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Riverdale? Teaneck? Elsewhere? Please help!



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chatouli




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Feb 22 2009, 8:07 pm
Hi everyone. I am thinking of moving and I would love some advice about where to go.

DH and I are somewhere between Modern Orthodox and "just plain Orthodox" (strictly kosher, hair covering, but we watch TV, etc.). We live in an OOT-ish neighborhood in Brooklyn now and want to move someplace a little more convenient in terms of restaurants, food shopping, shuls, mikvah, and other normal frum-people needs.

We want an apartment, not a house, and we want an open-minded, diverse community where people are friendly. We also really want an inspiring rabbi. It means a lot to me to have a rabbi who is knowledgeable, approachable, and who makes me want to do more. Not necessarily a kiruv rabbi, but just someone who is easy to talk to.

We have heard that Riverdale and Teaneck may be places to consider, but we don't really know which parts are good (North Riverdale? certain apartments in Teaneck?). We are not really interested in Flatbush, although everything is so convenient and we love the restaurants. We are afraid we would have a hard time making friends, we think we are too left-wing for Flatbush (not politically but from a religious standpoint).

Imamother has become my go-to on all such issues Smile so I'm hoping someone can help us with this big decision that we hope to make sometime this year IY"H.

Thanks in advance!
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SingALong




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Feb 22 2009, 8:59 pm
teaneck has both modern ortho and like flatbush type. I have 2 friends there, one goes to modern ortho shul and the other goes to a more right wing shul, loves it there, she's very happy. there are lots of stores/restaurants, its convenient, also so close to the city. very expensive to live there though.

you can also look at passaic nj, 20 minutes away from teaneck, they have all types there, yeshivish, modern whatever.

also maybe edison/highland park nj might be for you. my DH works there the people are all a mix of types but all very friendly with each other
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amother


 

Post Sun, Feb 22 2009, 9:38 pm
Riverdale is a wonderful community, with Jews and non-Jews of every flavor, pretty much all getting along. North Riverdale has the Young Israel of North Riverdale, which is more of a centrist YI (AIUI; I've never been there), but a lot of people from North Riverdale come to the south for shul. South Riverdale has Riverdale Jewish Center (centrist MO; Rabbi Rosenblatt), Hebrew Institute of Riverdale (far left MO, Rabbi Weiss), Young Israel of Riverdale (centrist to right for YI, Rabbi Willig), Chabad (Rabbi Shemtov), and a shteibl of two. Not to mention things like the Carlebach minyan that meets on a regular basis. I've met all, including the shteibl rabbi whose name I forget, other than Rabbi Willig at one time or another, and like them all; I have friends who like Rabbi Willig as well. Lots of shiurs. Riverdale Jewish Center has a reputation of being a bit clique-ish and unfriendly, but that seems to be changing.

Mikvah is a given.

I'd say most of the kids in the community go to SAR, but a not insubstantial number attend other schools such as Westchester Day, Ramaz, Breuers or Yeshiva Ketana.

There are 2 kosher grocery stores and lots of kosher things available in other stores, a fish store, butcher (I buy my meat at the grocery, so cannot comment on that), restaurants (2 pizza places (1 with sushi), excellent Chinese, deli, Israeli-style meat, 1 dairy restaurant), bakeries (something like 5, but I expect they won't all last), bagel stores, a Dunkin Donuts, and even the Starbucks has kosher packaged food.

There's a divide on hair covering. I'd say that more younger women cover than don't, but more women over 35 or 40 don't cover than do. A lot of women wear pants, including a lot who cover their hair. Just about everyone owns a TV, or doesn't own one because they're granola-crunch-types, not for religious reasons. You occasionally read here about schools demanding that people not have computers. In Riverdale, the kids are given homework assignments that require internet access.

For apartments, you're probably looking more to the south than the north. North is the smaller, but growing, community with more single-family homes. Riverdale was sadly over-built just before the housing bust, so there are a lot of available apartments.

What Riverdale doesn't have is much real shopping. If you need to be near the Gap or dress shops, forget it. There's a Target and Marshalls not far, but that's about it. You even have to leave Riverdale for a decent supermarket.

Another somewhat similar community is White Plains. There's also New Rochelle.

I've been told that Teaneck has moved somewhat to the right, so that its no longer as left-wing modern.
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chatouli




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Feb 23 2009, 6:53 pm
Thank you so much for the extremely informative posts! It sounds like there are a lot of shuls to choose between, which is nice. Where I live now, there is only one and it is quite a long walk from us. I also don't care as much about clothes shopping, so I think I'd be okay without living near a ton of stores.

In Riverdale, can you get around without a car? Or is it better to keep one? If your building doesn't have parking, is it generally easy to find street parking? Also what is the deal with nursery schools? Is it like Manhattan, where they are all over subscribed and hard to get into, or is it less of a big deal?

