Monsey residents - What do you think?

amother

Thu, Dec 27 2012, 7:54 am

I'm looking into moving to monsey. We narrowed it down to three neighborhoods. Chestnut ridge, Airmont, and New Hemstead. But the issue is....I'm having a hard time getting the "feel" or "pulse" of each one.

Sure I drove down the neighborhoods, and spoke to people about it but I don't get a sense of what it feels like to live in each neighborhood. What's unique about each place. What's different. Which area has cheaper taxes, is more friendly, frum but open minded etc?

We are a frum family that takes yiddishkeit seriously and we are also open minded and educated. We have kids from age one all the way up to almost age twelve. We are also interested in the chabad shuls and being near an area that might have more chabad oriented people but not necessarily only that.

Tell me anything you know or think! Everyone's thoughts and input can help me get a sense here of what I'm dealing with!

Thank you!

naturalmom5

Thu, Dec 27 2012, 9:26 am

Why Davka Monsey out of curiosity .. As opposed to I don't know, fair lawn or Passaic .
If it has to be Monsey I'd say new Hempstead is your best bet from those 3 choices
Why don't you just spend Shabbos there. If you don't anyone , pm me and I could set it up

Merrymom

Thu, Dec 27 2012, 10:12 am

Just go shopping in Wesley Kosher and you'll have an idea of what to expect. Just remember that's what it'll be like in shul too though where your dh will be davening. Not for me. I have lots of friends that live there though and all are very nice people just not the environment that I really would choose. I do like New Hempstead though. Other parts of Monsey are generally more chassidish with a sprinkling of other families. If you choose any other area your kids won't be able to get together with their friends very much as it's quite a walk to get anywhere with the Olympia Road area probably being the one exception.

amother

Thu, Dec 27 2012, 10:46 am

merrymom, I am not sure that shopping in wesley kosher will give you a picture of the crowd in wesley hills. tons of new hempstead families shop in wesley kosher. it is a good store cuz it carries some stuff that more chassidish-inclined stores do not.

ok, so brief rundown of neighborhoods you mentioned:

chestnut ridge: lots of young (mid 20s to mid 30s) families, yeshivish/litvish, further out from the "main" areas of monsey (like yeshiva spring valley and grocery stores) and therefore more affordable housing , but it is still a growing neighborhood- it is not so populated with frum families yet. I have heard good things about the new families moving there, that they are very nice, etc., and I think people are happy there.

airmont: I dunno, all I hear about airmont is that a lot of ex-chassidish people live there. like chassidish bums or something? also more of a younger crowd ( mid 20s to mid 30s). nobody that I know from my crowd is looking to move there. (for reference, I am litvish, kind of yeshivish.) so it must be a different type of crowd than me. also further out from the main areas of monsey, so probably housing is more affordable.

new hemsptead: mostly litvish yeshivish or litvish middle-of-the-road (or heimishe-but-not-chassidish), some parts of new hempstead are younger and some are older. centrally located. very populated with frum people. different parts of new hempstead vary in what crowd lives there, in terms of age range and more right-wing/left-wing. I would say this is a very nice neighborhood.

amother

Thu, Dec 27 2012, 11:43 am

op here.

Thank you all for your responses. Merrymom I was not so clear on what you were trying to say. Did you mean that south monsey type is similar to Welsley hills type and they are very fancy?

As far as New Hempstead is concerned. Which area is the younger area and which area is the older area? (street names). Also in the older area are there some younger families sprinkled in?

Also a main criteria is that my kids should be able to play with neighbors which neighborhood is most conducive for that?

Thanks again!

Merrymom

Thu, Dec 27 2012, 2:20 pm

I don't know anything about older versus younger in New Hempstead. To me it seems pretty mixed.

To amother, it's true that in Wesley Kosher you'll see all types (including me) but you will still get a sense of the Wesley Hills community. I think New Hempstead is a little more conservative, let's leave it at that.

