Cherry Hill, NJ | Imamother

Lady A

Tue, Dec 18 2012, 12:42 am

I have a friend who is considering moving there. She has kids in elementary school. Does anyone know anything about the community? They are a MO family and looking for a more relaxed atmosphere.

Lady A

Tue, Dec 18 2012, 12:43 am

Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

underthestars

Tue, Dec 18 2012, 4:53 am

I grew up in Cherry Hill, although that was quite a while ago. I can tell you some things. Schooling isn't the greatest, and once the kids get passed elementary school age, there is nothing available. My step daughter is moving from Cherry Hill (she also grew up there) this being a main reason-her child is now finishing elementary school and there isn't much there. Years ago, we schlepped the kids to Phila to TA in lower merion. (not a fun trip for parents or kids) There is also Hebrew Academy in Northeast phila, but again, a schlepp.

As for the community itself, --not bad. Housing is reasonable (at the moment very!), people are nice, and there is kosher markets, restaurants, shopping, etc... They even have more than 1 shul now. Is the parnassah an issue? Can you move to other communities or is CH the best location?

amother

Tue, Dec 18 2012, 7:14 am

Isn't there a new high school somewhere in the Philly area?

underthestars

Tue, Dec 18 2012, 7:25 am

I am not familiar with any new high schools- I know of TA in Lower Merion and Hebrew Academy in the Northeast. There could be something new, I just am not aware of anything. Whether there is or not, commuting is a hassle, because many people work in Phila & live in S. Jersey, so rush hour is a LONG drive. School hours are usually around that time as well.

underthestars

Tue, Dec 18 2012, 7:26 am

I just remembered, there is now a high school yeshiva in CH--not sure if it would apply to you and your family though. This is way new since I lived there!! But then again, it was a 1 shul town back then too.

scrltfr

Tue, Dec 18 2012, 8:03 am

Take note that that there is also an east side and a west side. The west side has a larger frum community but the east side is growing and the eruv should be done soon. There is chabad and Torah links on the east side, west side has sons of israel and young israel. Both are a modern community and yes housing is very reasonable in certain areas. Schooling is an issue as stated above, but dozens of families deal with it so how bad could it be?

amother

Tue, Dec 18 2012, 8:16 am

I lived in this area for a few years recently. In terms of elementary schools, there are two Politz day schools - one is in Cherry Hill itself, and one is about a half hour bus ride to Northeast Philadelphia. There's also a school in Lower Merion, Torah Academy, that is also about a half hour away from CH. All three are co-ed and depending on the year/demand, there's usually busing from Cherry Hill.
Not sure what you're looking for but there's solomon schechters in both Cherry Hill and Philadelphia that are obviously Conservative but because it's "OOT," it's not uncommon to have Orthodox families send there for one reason or another.
Also, there's a chofetz chaim elementary and high school (I think) but if she's MO I'm not sure that's what she's looking for.

In terms of high schools, there is TA, which is an all-girls school in Lower Merion. There's Stern Hebrew High School which is a an MO co-ed high school in Lower Merion, and there's Barrack Hebrew Academy, in Bryn Mawr, which feeds from the schechter schools - is a "community, pluralistic" school. It has a really good academic reputation so you also get a bunch of orthodox families there, too.

The community is definitely relaxed, feels OOT but close enough to be able to go to NY. I'm not sure how it is right at this moment but I remember everyone being really nice. I would say that I don't think it's a "growing" community but I could be wrong. I'm just not sure how many young families there are there now - I'd suggest she spend shabbos there.

There's a pretty extensive kosher section in one of the Shoprites - including a butcher. We originally thought we'd need to shlep back to NY to buy most of our groceries but we really did not have too much of a problem finding everything we needed.

Kosher restaurants come and go - I'm not 100% sure what's open at the moment. There's a restaurant in the JCC and I think a meat restaurant called Cherry Grill. Of course, Philly isn't that far and they have a few more kosher restaurants (though less than you'd think...)

Lastly, housing in Cherry Hill is super reasonable - well, at least compared to what I'm used to in NY. The West Side (where the orthodox Jews live) is cheaper than the East Side of Cherry Hill - which is Jewish, but has no orthodox amenities.

Does that touch on everything she wants to know?

amother

Tue, Dec 18 2012, 10:19 am

rews wrote:

It's not "new" exactly - Stern moved from the NE to Lower Merion and was renamed Kohelet. In fact it has the Barrack Academy's old site.

Torah Academy has a girls' high school, but no boys' (and is more to the right, as well).

Lady A

Wed, Dec 19 2012, 10:39 pm

They are moving from an 'established site' that they were sick of. Their kids are plannining on OOt yeshivot when they are in high school anyway. They really wanted to know how the community is there now in terms of not doing everything that everything else does. They listen to secular music, their kids love science and art and are in lower school. everything that has been said is very helpful.

Elyse

Mon, Jan 07 2013, 11:57 am

Cherry Hill is a wonderful warm community. Being Modern Orthodox, they should fit right in. The West Side is the more established community with an exisiting eruv. Politz Day School goes grades 2 year nursery through 8th grade, with approx. 160 kids. It's a very warm nurturing environment (both my kids attend there & are very happy). There is also a chofetz chaim boys high school. Both are on the West Side as well. There are also some nice school options, in Philly, which is a short drive from Cherry Hill. Housing is super affordable....2 bd. condo rents $1150 & buying a 4 bedroom house runs around $200K, just to give an example. We have shuls, mikvahs, restaurants, etc. Feel free to e-mail me for more info. about the community, or to arrange for your friends to come check us out for a Shabbat.

tiredmommy

Mon, Jan 07 2013, 1:24 pm

http://www.checkoutcherryhill.com/home.shtml

My sister lives there as well. It's a small, MO community. Take a look at their website, good luck!