Moving to Dallas Texas.

DallasIma

Sun, Oct 18 2020, 1:13 pm

I am an older woman living here with my husband, so I can't really tell you firsthand any detailed info about schools or anything regarding young kids. There are a couple of Orthodox elementary schools and an Orthodox high school for girls and one for boys as well as a coed one. I'll leave the details for others to fill in. But the community is incredibly warm and accepting. There are 2 Eruvim in the community: the North Eruv (75248-75252) and the South Eruv (75230). The North Eruv, where I live, is generally less expensive and there are several types of Orthodox shuls within a 1-mile-or-so distance (black-hat, Chofetz Chaim, Chabad, Sephardic). There is a very good infrastructure with several kosher restaurants, several markets at which to get kosher food, and mikvaot. There are also suburbs (generally to the north of Dallas, such as Plano) with their own shuls and infrastructure.

Last edited by DallasIma on Sun, Oct 18 2020, 1:44 pm; edited 1 time in total

BrachaVHatzlocha

Sun, Oct 18 2020, 1:33 pm

My husband became frum through the frum community there - particularly Rabbi Fried. We live in NY, so I have only visited a few times there, but the people seem warm and friendly. People hosted us for yom tov meals, etc. I don't have details about the schools, shuls, etc... sorry....

amother

Ecru

Sun, Oct 18 2020, 1:49 pm

There is actually a third community, Plano with its own eruv and fast growing community. Torah Day School of Dallas is the main elementary school (Akiba is MO) and it’s run by Rabbi Pekier, he’s phenomenal! Their preschool is run by Becky Udman who is well known around the country as an educator, love and logic teacher, and conscious discipline.

Housing in all the eruvs have gone up. The quality of life in Dallas is great, it’s out of town but with all the big things we need so we don’t feel too out there. Most boys go away for high school but there is a chofetz chaim high school and beis medrash here. The girls high school is a Bais Yaakov run by Rabbi Kosowsky and the girls love him.

We have the usual pizza, falafel, burger and bagel restaurants. Two large chain grocery stores that have kosher delis and bakeries plus one kosher market.

Despite the three eruvs, everyone feels like one large community especially since we all send to the same school.

amother

Ginger

Sun, Oct 18 2020, 1:57 pm

Dallas is one of my favorite smaller Jewish communities. Such great vibes, the people are so warm and friendly and give any visitors the Southern welcome.
Oh, and they have AMAZING kosher pizza.
There's been a thread or two about it in the past.

amother

Ecru

Sun, Oct 18 2020, 2:31 pm

Another quick plug about Dallas - 99% of the frum Jews moved to Dallas on purpose. This means that everyone helps out because most don’t have family near by and also everyone is happy here because they chose to be here. Yet because most of us moved from the major Jewish communities across the country, we often find outside connections with each other (you know, the usual Jewish geography)

amother

Ecru

Mon, Dec 28 2020, 1:11 am

No lockdowns, everything is open. Some places have limited capacity or shorter hours but for the most part everything is normal except all stores requiring masks inside. The school is doing everything they can to stay open and so far have been doing well. A few classes had to go to zoom for a few weeks and families that travel or have visitors may have to get negative tests before returning to school. Just depends on the situation.

amother

Jade

Mon, Dec 28 2020, 2:37 am

amother [ Ecru ] wrote:

A quick internet search reveals that Akiba has 383 students to the 226 at Torah Day School. Doesn't that make Akiba the main school?

And at the end of your post, you claim that everyone sends to the same school. How is that possible when there are two schools?

Sounds to me like you think anyone who isn't yeshivish isn't actually part of the community. I hope you aren't representative of Jews in Dallas, because that attitude is pretty off-putting.

amother

Ginger

Mon, Dec 28 2020, 9:05 am

amother [ Jade ] wrote:

Chill. I assume she meant the main ultra Orthodox school. It is a very warm, inviting and accepting community. To me, you saying that you hope she isn't representing a whole community by one phrase, is worse than her saying that there's one main school (for yeshivish, heimish, jpf, american etc people who fall under the ultra Orthodox umbrella).

amother

Wine

Mon, Dec 28 2020, 9:11 am

amother [ Jade ] wrote:

Omg! Are you serious?? I'm being you dan l'kaf zchus that you're probably having a hard day which is causing you to write such a nasty post.
She lives in Dallas, I assume she knows better than your quick internet search.

amother

Jade

Mon, Dec 28 2020, 11:25 am

amother [ Ginger ] wrote:

I know she meant the main ultra-Orthodox school. That's the problem. She was saying that to her, that's the entire community.

Sometimes there's a certain tone deafness on this site when posters write about their Modern Orthodox brethren.

I wasn't having a bad day, and I'm not personally involved. I'm disappointed to see that someone defined the Jewish community to exclude a substantial portion of it. That doesn't sound warm, inviting and accepting in any way.

amother

Violet

Mon, Dec 28 2020, 11:33 am

amother [ Jade ] wrote:

She didn't define anything.

Her feeling of community is the families connected to her school.

Its perhaps reality that the MO crowd and the more right wing crowd aren't in the same social circles.

That doesn't mean the MO crowd isn't welcoming.

amother

Mon, Dec 28 2020, 11:43 am

amother [ Violet ] wrote:

Where are the MO and the right wing communities are?

amother

Brown

Mon, Dec 28 2020, 12:19 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Where are the MO and the right wing communities are?

The MO Shul is in the South Eruv. It's called Shaare Tefila.

I grew up there. The MO and Yeshivish communities are pretty divided, although I have heard that it has gotten better as the years went on. I don't have much current information, as I haven't been there since my parents left a number of years ago.

amother

Sun, Jan 10 2021, 8:11 pm

amother [ Brown ] wrote:

Thanks. Does anyone has more information about shaare tefila?

amother

Vermilion

Sun, Jan 10 2021, 9:53 pm

amother [ Jade ] wrote:

dont be too "jaded" Smile

amother

Jetblack

Sun, Jan 10 2021, 10:04 pm

Shaarei tefilla is the MO shul in the south Eruv. It’s very modern , very welcoming with really nice people. The other shul is much more yeshivish so there are really not too many people In the middle- meaning not too many frum YU style people like you have in Ny/ Nj communities. In the north Eruv there are a few shuls more leaning towards yeshivish but has a very nice young crowd, and some are more in the middle . Overall dallas has a very nice lifestyle, lots of jewish life and very nice people. Akiba is a good school but many of its families are not orthodox.