Why does Baltimore have such a large Orthodox Jewish population?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One wonders why they stay there.

As previously pointed out, it's not easy to move when there's an infrastructure built around your culture. There's the Jewish schools and yeshivas, kosher restaurants, synagogues, etc. and it's also not entirely easy to pick up and move away from a place your family has lived for generations.

My grandparents lived in an Orthodox neighborhood in Baltimore. It's still majority Orthodox, though there are a number of AA families now, starting in the 1980s. (Traditionally, Baltimore AAs and Jews have gotten along really well.) When their Orthodox neighbors moved out, to be closer to one of theirs daughters--this was a 9-child family with modern "arranged marriages"--another Orthodox family moved in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One wonders why they stay there.

As previously pointed out, it's not easy to move when there's an infrastructure built around your culture. There's the Jewish schools and yeshivas, kosher restaurants, synagogues, etc. and it's also not entirely easy to pick up and move away from a place your family has lived for generations.

My grandparents lived in an Orthodox neighborhood in Baltimore. It's still majority Orthodox, though there are a number of AA families now, starting in the 1980s. (Traditionally, Baltimore AAs and Jews have gotten along really well.) When their Orthodox neighbors moved out, to be closer to one of theirs daughters--this was a 9-child family with modern "arranged marriages"--another Orthodox family moved in.

ok. It does seem like a post-apocalyptic city, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One wonders why they stay there.

As previously pointed out, it's not easy to move when there's an infrastructure built around your culture. There's the Jewish schools and yeshivas, kosher restaurants, synagogues, etc. and it's also not entirely easy to pick up and move away from a place your family has lived for generations.

My grandparents lived in an Orthodox neighborhood in Baltimore. It's still majority Orthodox, though there are a number of AA families now, starting in the 1980s. (Traditionally, Baltimore AAs and Jews have gotten along really well.) When their Orthodox neighbors moved out, to be closer to one of theirs daughters--this was a 9-child family with modern "arranged marriages"--another Orthodox family moved in.

ok. It does seem like a post-apocalyptic city, though.

Only in parts. Other parts are lovely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Chinese food is more of a secular/cultural Jewish phenomenon, not an Orthodox one.

It has seeped over - there are quite a bunch of kosher chinese places. Baltimore used to have Chapps. Not sure if there is any kosher chinese there now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One wonders why they stay there.

As previously pointed out, it's not easy to move when there's an infrastructure built around your culture. There's the Jewish schools and yeshivas, kosher restaurants, synagogues, etc. and it's also not entirely easy to pick up and move away from a place your family has lived for generations.

My grandparents lived in an Orthodox neighborhood in Baltimore. It's still majority Orthodox, though there are a number of AA families now, starting in the 1980s. (Traditionally, Baltimore AAs and Jews have gotten along really well.) When their Orthodox neighbors moved out, to be closer to one of theirs daughters--this was a 9-child family with modern "arranged marriages"--another Orthodox family moved in.

ok. It does seem like a post-apocalyptic city, though.

not the parts where the Orthodox live.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One wonders why they stay there.

Why would they leave? If anything, Baltimore draws Orthodox migrants from NYC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One wonders why they stay there.

Good Chinese restaurants.

Get some new material,bro.

I thought it was funny. (And I am Jewish.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One wonders why they stay there.

This is an absurd question. Why does anyone stay in their home? Moving is a huge proposition. Do you expect a group of people and all their relatives to sell their homes and move en masse? Especially the orthodox, who have not only their homes, but their synagogues, and their "eruv" -- their religious boundaries -- real physical boundaries constructed within which they can turn lights on and off on the sabbath and so forth.

This question is also offensive because it reminds me of the constant "Why didn't the Jews just leave Germany?" They didn't leave because it was THEIR HOME.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One wonders why they stay there.

This is an absurd question. Why does anyone stay in their home? Moving is a huge proposition. Do you expect a group of people and all their relatives to sell their homes and move en masse? Especially the orthodox, who have not only their homes, but their synagogues, and their "eruv" -- their religious boundaries -- real physical boundaries constructed within which they can turn lights on and off on the sabbath and so forth.

This question is also offensive because it reminds me of the constant "Why didn't the Jews just leave Germany?" They didn't leave because it was THEIR HOME.