Passaic is very frum from my understanding, or am I incorrect?

I'd still love to hear about Teaneck, especially from an apartment perspective if anyone has any info.
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amother


 

Post Mon, Feb 23 2009, 7:30 pm
chatouli wrote:
Thank you so much for the extremely informative posts! It sounds like there are a lot of shuls to choose between, which is nice. Where I live now, there is only one and it is quite a long walk from us. I also don't care as much about clothes shopping, so I think I'd be okay without living near a ton of stores.

In Riverdale, can you get around without a car? Or is it better to keep one? If your building doesn't have parking, is it generally easy to find street parking? Also what is the deal with nursery schools? Is it like Manhattan, where they are all over subscribed and hard to get into, or is it less of a big deal?

Passaic is very frum from my understanding, or am I incorrect?

I'd still love to hear about Teaneck, especially from an apartment perspective if anyone has any info.


Its been a while since we've done nursery schools. I'd suggest joining either the riverdaleshuls or riverdalefamilies yahoo groups for more info. That said, its not Manhattan. While the nursery schools do fill up, people find places. SAR and Kinneret (which I failed to mention -- small community school with a large Israeli student population, but an increasing Orthodox influence) both have nursery schools, but I'm not sure if Kinneret is just pre-K (4 year old) or if it has 3s. There are also nursery schools at RJC (Gan Miriam) and Chabad (the ubiquitous Gan Izzy). The YMHA nursery is not exclusively Orthodox, or Jewish for that matter, but does service a large number of Orthodox families, as does the Riverdale Temple Nursery School. There are several other secular nurseries in the area.

As the kids get older, there are Sunday sports leagues for hockey, soccer, basketball, and baseball. There's Jewish scouting. Dance and gymnastics classes. Everything you could want.

I have friends who live without cars in Riverdale, but its not easy and they often rely on others to shlep their kids here and there. Most buildings do have garages. On street parking isn't the easiest on earth, but again, its not Manhattan, and people do find spots. If Riverdale has one problem, though, its car theft. There's little other crime, but proximity to the GWB makes car theft a problem.
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octopus




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Feb 23 2009, 7:35 pm
Just would like to add that SAR has open classrooms (no walls). I once visited there when my sis taught there. It is coed.
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Racheli




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Feb 23 2009, 7:40 pm
I used to live in Riverdale and now live in the Teaneck area. Both are wonderful communities. The Riverdale Modern Orthodox community is diverse and there are three Modern Orthodox shuls to choose from, two in regular Riverdale (HIR and RJC) and one in North Riverdale (Ohab Zedek). Regular Riverdale is mostly apartments, and there are now many new apartment buildings to look at. North Riverdale has apartments but for the same price as apartments in regular Riverdale, you can buy a house in North Riverdale. Most Modern Orthodox people send their children to SAR, which is a fantastic school. You can get by in Riverdale without a car, or with only one car. In Teaneck, it would be difficult to get by without both you and your husband having a car.

Teaneck/Bergenfield/New Milford is a much larger community than Riverdale. You cannot walk to all shuls from any one location, so it is important to decide which shul or shuls you would be comfortable attending before you start looking at houses. Most people who have more than 2 children live in houses. And btw, you can buy a house in Teaneck for less money than you would need to buy an apartment in Riverdale, which is the reason that many people end up leaving Riverdale and moving to NJ.There are also several Modern Orthodox schools to choose from -- Yeshivat Noam, Yavneh, Moriah, Ben Porat Yosef--as well as one that is more to the right--Yeshiva of North Jersery. The community is diverse here as well.

In both communities, there is no "standard" Modern Orthodox person, which I think is wonderful. You can dress how you want, cover or not cover your hair, etc. If it is important to you to be around other women who cover their hair, with hats or sheitels, there are more women like that in Teaneck than in Riverdale. But there are plenty in Riverdale as well.
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chatouli




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Feb 24 2009, 8:41 pm
I definitely don't need to be surrounded only by people who are in the exact same place as I am religiously. I think we all have lots to learn from one another. On the other hand, I do want to make friends and not worry about my Internet-surfing, tv-watching ways affecting my kids getting into schools (when this iy"h becomes a more relevant issue!). Thanks everyone for your input. If anyone has suggestions outside the areas I mentioned, opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!
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Racheli




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Feb 26 2009, 5:47 pm
In neither Teaneck nor Riverdale do you have to worry about anyone caring if you go on the computer or have a tv. First, everyone goes on the computer. You probably would be thought to be very odd if you didn't use a computer. Most people have at least gone to college, if not graduate school, and everyone has a computer. As for tv watching, some do and some don't. Not an issue either way.
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