Where shoudl we go?

eyima

Wed, Jun 01 2011, 2:07 pm

My husband and I are thinking about moving from EY back to America after being here for four years (we have five kids). I am very happy with many aspects of living in Israel and don;t know if I will be able to find a community that is right for me.

We are living in a very serious chareidi community with very high standars of tznius. We are very litvish, makipd on halacha, machshiv the gedolim and their takanos. I wear a snood 98% of the time and like the fact that I can dress in a way that I htink is tzanua - and I am totally normal (I try not to follow what is trendy, wear skirts that are at least 4" below my knee, sheitel is above my shoulders with no skin part, etc.) I love the way that the chinuch focuses so much on being machshiv torah and the simcha of living with Hashem in our every day lives. I also am very comfortable with the level of gashmiyus here- some people have more, some have less, some very much less and no one judges anyone on it. In fact, I think that people are almost embaressed when they have nicer more expensive things (cars, strollers, clothing, etc.)

I am not from NY and think that and "out of town" community would be best for us. The places that I have heard so far are Waterbury, Scranton, Toronto....any other ideas for us? any thoughts on these places?

I looked into Waterbury a bit and think that it sounds like an ideal community, but maybe not the ideal for us. any thought?

thanks for your help

eyima

Wed, Jun 01 2011, 2:47 pm

My kids are still on the young end of the spectrum. For my girls, I need a school that focuses on midos, tznius, simchas hachaim, and hislavus for avodas Hashem. For the boys, I would love a cheder style school that engenders a love for learning (and of course midos, simchas hachaim, and hislavus for avodas hashem.)The teachers should be true michanchim/michanchos. A high level of learning and at least decent secular skills would be an added plus.

I have heard very little about it.
What is the community like in scranton? Are there many older families with fathers still learning full time? (my husband may go to work in a few years). What are house prices like? anything else you can tell me?

amother

Wed, Jun 01 2011, 2:54 pm

Waterbury is a nice place but it doesn't sound like what you want. It's not considered OOT. It's mostly brooklyn people transplanted. Toronto also is not considered OOT. Scranton is though. And there are many other oot communities that might suit you.
What about detroit, cleveland, etc..?

lkwdmommy

Wed, Jun 01 2011, 3:50 pm

I don't know much about Cleveland, but it sounds like it might work for you. My impression of the schools there is that you have an option of a more frum one than a day school. I assume that there is a Yeshivish out of town kind of community.

Also, what about Baltimore? The people I know there are the nicest!

amother

Wed, Jun 01 2011, 4:05 pm

I would say Baltimore- It's a large frum community with a very out-of-town feel. You can live in the areas near the very chareidi families/shuls and you'll fit right in. It's affordable living, really nice/green, good schools, nice people, and the largest kosher supermarket in the US. I came from NY and I think it's the best kept secret :-)

Rubber Ducky

Wed, Jun 01 2011, 4:21 pm

Quote:

Also, what about Baltimore? The people I know there are the nicest!

Yeah, we're the nicest! Big range of people here, many very yeshivish. Baltimore is a large community and not fragmented much into groups. Reasonable housing prices. We moved here from LA 10 years ago -- we're very happy here.

amother

Wed, Jun 01 2011, 4:32 pm

Scranton is a really nice warm and accepting community but there is only one school - the community day school which is yeshivish and gives the kids a great education and its co-ed. until 4th grade theyre together for everything, 4th and up theyre seperated for hebrew and 7th and 8th are seperate for english.

amother

Wed, Jun 01 2011, 4:44 pm

Detroit is a great place. I have to confess that you are describing what is to me a dream world. I don't mean chalomos, I mean really beautiful. Coming with a few kids, learning for a few years...do you have a really good job or are you planning to move where there's a paid kollel?

amother

Wed, Jun 01 2011, 11:44 pm

What do you mean by older families? There is a very small kollel, and all of those families have a few children each. The community itself is very machshiv Torah. Go to the kosher grocery-which is on the Scranton Yeshiva complex and the owner will most likely share divrei torah with you while you shop.

Housing is cheap. Parnossa is tough.

If you have specific questions about Scranton I will do my best to answer them.

amother

Thu, Jun 02 2011, 8:13 am

amother wrote:

I can share more thoughts on Detroit if you can give more details.

eyima

Thu, Jun 02 2011, 3:42 pm

Thanks everyone for replying!

Scranton- Is it growing? (I.e. Are young families moving in?) What are the High School/Mesivta options? What do you mean that parnossa is "tough"? How so exactly? How many kollel families are there? Does the kollel pay, and if so, how much? What is kosher shopping/eating like? Is there a wide availability of yoshon products?

Baltimore- What areas are the most yeshivish? Are those areas safe? How yeshivish is yeshivish (specifics- tznius, hakpados in halacha, etc.)? What are the girls schools like?

Cleveland- Is the yeshivish community growing? I heard that it's slowly dying. What are the school options?

Detroit- How big is the community? Are there young families moving in?

Toronto- In the more chareidi neighborhood, do women go out in snoods or only sheitls? What schools do the more yeshivish in Thornhill send to?

Gerbera

Thu, Jun 02 2011, 3:48 pm

re: Toronto - women in my area wear snoods as well as sheitels. Yeshivish in Thornhill send to Bais Yaakov. There are some who send their kids to Eitz Chaim for preschool and then switch them to BY for grade 1. It's quite a shlep down to BY from Thornhill.