I am guessing the PP who wonders why they stay means to imply "why do they stay in a city where the out of control poors have created 3rd world conditions?" or something like that. This is DCUM, after all, and Baltimore is much too far away to expect people here to actually know what life is like there. I doubt PP has walked the streets of Cheswolde, in the unlikely event he even knows where it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One wonders why they stay there.

As previously pointed out, it's not easy to move when there's an infrastructure built around your culture. There's the Jewish schools and yeshivas, kosher restaurants, synagogues, etc. and it's also not entirely easy to pick up and move away from a place your family has lived for generations.

My grandparents lived in an Orthodox neighborhood in Baltimore. It's still majority Orthodox, though there are a number of AA families now, starting in the 1980s. (Traditionally, Baltimore AAs and Jews have gotten along really well.) When their Orthodox neighbors moved out, to be closer to one of theirs daughters--this was a 9-child family with modern "arranged marriages"--another Orthodox family moved in.

so would you say it is the need to segregate from mainstream society?
I am surprised you day that the in Baltimore they get along with the AAs. My experience has been the opposite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One wonders why they stay there.

Good Chinese restaurants.

Get some new material,bro.

I thought it was funny. (And I am Jewish.)

I did too. What else do you do on Christmas? That's just tradition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One wonders why they stay there.

As previously pointed out, it's not easy to move when there's an infrastructure built around your culture. There's the Jewish schools and yeshivas, kosher restaurants, synagogues, etc. and it's also not entirely easy to pick up and move away from a place your family has lived for generations.

My grandparents lived in an Orthodox neighborhood in Baltimore. It's still majority Orthodox, though there are a number of AA families now, starting in the 1980s. (Traditionally, Baltimore AAs and Jews have gotten along really well.) When their Orthodox neighbors moved out, to be closer to one of theirs daughters--this was a 9-child family with modern "arranged marriages"--another Orthodox family moved in.

so would you say it is the need to segregate from mainstream society?
I am surprised you day that the in Baltimore they get along with the AAs. My experience has been the opposite.

PP. I think it's the need to take advantage of the resources you have. Granted, this neighborhood was mostly "modern" Orthodox, though my grandparents' neighbors were what we called "frum." But the schools, restaurants, proximity to shul, etc. make it tough to go someplace else. There is certainly an aspect of segregation, but like I said, this neighborhood had quite a few African-American families, so that can't be all. (As a Reform Jew, I did feel like my family was looked at weird when we drove to my grandparents' house on Shabbat, but that might have just been internalized.)

And *traditionally* Baltimore Jews and AAs have gotten along. I only really have this neighborhood as my firsthand experience, but they marched together for civil rights in the 1960s, and there's certainly been a camaraderie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One wonders why they stay there.

This is an absurd question. Why does anyone stay in their home? Moving is a huge proposition. Do you expect a group of people and all their relatives to sell their homes and move en masse? Especially the orthodox, who have not only their homes, but their synagogues, and their "eruv" -- their religious boundaries -- real physical boundaries constructed within which they can turn lights on and off on the sabbath and so forth.

This question is also offensive because it reminds me of the constant "Why didn't the Jews just leave Germany?" They didn't leave because it was THEIR HOME.

Pedantic nitpick here, but an eruv does not allow you to flip light switches on Shabbos. The only thing an eruv does is permit you to carry non-muktzeh items in a public domain. For example, your house keys, or your stroller. You would still not be allowed to carry money, cell phone, etc.

[Anonymous]

I learned from a religious studies professor that Baltimore has one of the highest proportions of overall Jewish populations in the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One wonders why they stay there.

This is an absurd question. Why does anyone stay in their home? Moving is a huge proposition. Do you expect a group of people and all their relatives to sell their homes and move en masse? Especially the orthodox, who have not only their homes, but their synagogues, and their "eruv" -- their religious boundaries -- real physical boundaries constructed within which they can turn lights on and off on the sabbath and so forth.

This question is also offensive because it reminds me of the constant "Why didn't the Jews just leave Germany?" They didn't leave because it was THEIR HOME.

Pedantic nitpick here, but an eruv does not allow you to flip light switches on Shabbos. The only thing an eruv does is permit you to carry non-muktzeh items in a public domain. For example, your house keys, or your stroller. You would still not be allowed to carry money, cell phone, etc.

I was just about to point that out as well! I wish an eruv allowed me to turn lights on and off!