Your city's Jewish community

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Docere

One thing I've noticed is that a lot of the postwar Jewish middle class suburbs have "gone Orthodox": i.e. the Five Towns of Long Island, Silver Spring, Oak Park, Skokie, North York etc.

Even New Rochelle which was the "Jewish suburb" of Westchester before Scarsdale I believe is the center of Orthodoxy in Westchester.

Not sure if Oak Park fits in this typology. I don't think there's a significant Jewish population.

Five Towns are a bit different from the rest, in that places like Silver Spring, Skokie, North York tend to be ethnically polyglot/immigrant-oriented places that happen to have large Orthodox communities. Five Towns has relatively few immigrants or nonwhites, but has an enormous, dominant Orthodox population, so much that the public schools have few students and main streets are empty/all business shut down during the Sabbath.

New Rochelle is the Orthodox center of Westchester, but it's just one section of town, and the overall city fits more in the Skokie, Silver Spring mold- polyglot, and immigrant-oriented.

Five Towns (extending into indistinguishable adjacent parts of Queens) are probably among the most Jewish places on earth outside of Israel. Also maybe a bit different in that Five Towns population tends to be rather wealthy and Modern Orthodox specifically. Epic McMansion teardown activity, especially on the Queens side.

[Docere]

I meant Oak Park, Michigan.

Should have been more specific for North York (i.e. Bathurst-Lawrence and Bathurst Manor) and Silver Spring (Kemp Mill) they're just small sections of very large, diverse areas.

[Docere]

In what places are Jews over 50% of the population?

In the NYC area, the list is probably Great Neck and the Five Towns on LI, Lakewood NJ and the Hasidic communities in Rockland. (Plus the neighborhoods of Borough Park, Brighton Beach, Midwood in Brooklyn and Forest Hills/Rego Park, Queens).

Other places in the US could include Beachwood, Ohio, and maybe Beverly Hills and Miami Beach.

In Canada, there's the Montreal suburbs of Hampstead and Cote St. Luc. Toronto doesn't have any though a large contiguous area of Thornhill would be majority-Jewish.

[mrnyc]

hmm, good question. amberly village or sycamore/blue ash suburbs in cincinnati and bexley in columbus are the more jewish areas in those cities, but they are not majority jewish.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Docere

In what places are Jews over 50% of the population?

In the NYC area, the list is probably Great Neck and the Five Towns on LI, Lakewood NJ and the Hasidic communities in Rockland. (Plus the neighborhoods of Borough Park, Brighton Beach, Midwood in Brooklyn and Forest Hills/Rego Park, Queens).

Other places in the US could include Beachwood, Ohio, and maybe Beverly Hills and Miami Beach.

In Canada, there's the Montreal suburbs of Hampstead and Cote St. Luc. Toronto doesn't have any though a large contiguous area of Thornhill would be majority-Jewish.

I would be very surprised if Miami Beach were close to majority Jewish. The city is 60% nonwhite. Beverly Hills undoubtedly has a large population, but I doubt a majority. Many of the Persian Jews live right outside BH, in LA proper.

Beachwood, OH is probably majority Jewish. Cleveland has a very visible Jewish presence.

In the NYC area, in addition to towns mentioned, possible candidates for 50%+ would be Jericho, Roslyn, Plainview, West Hempstead, Commack (LI), Fair Lawn, Livingston, Deal (NJ).

But most Jewish town in U.S. would be Kiryas Joel, in Orange County, NY.

[memph]

Originally Posted by Docere

I meant Oak Park, Michigan.

Should have been more specific for North York (i.e. Bathurst-Lawrence and Bathurst Manor) and Silver Spring (Kemp Mill) they're just small sections of very large, diverse areas.

I wonder if taking a random SFH block between Finch, Lawrence, Allen Rd and Avenue Rd (or West Don River north of the 401) in North York, 9 times out of 10 it would be majority Jewish with few other immigrants. But there's apartment buildings and condos in many of these neighbourhoods which keeps the area as a whole more mixed.

[Docere]

Not Miami Beach. Its appeal was really to immigrant and second-generation Jews. It fell from 60% Jewish in 1982 to 19% in 2004.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/wo...1.5123495.html

[Crawford]

There were apparently around 700,000 Jews in Manhattan in 1916, with the majority in two neighborhoods: Lower East Side and Harlem. I think that tops even 1930's-1940's Bronx and present-day Brooklyn.

http://www.jta.org/1928/03/14/archiv...l-survey-shows

Bronx was 45% Jewish and Brooklyn 36% Jewish, according to this survey. Coney Island was 97% Jewish. Tremont and Brownsville were close behind. None of these neighborhoods have had sizable Jewish populations in decades.

