Moving to Ramot? | Imamother

amother

Wed, Sep 07 2022, 5:15 am

amother Oldlace wrote:

Live in beitar. There is the 237 that goes down golda meir from givat zeev through ramot. The hard part I would see in that direction would be from ramot to begin and possibly on begin also. Once you get to kvish haminharot it shouldn't be so bad. At a non traffic time it takes about 40 minutes from the ramot mall. The way home can possibly have more traffic because there are still a lot of people going to yerushalayim from beitar in the afternoon.
From beitar to rechovot there are definitely no direct buses.

is that a suggestion/command: "Live in Beitar!" or are you saying that you live in Beitar? I am guessing that's what you mean. Thanks for weighing in!

Yeah kvish haminharot I know is okay. It sounds like the tricky part is Ramot to Begin...

If my husband does get a job in Rehovot, I think it would come along with a car.

amother

Wed, Sep 07 2022, 5:21 am

amother Snow wrote:

OP how about starting from here? What kind of community are you looking for? Even if you decide on Ramot, Ramot is huge, made up of at least 20 different communities.

So I think we might actually have what we need in Ramot, in this regard. The one person I know relatively well in Ramot described her Shul/community (in Ramot Bet, but seems like it would be walkable from Gimmel as well) and it sounds like it would possibly do for us. I even know one of the community leaders from way back (I had no idea that they since moved to Ramot).

She also described a more general/loose community of English-speaking women in Ramot who are supportive and helpful, and even if none of them would be my neighbors or best friends, I think that would really make a big difference to me just to be able to occasionally receive or offer some help, or perhaps find out about a class or event to attend...

amother

Oldlace

Wed, Sep 07 2022, 5:39 am

amother OP wrote:

I personally like beitar but won't say that it's for everyone. Though there are way more types of people here then I thought before I moved 😊

amother

Wed, Sep 07 2022, 5:54 am

amother Oldlace wrote:

I personally like beitar but won't say that it's for everyone. Though there are way more types of people here then I thought before I moved 😊

You know, I do see that... And I love a lot of aspects of Beitar. (Totally didn't mind spending many mornings and afternoons there doing errands between carpools, love many of my kids' teachers who are long-time Beitar-ians.)

Still it's hard for me to imagine living there! Confused

happymommy12

Wed, Sep 07 2022, 7:45 am

If you’re not willing to settle on Beitar (which is the obvious option in terms of your kids schools/weather/some English speakers)
I was also thinking RBS.
Great Anglo Chevra, not a bad commute to Beitar or Rechovot, good (but expensive) real estate.
It’s pretty hot there though.. no yerushalayim breeze at night..
can’t win on everything!
Unless you’d be willing to look into the yishuvim in the Gush? Or not your Hashkafa?

amother

Thu, Sep 08 2022, 5:16 am

Thanks for the RBS suggestion! We are definitely considering it.

And we have considered pretty much every place in the Gush... The problems there are that transportation (using public transport) would actually be a lot harder for my kids, even from the places that are closer, because there are just a lot fewer options outside of Jerusalem especially for getting into Beitar. And no perfect hashkafic match anyway, so it feels more comfortable to be somewhere that just has a mix of people.

We are seriously considering Efrat.

amother

Thu, Sep 08 2022, 5:23 am

Back to Ramot, re transportation:

I am seriously puzzled by getting so much seemingly contradictory information. Yesterday my husband spoke to a former coworker of his who moved to Ramot (he is in Ramot Alef). Interestingly, he said that he moved there to be closer to his kids' schools which are in Ramat Shlomo (I guess he didn't want to actually live in Ramat Shlomo himself--ha, feels kind of familiar).

Anyway he said his kids take public buses to get to school every day and there are no direct buses, so they go to the central bus station and then switch to head back to Ramat Shlomo. He said that it takes them 20 minutes to get to the central bus station every day, it's very smooth and fast for them, faster than it would take him to go by car.

What to make of this?