Just about any street on the right of Grandview going down, starting from that turn all the way to McNamara (New Hempstead part, it runs all the way to Pomona) Ellington, Pennington, Bridle is a good neighborhood for most middle of the road frum families. It's an expensive area but if you can, take a look down by Olympia as well. It's not a newlywed area but lots of families and kids.

amother

Thu, Dec 27 2012, 2:34 pm

Airmont is huge. There is one small part that is more like ex-Chassidish type. But the rest of Airmont is a mix of all kinds based on the people I know who live there. I think that it is a stunning area and very affordable for now, but is getting more expensive as more people move out there.
Isn't Besen Pkwy in Airmont? There are tons of Bais Rochel type of people there, very Choshuv and fine people. Goldstein Shul, Shteinvurtzel shul and so many Choshuv people in Airmont.

OK, this is really for another thread but, an ex-Chassid does not equal a bum. No wonder people who are disenchanted with Chassidishkeit have such a hard time finding a new place for themselves. The people they left are angry at them for leaving and the people they are wanting to be welcomed by are labeling them as bums.

I grew up in Willi but as much as it can be a beautiful life for a lot of people I didn't find it so. I needed to find a new derech in yiddishkeit that will fulfill me and make me happy. Thankfully we have found our derech. I am much frummer now, happier and closer to Hashem than I was before. It was such a hard journey with so much backlash from my family and previous community. So to think that others can see such people as bums is very painful.

Merrymom

Thu, Dec 27 2012, 2:44 pm

amother wrote:

I think you should start a thread about this topic.

amother

Thu, Dec 27 2012, 4:52 pm

amother wrote:

Which part of airmont are those shuls (streets) and what type are they?

anotherima

Thu, Dec 27 2012, 5:27 pm

Knesses Yisroel is a yeshivish shul. Rabbi and rebbitzen Schabes are very nice and so are the members.
Knesses Yisroel is a modern orthodox shul. Never met their Rabbi, who is Rabbi Staum. Young guy. This shul has gotten smaller as New Hempstead has shifted to the right and the MO people have moved to Pomona.
There is also Ohaiv Shalom on bridle. Rabbi Yisroel Saperstien. Very nice young neighborhood and good for your kids ages.
Cheder Chabad is a small school I don't know too many families that send there. YSV is huge and you'll find YSV kids mostly everywhere.
Chestnut ridge also good, because you could probably find a nice affordable house.
I hope this has helped you. hatzlocha

amother

Thu, Dec 27 2012, 6:33 pm

[quote="anotherima"]Knesses Yisroel is a yeshivish shul. Rabbi and rebbitzen Schabes are very nice and so are the members.
Knesses Yisroel is a modern orthodox shul. Never met their Rabbi, who is Rabbi Staum. Young guy. This shul has gotten smaller as New Hempstead has shifted to the right and the MO people have moved to Pomona.
There is also Ohaiv Shalom on bridle. Rabbi Yisroel Saperstien. Very nice young neighborhood and good for your kids ages.
Cheder Chabad is a small school I don't know too many families that send there. YSV is huge and you'll find YSV kids mostly everywhere.
Chestnut ridge also good, because you could probably find a nice affordable house.
I hope this has helped you. hatzlocha[/quote]

Which one is which? One of them is Knesses yisroel and the other one kehallth new hempstead.

And your post was a great help. Thanks.

amother

Thu, Dec 27 2012, 8:01 pm

to the ex-chassidish amother: I am sorry for hurting you.... and I am sorry for what you went through....

when I refer to chassidish bums, I mean a very specific crowd. my brother in law is ex-chassidish, and he is very frum and spiritual and not at all a bum. he and my sis (who was never chassidish) plan to send to litvish yeshivas and stuff like that- which means he is ex-chassidish, as in not chassidish anymore. trust me, nobody thinks of him as a bum, even though he went to viznitz as a child and now lives a very litvish lifestyle. he is very frum but not at all chassidish.

then there are the chassidish bums. they are more like rebellious, confused, more frum in public than in private..... you must know what I am talking about.... they are just confused I guess. very unfortunate situation obviously, nobody should ever have to feel so confused and disenfranchised with yiddishkeit. but I wouldnt feel comfortable living with that crowd, just cuz we are different types. its kind of a culture of its own, I think?