Why does Baltimore have such a large Orthodox Jewish population?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Pretty much nobody gets along with poor AAs. Not even other poor AAs, honestly.

I'm not actually touching that question; I just think it's curious that you assumed they were poor. It was a middle-class blue-collar neighborhood.

FWIW, Jews were big supporters of the fight for civil rights. My mom, who grew up in the aforementioned Baltimore neighborhood, marched with MLK Jr, as did many other Jews. http://www.thejewishweek.com/arts/herschthal-arts/king-and-jews-beyond-heschel

I was thinking more of now not 1965. There has been an enormous amount of middle class black flight to Baltimore County. Maybe that particular neighborhood is still the same, I confess ignorance here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One wonders why they stay there.

Why does anyone (who can afford to leave). What a strange, sad, creepy city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One wonders why they stay there.

Why does anyone (who can afford to leave). What a strange, sad, creepy city.

Actually it is a lovely city, though it has many challenges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Pretty much nobody gets along with poor AAs. Not even other poor AAs, honestly.

I'm not actually touching that question; I just think it's curious that you assumed they were poor. It was a middle-class blue-collar neighborhood.

FWIW, Jews were big supporters of the fight for civil rights. My mom, who grew up in the aforementioned Baltimore neighborhood, marched with MLK Jr, as did many other Jews. http://www.thejewishweek.com/arts/herschthal-arts/king-and-jews-beyond-heschel

I was thinking more of now not 1965. There has been an enormous amount of middle class black flight to Baltimore County. Maybe that particular neighborhood is still the same, I confess ignorance here.

AFAICT most of the AA's who live NW of Northern Parkway (IE close to where Orthodox Jews live) are upper working class or middle class. It absolutely does not resemble places like Sandtown, or the close in parts of east Baltimore, that have lots of vacant houses, etc.

[Anonymous]

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

I get served (kosher) Chinese food at nearly every Orthodox dinner I attend at my synagogue. It's almost funny.