We are planning to try it out ourselves one morning. We'll all drive together by car at 7 AM and then one of us will drive to Beitar and one of us will go by bus... Hopefully it will be illuminating and a good sample size to know what a typical day would be like living there.

happymommy12

Thu, Sep 08 2022, 5:44 am

Re Tzur Hadassa, I was thinking that too. It’s very very close to Beitar (and there is transportation directly to Beitar) and the Anglo community is really growing! Not sure exactly where OP falls in terms of hashkafa.. I’m assuming if her kids go to school in Beitar they are more “to the right” than the average Anglo tzur hadassa family. From my experience it’s a very mixed Yishuv- DL and not religious. I think Efrat has a bit more “torani” type families and a more religious vibe over all.
(But that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong!!)

happymommy12

Thu, Sep 08 2022, 5:51 am

amother OP wrote:

Back to Ramot, re transportation:

We are planning to try it out ourselves one morning. We'll all drive together by car at 7 AM and then one of us will drive to Beitar and one of us will go by bus... Hopefully it will be illuminating and a good sample size to know what a typical day would be like living there.

and I think this is a great idea.. just see for yourself what the drive is like on a regular day! Moovit and Google Maps are great but not 100% accurate. Also keep in mind that there is tonss of construction going on by the tunnels going into the Gush. Who knows when they will be finished but that will hopefully help with the traffic situation! And really at that time of day you are going the opposite way of traffic so that definitely helps with getting into the Gush.. the problem is more likely when leaving Ramot.

amother

Snow

Thu, Sep 08 2022, 6:34 am

amother OP wrote:

This makes no sense. If he moved to be nearer to the schools, what would be the point if they have to go into town every day?

I live in Ramot. Why would you go to central bus station to get from ramot to ramat shlomo? You take a bus to tzomet ramot and cross the road (there is a proper traffic light) and get a bus from there. Why on earth would anyone go into town to catch a bus that comes back out the same way stopping at the same busstops?

There is also a huge difference depending on the timing. If you leave Ramot at 7, it can take half the time it takes at 8. I make appointments in town either at 7:45 so I leave Ramot at 7 or at 9:45 and leave at 9. In between, you can sit in traffic for hours.

shabbatiscoming

Thu, Sep 08 2022, 7:52 am

amother OP wrote:

This literally makes no sense. Ramot and Ramat Shomo are just on two different sides of the same main road. How could there be no direct buses???
A bus takes 20 minutes from ramot to tachana merkazit? What time of day? And is it possible that he doesnt know the actual amount of time it takes? I mean just getting out of ramot is insane. Very weird.

amother

Snow

Thu, Sep 08 2022, 8:23 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

T How could there be no direct buses???

Just commenting on this. There is one bus per hour from Ramot to Ramat Shlomo. It takes less than 20 minutes from Ramot but if the timing is out for you, you need to take 2 buses. And like other buses at the moment, it doesn't always come. (Like I said above though, you change at tzomet ramot not at tachana merkazit.)

amother

Sun, Sep 11 2022, 7:02 am

Thanks for the Tzur Hadassah suggestions! We did seriously consider moving there--we spent an afternoon there with a friend of a friend who lives there. She was really friendly and nice and so were her kids, but indeed the Anglo community is more to the left of where we are (sounds so simplistic but I guess that's what it is)--didn't feel like "our" place.

At the time we looked into the busing to Beitar... Now I don't remember what it was like, it seemed like it would have been possible but like I said we probably would have been pretty stranded socially and Shul-wise there.

As far as busing from the Gush--I don't know if there are enough kids in total to make it worth it, but I definitely wouldn't move to a place counting on it and definitely wouldn't want to be in charge of organizing it myself. Between the different ending times for different ages and genders (in two different buildings), the students being spread out between several different yishuvim, and the fact that there is some public transportation that works pretty well, I think a lot of families would still just find it easier to continue transporting their kids themselves.

Anyway I really appreciate all of you sharing your thoughts.

As far as why that other family moved to Ramot in order to send their kids to Ramat Shlomo, or why their kids are switching at the central bus station--can't say! But it is what he said! (In Yiddish: "fregt a kasheh af a maaseh!")

After we try it out, I might have more of an idea of whether it's possible that he really just doesn't know what his kids are doing in the mornings and how long it takes (but considering that he also leaves Ramot every morning for work, I doubt he is totally out to lunch. He did say that his kids by bus go a lot faster than he can go by car).