Would you move to a predonimantly Jewish area?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live on the edge of an orthodox community and these are the barriers I see:
Men cross the street to avoid walking past me on the sidewalk (I guess to avoid accidental contact, but it seems also to avoid me saying hello).
Neighbors do not celebrate Halloween or decorate for holidays.A few orthodox neighbor women will talk to me, one will eat at my house (in the backyard), but none will come in my house or invite me in theirs
Our children do not play together (different schools, and it is clear they do not want their children to play with mine)

Well if you don't want to associate with people who don't celebrate Halloween or decorate for the holidays, that's your issue. Doesn't have anything to do with your Jewish neighbors though.

[Anonymous]

Catholic Italian here

Love the Jews - lived in a Jewish 'hood for about 5 years before moving (tons of super observant Orthodox Jews)

son attends Jewish preschool

best friends are Jews (reform and conservative)

Maybe I should convert?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: There is nothing happening in Pikesville--It's got to be one most boring, least child friendly places that I have encountered. My in-laws moved there about 10 years ago--it's awful.

I would consider living in Homewood or somewhere else in the city, near the reasonably affordable private schools.

You don't know what you're talking about. Pikesville is 15 minutes from the Inner Harbor. You have never lived there. There is absolutely no difference between living in Pikesville or anywhere else. Baltimore City has nice areas bordering extremely dangerous ones. The nicest parts border Mount Washington (the county part of which districts to Pikesville High School). Pikesville is just as child friendly as any other part of Baltimore.

We are a bit sensitive, aren't we?

OK. I'll take the bait. Where to start? It takes approximately 25 minutes (when there is no traffic) to drive to the inner Harbor, where you can pay a lot of money to go the museums. And don't even get me started about finding parking. Let me list some "fun" things to do in PIKESVILLE 1. go to barnes and noble. yay! 2. drive 20 minutes to a (crappy) public playground 3. drive approx.20 minutes (highway, beltway) to go a neighboring area indoor gymnastics/swimming lessons. 4. Drive 20 minutes to go to consignment shop Great Finds and Designs 5. Go to a diner (plenty of those everywhere with lots of grandparents to admire your child).

So, let me reiterate: There is nothing, and I mean noth'n, happening IN Pikesville.

[Anonymous]

No, because it's not diverse.

[Anonymous]

Wow, passive agressive people.
I can see why people are offended by them, and why often things get misunderstood.
What is worse, is the domestic violence and the wife swapping, to be highly religios and a pain in the xxx is not OK. Somehow with highly religios people you expect different issues.
Either way, reading these posts has just made me feel awful.
I went in with an open mind, could not have been more ignorant. Now I feel used.

[Anonymous]

Wow. I grew up in the deep south, Catholic, and I seriously never met someone of the Jewish faith until I moved to DC. I didn't realize (totally uneducated) that there were so many restrictions/limitations on Jews until I read this thread.

Very enlightening and helpful.

And as someone who grew up in a predominately Baptist town (like 90%) as a devout Catholic, no, I would not move into another city where my faith was so radically outnumbered. I felt like the biggest outcast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I grew up in the deep south, Catholic, and I seriously never met someone of the Jewish faith until I moved to DC. I didn't realize (totally uneducated) that there were so many restrictions/limitations on Jews until I read this thread.

Very enlightening and helpful.

And as someone who grew up in a predominately Baptist town (like 90%) as a devout Catholic, no, I would not move into another city where my faith was so radically outnumbered. I felt like the biggest outcast.

Keep in mind that the restrictions are primarily on orthodox (very religious) Jews. Because they are restricted from driving on the Sabbath, they tend to live in neighborhoods within walking distance of a synagogue. For other Jews, this stuff really doesn't apply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I grew up in the deep south, Catholic, and I seriously never met someone of the Jewish faith until I moved to DC. I didn't realize (totally uneducated) that there were so many restrictions/limitations on Jews until I read this thread.

Very enlightening and helpful.

And as someone who grew up in a predominately Baptist town (like 90%) as a devout Catholic, no, I would not move into another city where my faith was so radically outnumbered. I felt like the biggest outcast.

Just wanted to clarify that those severe restrictions are only for Orthodox Jews, who make up a small percentage of Jews in the U.S.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I grew up in the deep south, Catholic, and I seriously never met someone of the Jewish faith until I moved to DC. I didn't realize (totally uneducated) that there were so many restrictions/limitations on Jews until I read this thread.

Very enlightening and helpful.

And as someone who grew up in a predominately Baptist town (like 90%) as a devout Catholic, no, I would not move into another city where my faith was so radically outnumbered. I felt like the biggest outcast.

Just wanted to clarify that those severe restrictions are only for Orthodox Jews, who make up a small percentage of Jews in the U.S.

Duly noted. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

We are a bit sensitive, aren't we?

OK. I'll take the bait. Where to start? It takes approximately 25 minutes (when there is no traffic) to drive to the inner Harbor, where you can pay a lot of money to go the museums. And don't even get me started about finding parking. Let me list some "fun" things to do in PIKESVILLE 1. go to barnes and noble. yay! 2. drive 20 minutes to a (crappy) public playground 3. drive approx.20 minutes (highway, beltway) to go a neighboring area indoor gymnastics/swimming lessons. 4. Drive 20 minutes to go to consignment shop Great Finds and Designs 5. Go to a diner (plenty of those everywhere with lots of grandparents to admire your child).

So, let me reiterate: There is nothing, and I mean noth'n, happening IN Pikesville.

