If you are Jewish, does it impact where in the country you would move?

[Anonymous]

Yes! 100%. I lived in a less “diverse” area for a few years after college. It was my first encounter with anti-semitism. It was personal, I was terrified... and promptly moved 1000 miles to DC...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, but there are lots of places outside of DC NYC and LA that would be ok. I have Jewish friends and relatives in Atlanta and midwest cities (Chicago, Indianapolis, Cleveland) and all have nice jewish populations and lower cost of living (not Chicago)

I used to wear a Jewish star necklace every day. I got a lot of nasty looks in Atlanta and surrounds. I went there on a number of occasions to visit my best friend and I never felt comfortable when wearing my necklace, though I wore it anyway. (Also didn't love seeing the confederate flag displayed everywhere we went, either.)

I never had that feeling in the various coastal cities I've lived in or traveled in, nor outside of Detroit, which I've visited regularly all my life as I have family there. Although my grandmother, who still lives outside Detroit, says she stopped wearing her chai necklace about 10 years ago because she felt threatened. She could not point to any specific incident though.

Atlanta has one of the largest Jewish populations in the US, finding this a tad hard to believe.

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/largest-jewish-populated-metropolitan-areas-united-states

--former ATL resident

[Anonymous]

Whatever, once the kids are educated and raised it so doesn’t matter. Most places in the US have a temple/ jcc somewhere relatively close by.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whatever, once the kids are educated and raised it so doesn’t matter. Most places in the US have a temple/ jcc somewhere relatively close by.

Well, it’s absolutely not true that most places have a temple or JCC close by.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, but there are lots of places outside of DC NYC and LA that would be ok. I have Jewish friends and relatives in Atlanta and midwest cities (Chicago, Indianapolis, Cleveland) and all have nice jewish populations and lower cost of living (not Chicago)

I used to wear a Jewish star necklace every day. I got a lot of nasty looks in Atlanta and surrounds. I went there on a number of occasions to visit my best friend and I never felt comfortable when wearing my necklace, though I wore it anyway. (Also didn't love seeing the confederate flag displayed everywhere we went, either.)

I never had that feeling in the various coastal cities I've lived in or traveled in, nor outside of Detroit, which I've visited regularly all my life as I have family there. Although my grandmother, who still lives outside Detroit, says she stopped wearing her chai necklace about 10 years ago because she felt threatened. She could not point to any specific incident though.

Atlanta has one of the largest Jewish populations in the US, finding this a tad hard to believe.

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/largest-jewish-populated-metropolitan-areas-united-states

According to your link, 98% of the Atlanta metro area is not Jewish. Anyway, regardless of the percentage of Jewish population, there is anti-semitism nearly everywhere. Not hard to believe that someone could get nasty looks in certain areas. Even within a metro area with a large Jewish population, there are often areas within the metro that are not very Jewish. I wear a star of David necklace, and there are places I feel uncomfortable and tuck it inside my shirt. Sadly, that is the world we live in.

--a Jew

--former ATL resident

[Anonymous]

I'm a Nice Jewish Girl From Skokie (tm) who grew up to be a middle aged secular Jewish lady living MILES from many other Jews...because the rent was cheap and my non-profit employee single mom butt couldn't afford to live anywhere else. I miss having a Jewish community that I didn't have to actively build, but I love my community I landed in.

[Anonymous]

I have mixed feelings.

I grew up on Long Island in the 1960's late 1970's. Our junior high had only 4 jews and one AA student. Every one else Irish or Italian Catholic. Not picking on them. It was not fun. It was hard.

Move to Florida in 1978 HS again very few Jews actually worse than NY.

Moved to North Carolina late 1980's given my past experiences this was no better. My oldest was in public school and the principal actually called me in with the only other Jewish mother(she wasn't Jewish her husband was) and the principal said, "I am putting you two together because your kind needs to do that" Fun stuff.

Would not live in any of those communities again. We are not religious Jews at all.

It wasn't only the religion issue for me. It was the racism and lack of openness to something different. Prime example, North Carolina 1990's swim club. Applied, they asked for a family photo. Why? to make sure that were were not AA. WTF????

All said and done, I do think small or smaller communities get a good sense of who they are. The families we left are wonderful people and great communities, I do miss that.

[Anonymous]

Ugh, I remember being called a kike as a 10 or 11 year old in the Atlanta area in a school with only one other Jewish kid in my grade. This was in the 70s—I’m going to be optimistic that things have changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very much so. I was the only Jewish kid in my school and was told I was going to hell on a regular basis. Would never want to experience any place where people are not used to Jews ever again.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not to hijack this thread but as an African-American, I wholly agree with the sentiment of other posters. I would never retire to a town where there aren't others like myself. No explanation necessary.

I was going to say the same thing. I think there's probably a lot of overlap in where Jews and AAs would choose to live. As an AA, I like to live in areas that have at least 10-15% AAs. If I had my druthers I would always choose large coastal cities (and so far that's worked out, both West and East Coasts).

The trend is for AAs to move south.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. DH and I wouldn’t move to a place with a large Evangelical Christian community or without a lot of Jews. We’ve both been harassed for our religion and would rather not invite discrimination, especially in these scary times.

As an evangelical I am really puzzled by this.

While I can appreciate you wanting to have a strong Jewish community, I don’t understand why a Christian Evangelical community is threatening.

Can you explain a bit- very curious for your views.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. DH and I wouldn’t move to a place with a large Evangelical Christian community or without a lot of Jews. We’ve both been harassed for our religion and would rather not invite discrimination, especially in these scary times.

As an evangelical I am really puzzled by this.

While I can appreciate you wanting to have a strong Jewish community, I don’t understand why a Christian Evangelical community is threatening.

Can you explain a bit- very curious for your views.

DP Jewish poster. I have had multiple Evangelical Christians tell me my religion is fake because it doesn’t have Jesus in it and that I am going to hell.

I don’t want my Jewish child exposed to that.

[Anonymous]

small Midwestern college town and went to college in a medium-sized Midwestern city with a huge Hillel

Mind sharing where this was, PP ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, but there are lots of places outside of DC NYC and LA that would be ok. I have Jewish friends and relatives in Atlanta and midwest cities (Chicago, Indianapolis, Cleveland) and all have nice jewish populations and lower cost of living (not Chicago)

+1 Cleveland has a very active Jewish community. There is an entire suburb - Beachwood - that is basically the Jewish suburb. There is also an active orthodox (or maybe just conservative? not sure) community in South Euclid/Cleveland Heights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, but there are lots of places outside of DC NYC and LA that would be ok. I have Jewish friends and relatives in Atlanta and midwest cities (Chicago, Indianapolis, Cleveland) and all have nice jewish populations and lower cost of living (not Chicago)

+1 Cleveland has a very active Jewish community. There is an entire suburb - Beachwood - that is basically the Jewish suburb. There is also an active orthodox (or maybe just conservative? not sure) community in South Euclid/Cleveland Heights.

The orthodox area in Cleveland is university heights. My in laws live in Shaker Heights but the real estate taxes in the area that insane so they may retire somewhere near us in MD.

You could even move to Baltimore. Rehoboth beach DE also has a small jewish community.