Central Philadelphia

amother

Maroon

Sun, Aug 12 2018, 5:50 pm

We are considering moving to Philadelphia for DHs job. The caveat is he needs to be near central part of rown. I have heard about Jewish communities in NE and other suburbs, but are there shuls and communities in central part of the town?
Alternatively, are any of the communities nearby have more Israelis (or people who are Hebrew speakers)?
We're DL, DH s work contract will be just for 3 or 4 years

amother

Maroon

Sun, Aug 12 2018, 7:05 pm

Sorry I forgot to specify he needs to be able to walk to U Penn hospital/CHOP on Shabbat and yomtov. So bala cynwyd lower Merion won't work.

SpottedBanana

Sun, Aug 12 2018, 8:54 pm

Mekor Habracha is an Orthodox shul in Center City, very easy walking distance of Penn and CHOP. The crowd is mostly very modern young professionals but the rabbi is a Ner Yisroel graduate. He is also a real mentch. It is a small shul but very welcoming from what I hear.

Many young professionals in Center City also choose to daven at the Orthodox Community at Penn minyan in Penn Hillel. There is shacharis, two mincha minyanim, and two maariv minyanim during the school year and Shabbos minyan every week, including in the summer (usually). The divrei Torah can be very, very fringe-left at times although it is a diverse crowd and not everyone is like that.

Do you have kids though? Chabad is the only frum school in the city so you might have to drive your kids into Lower Merion every day (a good half hour) for frum schools.

Of course, feel free to PM me for more info Smile

Last edited by SpottedBanana on Mon, Aug 13 2018, 8:46 am; edited 1 time in total

amother

Indigo

Sun, Aug 12 2018, 10:31 pm

amother wrote:

Sorry I forgot to specify he needs to be able to walk to U Penn hospital/CHOP on Shabbat and yomtov. So bala cynwyd lower Merion won't work.

As others have mentioned, the options include the Penn area shul (anywhere in University City), Center City has Sephardic and Ashkenazi options in addition to Chabad.

I actually work at CHOP, but I am lucky in that I don’t need to go in on Shabbat. I live in Bala Cynwyd. (Amother because there are not many of us). There are plenty of Israelis in all three communities.

little_mage

Mon, Aug 13 2018, 8:48 am

How frequently will he need to go in? My husband walked in to UPenn from Bala Cynwyd once or twice a year. He wouldn't have wanted to do it all the time, but for an occasional trip, it wasn't a huge deal.

SpottedBanana

Mon, Aug 13 2018, 8:55 am

little_mage wrote:

Also a good point. If it's really only once in a while there are definitely hotels in the area Smile

and if he befriends grad students / young professionals in the Penn community I'm sure many of them would be happy to host your husband for Shabbos once in a while. It can also be hard to live in Center City because there is only one store to get kosher chicken (Fresh Grocer on 40th and Walnut) and all it has is chicken. The closest stores that carry any other kosher items like cheese, meat, etc are in Lower Merion.