Yes, I grew up there, so I found your post ridiculous. My Parents live in Mt. Washington's zip code (21209) and it does, defniitely, take 15 minutes to get to the Inner Harbor. Nothing you have mentioned is untrue, but it doesn't make it "not child friendly" it makes it Baltimore and not DC. If you don't like living like this, Baltimore County is not the right place for you, regardless of if you're in Pikesville or not. Homewood is 1/2 College 1/2 Ghetto, so the fact that you find that to be child friendly shows that you don't know what you're talking about, that you actually don't realize that to get to the shopping mall it would STILL take you 20 minutes, and that the Inner Harbor and the museums would still have crappy parking and expensive admission prices. I don't even know what that Consignment shop is, and I don't normally go to diners.....I only know Double T and the one up Reisterstown Road. Otherwise most people in Pikesville go to Suburban House (where I actually never went), crab restaurants (shows how religious most Jews are!), nice places downtown, and bagel shops.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just wanted to clarify that those severe restrictions are only for Orthodox Jews, who make up a small percentage of Jews in the U.S.

The orthodox are definitely the majority when you are outside of the US. If you convert to some other branch of judaism, you will not be considered a jew if you were to go to Israel, and you children who might have lived their lives as jews would be told that they are not.
This has become a problem in Isreal, where many jews from the former Soviet Union regions have arrived. Some are not able to prove their family tree, or have converts in the family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just wanted to clarify that those severe restrictions are only for Orthodox Jews, who make up a small percentage of Jews in the U.S.

The orthodox are definitely the majority when you are outside of the US. If you convert to some other branch of judaism, you will not be considered a jew if you were to go to Israel, and you children who might have lived their lives as jews would be told that they are not.
This has become a problem in Isreal, where many jews from the former Soviet Union regions have arrived. Some are not able to prove their family tree, or have converts in the family.

Orthodox Jews are not the majority in the rest of the world. In fact, they are not even a majority in Israel. However, the standards in Israel are Orthodox standards. It does create problems for some, but unfortunately, there is no central figure for Judaism, unlike other religions, who sets the standards. Therefore, they have to cater to the highest/strictest level in order to protect the religion/nation/country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just wanted to clarify that those severe restrictions are only for Orthodox Jews, who make up a small percentage of Jews in the U.S.

The orthodox are definitely the majority when you are outside of the US. If you convert to some other branch of judaism, you will not be considered a jew if you were to go to Israel, and you children who might have lived their lives as jews would be told that they are not.
This has become a problem in Isreal, where many jews from the former Soviet Union regions have arrived. Some are not able to prove their family tree, or have converts in the family.

Orthodox Jews are not the majority in the rest of the world. In fact, they are not even a majority in Israel. However, the standards in Israel are Orthodox standards. It does create problems for some, but unfortunately, there is no central figure for Judaism, unlike other religions, who sets the standards. Therefore, they have to cater to the highest/strictest level in order to protect the religion/nation/country.

The Orthodox are not the majority anywhere in the world.

Clearly, you have never been to Israel, where it is common among Israelis to say that the shul they don't belong to is Orthodox. Only the Orthodox believe that the standards in Israel are theirs. Once you convert, it is unacceptable for any Jew to refer to you as a convert, or to in any way marginalize you for being a Jew by choice. There is no "problem in Israel" with people who have "converts" in their family tree.

This is racist talk, plain and simple.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I grew up in the deep south, Catholic, and I seriously never met someone of the Jewish faith until I moved to DC. I didn't realize (totally uneducated) that there were so many restrictions/limitations on Jews until I read this thread.

Very enlightening and helpful.

And as someone who grew up in a predominately Baptist town (like 90%) as a devout Catholic, no, I would not move into another city where my faith was so radically outnumbered. I felt like the biggest outcast.

Keep in mind that the restrictions are primarily on orthodox (very religious) Jews. Because they are restricted from driving on the Sabbath, they tend to live in neighborhoods within walking distance of a synagogue. For other Jews, this stuff really doesn't apply.

I prefer neighborhood/school diversity. It's not just Jewish neighborhoods or towns. If I bought in Brooklyn it would be Brooklyn Heights :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn

So to answer the OP's original question. No, I would not buy in an urban or suburban ethnic /religious enclave. As a transplant I would want to live in an area where other transplants might buy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just wanted to clarify that those severe restrictions are only for Orthodox Jews, who make up a small percentage of Jews in the U.S.

The orthodox are definitely the majority when you are outside of the US. If you convert to some other branch of judaism, you will not be considered a jew if you were to go to Israel, and you children who might have lived their lives as jews would be told that they are not.
This has become a problem in Isreal, where many jews from the former Soviet Union regions have arrived. Some are not able to prove their family tree, or have converts in the family.

Orthodox Jews are not the majority in the rest of the world. In fact, they are not even a majority in Israel. However, the standards in Israel are Orthodox standards. It does create problems for some, but unfortunately, there is no central figure for Judaism, unlike other religions, who sets the standards. Therefore, they have to cater to the highest/strictest level in order to protect the religion/nation/country.

The Orthodox are not the majority anywhere in the world.

Clearly, you have never been to Israel, where it is common among Israelis to say that the shul they don't belong to is Orthodox. Only the Orthodox believe that the standards in Israel are theirs. Once you convert, it is unacceptable for any Jew to refer to you as a convert, or to in any way marginalize you for being a Jew by choice. There is no "problem in Israel" with people who have "converts" in their family tree.

This is racist talk, plain and simple.

Clearly, you didnt read my post bc I said "Orthodox jews are NOT a majority in Israel." The only orthodox standards I was referring to were orthodox conversion standards. The situation in Israel is very complicated regarding converts moving there and making aaliyah/becoming citizens entitled to a host of services. I completely agree that once you convert, you are completely a Jew in every way.