Moving to London | Imamother

Mrs Bissli

Sat, Mar 07 2015, 7:50 pm

London is a big city, and you'll get different feel for different communities. Main Jewish areas are Golders Green, Hendon, Edgware, Stamford Hill, though pretty much other NW London areas (incl Finchley, Temple Fortune, Mill Hill) and other areas like Borehamwood has enough infrastructure.

The first thing I would suggest is that indeed you and DH are eligible to settle in UK. I believe they have tightened immigration criteria in recent years. As for job market, it really depends on industry but in general economy is not too bad esp compared to other European cities.

Cost of living can be high, but then again you get socialised healthcare (NHS, though many companies pay for private insurance) and affordable (relative to US) Jewish school tuitions. Schools start one year earlier relative to US--3 yr olds start Nursery, 4yr olds start Reception and 5 year olds enter Year1. It IS hard to find places in Jewish schools--do your search before you move esp if you already have school-age children.

Housing ownership vs rental depends, some areas are quite expensive, pushing out younger marrieds to areas like Borehamwood where the housing is relatively affordable. Though my suggestion would be to rent for a few years so you get to see if a community works for you or not. Depending on where you live/work and children go to school, you can get around with public transportation but most people would find it more convenient to have a car.

Weather is not bad at all (I prefer London weather to NY to be honest), summer is not super hot (most houses don't have A/C as a result) while you get snow only very occasionally. Summer days are looong (like Shabbat starting 8pm but ends as late as 10:30pm), winter days are short (earliest shabbat like 3:30pm but nice to have long motzShab). Israel is much closer (4-5hr flights with discount airline options) compared to flying from US. You'll have plenty of shul choices in main communities. Eruv can be a bit tricky, one in GG/Hendon is not universally accepted. It is easy to get kosher provisions, but if you're accustomed to US where so many foods carry hechsher you'll need to get accustomed to consulting the official London Beth Din kosher food guide because many kosher items don't carry hechsherim.

Feel free to PM me if you have questions.