I assume Lower East Side was the greatest Jewish concentration anywhere in the world prior to establishment of Israel.

[Docere]

Originally Posted by memph

I wonder if taking a random SFH block between Finch, Lawrence, Allen Rd and Avenue Rd (or West Don River north of the 401) in North York, 9 times out of 10 it would be majority Jewish with few other immigrants. But there's apartment buildings and condos in many of these neighbourhoods which keeps the area as a whole more mixed.

That certainly would have true a generation ago; I don't know if that would still be true today. Jews are a majority in the two census tracts at the southern end of North York below Lawrence (a predominantly Orthodox area).

The Bathurst Corridor is on the western edge of the generally desirable northern sector running north of downtown. It has some affluence but is overall less desirable than areas east of there. In the postwar years, Lawrence Manor/Bathurst Manor were the home of the Jewish middle class. A lot of Jewish doctors and affluent businessmen moved to Bayview-York Mills in the 1960s and 1970s (Forest Hill was the other wealthy Jewish area, which took off about a generation earlier).

The Bathurst Corridor feels more "urban" than Bayview - lots of apartments, narrow storefronts, people walking around etc. The Jewish character is very evident though there are other groups as well. Bayview meanwhile just feels like postwar affluent suburbia, like Potomac, Maryland or something.

[nei]

Originally Posted by Crawford

. Beverly Hills undoubtedly has a large population, but I doubt a majority. Many of the Persian Jews live right outside BH, in LA proper.

Assuming most of the Persian population in Beverly Hills is Jewish, Beverly Hills is likely majority Jewish.

http://forward.com/news/13993/a-new-...beverly-02365/

but this article says Iranian Jews make up 20% of the population

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/fa...elite-but.html

In the NYC area, in addition to towns mentioned, possible candidates for 50%+ would be Jericho, Roslyn, Plainview, West Hempstead, Commack (LI), Fair Lawn, Livingston, Deal (NJ).

Maybe ssyoset on Long Island, too?

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by nei

Assuming most of the Persian population in Beverly Hills is Jewish, Beverly Hills is likely majority Jewish.

Yeah, maybe you're right. I just assumed that, since Beverly Hills is kind of a global wealth magnet and center for Hollywood types, that it attracts wealthy people in general instead of Jews specifically (kind of like the Upper West Side/Upper East Side which are stereotyped as very Jewish but actually are nowhere close to majority).

And I know that the Beverlywood area, in LA (but Beverly Hills zip code) is even more Persian than Beverly Hills.

Originally Posted by nei

Maybe ssyoset on Long Island, too?

Yeah, I could see Syosset. At least in the ballpark of 50%. Maybe Armonk, NY too (Westchester) which is kind of off the radar but anecdotally I've heard has a heavier Jewish presence these days than the more famous nearby Scarsdale.

[Docere]

South-Central Westchester, which includes Scarsdale and part of New Rochelle, is 36% Jewish.

http://d4ovttrzyow8g.cloudfront.net/761940.pdf

[esquire]

There are about 19,000 Jews in Manitoba (pop. 1,278,365), and I'd wager that nearly all of them live in the Winnipeg metro area.

What's interesting about the Winnipeg Jewish population is how it has migrated across town... the large numbers of poor Ashkenazis that arrived in the early 20th century settled mainly in Winnipeg's poor North End, which was a melting pot of immigrants who came on westbound CPR trains. The North End had a very strong Jewish flavour that disappeared quickly over the mid-20th century to the point where there are hardly any Jews left around there, except for a handful of very old folks who held on, and a few families that settled in the northern suburbs.

There is no Jewish neighbourhood as such these days, but judging from the location of the Jewish Community Campus and the lion's share of synagogues, I'd say that River Heights and Tuxedo, two fairly prosperous postwar southern suburbs, is the area with the largest population of Jews.

The Jewish community here seems fairly secularized... it was a bit of a surprise to me to visit South Florida where I saw large modestly-dressed Hasidic families walking to the Chabad. That's something you don't really see around here.

[Docere]

Originally Posted by esquire

There are about 19,000 Jews in Manitoba (pop. 1,278,365), and I'd wager that nearly all of them live in the Winnipeg metro area.

What's interesting about the Winnipeg Jewish population is how it has migrated across town... the large numbers of poor Ashkenazis that arrived in the early 20th century settled mainly in Winnipeg's poor North End, which was a melting pot of immigrants who came on westbound CPR trains. The North End had a very strong Jewish flavour that disappeared quickly over the mid-20th century to the point where there are hardly any Jews left around there, except for a handful of very old folks who held on, and a few families that settled in the northern suburbs.

