO.

Beth Tfiloh is estimated at about 1/3 Orthodox.
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amother


 

Post Mon, Sep 29 2014, 10:19 am
I wasn't aware the Baltimore community expects stockings and hair covering. That's a lot for us.
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suzyq




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 29 2014, 10:51 am
amother wrote:
I wasn't aware the Baltimore community expects stockings and hair covering. That's a lot for us.


I would not say that Baltimore expects stockings. I don't know that many people who do wear stockings all the time. Hair covering is more "expected" but not everyone does and I feel like there are plenty of people who don't cover their hair and they fit in just fine.

Baltimore doesn't have a large LWMO community, but what I like here is that I feel there is a lot of diversity and everyone is mixed in their neighborhoods, but still gets along pretty well.

School will be a difficult issue however.
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amother


 

Post Mon, Sep 29 2014, 11:05 am
There is a new shul, Pikesville Jewish Center, that caters to the (very small) left-center MO crowd in Baltimore, but it's mostly still young couples who are the frum Beth Tfiloh type (see http://www.baltimorejewishlife.....50732). This may work for you -- the people involved that I know of are incredibly friendly and sweet -- but it's an very small segment of the community.

There is another authentically LW MO shul Baltimore, http://www.netivotshalom.net, that has some of that progressive LW MO element, but again -- extremely small.

Bottom line, you will definitely be in a very small minority in Baltimore in terms of LW MO. Ohr Chodosh is much more the right-center YU type, and Shomrei and Suburban are shuls that are even a little more so to the right than that. They wouldn't fit the very yeshivish/kollel model, but they are a VERY far cry from the MO type shul in, say Riverdale or Teaneck, that OP may be envisioning.

OP, I wish you hatzlacha in finding the right place for your family!
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suzyq




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 29 2014, 11:17 am
amother wrote:
There is a new shul, Pikesville Jewish Center, that caters to the (very small) left-center MO crowd in Baltimore, but it's mostly still young couples who are the frum Beth Tfiloh type (see http://www.baltimorejewishlife.....50732). This may work for you -- the people involved that I know of are incredibly friendly and sweet -- but it's an very small segment of the community.

There is another authentically LW MO shul Baltimore, http://www.netivotshalom.net, that has some of that progressive LW MO element, but again -- extremely small.

Bottom line, you will definitely be in a very small minority in Baltimore in terms of LW MO. Ohr Chodosh is much more the right-center YU type, and Shomrei and Suburban are shuls that are even a little more so to the right than that. They wouldn't fit the very yeshivish/kollel model, but they are a VERY far cry from the MO type shul in, say Riverdale or Teaneck, that OP may be envisioning.

OP, I wish you hatzlacha in finding the right place for your family!


The shuls mentioned above are probably the best places for a LWMO family. BUT, they are not so close to Ranchleigh. You might want to look in the Midfield/Smith neighborhood.
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amother


 

Post Mon, Sep 29 2014, 5:44 pm
Ner Tamid is in Greenspring and I think that you would find LWMO families there. It is a friendly shul with plenty of young families.

Baltimore is a pretty tolerant community. Lots of women cover their hair, but if you don't, that's fine too. I see plenty of women without stockings in the summer. Also, please keep in mind that yeshivish in Baltimore is not the same thing as yeshivish in Lakewood - it's more chilled here.

I think you should visit and get a feel for it. Try out a shul or 2, go to 7 Mile, walk around a bit.
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amother


 

Post Mon, Sep 29 2014, 10:24 pm
LOL stockings in Baltimore???

Not my crowd.

yeah there are lots of kollel couples but there are also tons of people who are pretty modern.

maybe not LWMO but definitely a large crowd of main stream MO.

where do you think Ohr Chadash gets its students from? All the families who don't want to send their kids to BY/TA.

Also, Beth Tefilla is 30% orthodox. All those families are LWMO.
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amother


 

Post Mon, Sep 29 2014, 10:32 pm
amother wrote:
LOL stockings in Baltimore???

Not my crowd.

yeah there are lots of kollel couples but there are also tons of people who are pretty modern.

maybe not LWMO but definitely a large crowd of main stream MO.

where do you think Ohr Chadash gets its students from? All the families who don't want to send their kids to BY/TA.

Also, Beth Tefilla is 30% orthodox. All those families are LWMO.


wow that is more than I tought! where did u get that figure from?!
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amother


 

Post Mon, Sep 29 2014, 10:34 pm
I'm the amother from 10:05am. I agree that Ner Tamid is also a good option for you -- I forgot that it's also been very revitalized with a whole new young MO crowd.

However, re: the previous poster, I think it would help if you clarified what you meant by LWMO and what you expect from a community. What about your lifestyle would you classify as "left wing"? And are you okay with having a small chevra, that could possibly include people with shmiras Shabbos and kashrus that are very lax by Orthodox standards, and with being a small minority among the greater community? Or would you require a large MO community and standard MO school, Teaneck style (which you would not find in Baltimore)?
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amother


 

Post Tue, Sep 30 2014, 10:09 am
amother wrote:
wow that is more than I tought! where did u get that figure from?!


well whenever the school come up in conversation, that is the number that is thrown around. Its not hard scientific fact.

I think that overall Baltimore is very accepting. a MO family would do just fine. There are at least 3-4 shuls to choose from and elementary students can go to Ohr Chadash and high school students can either go to Silver Spring or if they are ok with it- Beth Tefilla.
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amother


 

Post Tue, Sep 30 2014, 10:32 am
amother wrote:
I'm the amother from 10:05am. I agree that Ner Tamid is also a good option for you -- I forgot that it's also been very revitalized with a whole new young MO crowd.

However, re: the previous poster, I think it would help if you clarified what you meant by LWMO and what you expect from a community. What about your lifestyle would you classify as "left wing"? And are you okay with having a small chevra, that could possibly include people with shmiras Shabbos and kashrus that are very lax by Orthodox standards, and with being a small minority among the greater community? Or would you require a large MO community and standard MO school, Teaneck style (which you would not find in Baltimore)?


I'm not LWMO. (no stocking amother). just regular MO.

When I think regular MO I mean families who own TV's, dont dress yeshivish (most are wearing shaitels but some dont), couples who get together socially, shul events that are not separate, husbands wear jeans, hashkafically pro college- not pro kollel, small family size, visit casinos- possibly with friends, go to movies, have football party get togethers, (I know I'm stating externals but that is the easiest thing to gauge with)

As for a Teaneck kind of community- no definitely not. you need silver spring for that but you can definitely find a crowd in baltimore.

not sure if this makes a difference- I am young- in my 20s. That is the crowd I am referring to. It could be that the crowd OP's age moved to Silver Spring due to schools and when my crowd is a little older either we will all move also or Ohr Chadash will really take off and all our kids will have a strong MO school to send to in Baltimore. I really hope the school does well.
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