Yup, Jews in Winnipeg shifted en masse to the favored quarter. They started out in the North End with Ukrainians, then both groups moved to northern suburbs like Kildonan after WWII. As the community grew more prosperous, they moved to south Winnipeg.

There is no Jewish neighbourhood as such these days, but judging from the location of the Jewish Community Campus and the lion's share of synagogues, I'd say that River Heights and Tuxedo, two fairly prosperous postwar southern suburbs, is the area with the largest population of Jews.

Yes, Winnipeg South Centre is the "Jewish riding" in Winnipeg (about 10% or so of the population). It's currently represented by Liberal MP Jim Carr, a prominent member of Winnipeg's Jewish community. The former Liberal MP for that area Anita Neville is also Jewish.

The Jewish community here seems fairly secularized... it was a bit of a surprise to me to visit South Florida where I saw large modestly-dressed Hasidic families walking to the Chabad. That's something you don't really see around here.

I don't know Winnipeg's Jewish community that well but I think you're right. You don't have big Orthodox enclaves like in North York or Thornhill in Toronto, let alone ultra-Orthodox areas like Outremont.

[Docere]

I think several cities had a shift in the direction of movement as Jews got more prosperous. For example in Chicago the West Side was the main Jewish area pre-WWII, but the western suburbs have hardly any Jews at all and since the 1940s and 1950s Jewish community moved en masse to the North Side and northern suburbs.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Docere

Yes, Winnipeg South Centre is the "Jewish riding" in Winnipeg (about 10% or so of the population). It's currently represented by Liberal MP Jim Carr, a prominent member of Winnipeg's Jewish community. The former Liberal MP for that area Anita Neville is also Jewish.

It bears noting that Winnipeg's Jewish community has been in a modest growth phase for about the last 20 years or so, with an influx of Jews from South America, as well as Russia by way of Israel. There is some tension within the community that has been documented in the local media because of the tendency of the latter group to not really buy into the community institutions quite as much, although I'm not sure if that's still the case.

These newcomers have helped to offset the substantial losses to other provinces and to the US.

[Pedestrian]

San Francisco's most impressive synagogue:

Congregation Shereth Israel

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...4-34-25_PM.JPG


https://www.google.com/search?q=syna...64q4DA#imgrc=_


https://www.google.com/search?q=syna...64q4DA#imgrc=_

This was San Francisco's frst synagogue, Temple Emanu-El, built in 1867



Above 2 images: http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?tit...Emanu-El_of_SF

But unfortunately, it ended like this in 1906:


https://www.google.com/search?q=syna...GOUhpGaKakV1M:

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I would be very surprised if Miami Beach were close to majority Jewish. The city is 60% nonwhite. Beverly Hills undoubtedly has a large population, but I doubt a majority. Many of the Persian Jews live right outside BH, in LA proper.

Beachwood, OH is probably majority Jewish. Cleveland has a very visible Jewish presence.

In the NYC area, in addition to towns mentioned, possible candidates for 50%+ would be Jericho, Roslyn, Plainview, West Hempstead, Commack (LI), Fair Lawn, Livingston, Deal (NJ).

But most Jewish town in U.S. would be Kiryas Joel, in Orange County, NY.

I grew up in a heavily Jewish suburb of Washington, DC: Silver Spring, MD (Montgomery County). Two prominent Jewish developers, Morris Cafritz and Jack Kay, focused on the area during the post-WW II housing boom and built large tracts of homes and office buildings in commercial areas. My high school was literally surrounded by Kay-built homes which attracted a lot of Jewish buyers (many were professionals and middle managers working for the federal government as was my father).

I remember 2 relevant things from back then: (1) Being non-Jewish, I was often the only kid in my high school classes to show up on Jewish high holidays and (2) the closest and most interesting supermarket to my home was Kosher and, since I loved delifood I used to shop there often--I loved watching the fights at the seafood counter over whether whitefish should be sold with or without the heads.

[Docere]

Silver Spring was home to the postwar Jewish middle class in DC, with some wealthier Jews living in Bethesda. Since then the Jewish population has shifted westward.

Here's some 1970 figures for Jewish population in Montgomery County, via the journal Jewish Social Studies:

Silver Spring 16,500 21.3%
Bethesda 6,800 9.5%
Wheaton 6,000 9.1%
Kemp Mill 5,500 55.3%
White Oak 4,500 23.3%
County total 60,000 11.5%

I think the CDP boundaries have changed a bit since then.

[Docere]

Re: San Francisco, what's interesting is that it had one of the largest German Jewish populations in the US in the 19th century and I believe the second largest Jewish population after New York. But the Yiddish-speaking Eastern European wave was minimal.

So a majority of Jews in the Bay Area were, until recently, of German rather than Eastern European origin.