Your city's Jewish community

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Docere

There's been a shift to the Woodward corridor:

https://thejewishnews.com/2019/03/28...ding-eastward/

Right, this is the shift in the last generation. When I was growing up, in the 1990's, there were very few Jews east of Telegraph Rd. Most of the community was west of Middlebelt Rd. Now the main stretch of the favored quarter, along Woodward, has plenty of Jews. Formerly WASPy Birmingham has plenty of Jews. Orchard Lake Road, the main street in West Bloomfield, is still the main Jewish corridor, with the most Jewish-oriented businesses, but it isn't as dominant as in the 1990's.

Another more recent change - Southfield, which pretty much lost all its secular Jews in the 1990's and beyond, seems to have a growing Jewish population again. The Orthodox in Oak Park have crossed over into adjacent Southfield, which has affordable and somewhat bigger homes, more ideal for large(r) households. The eastern half of Southfield appears to have a resurgence, but very different than the previous secular community.

The article also mentions Huntington Woods, which has been remarkably stable. I believe Jews have been living in Huntington Woods since the late 1950's or so, and the community never left. That's notable considering the Detroit Jewish geography has been shifting every generation for the last century. You can basically guess where Jews attended high school by their age. 80+ - Central High in Detroit, 65-80 - Mumford High in Detroit, 45-65 - Southfield or Oak Park Schools, 30-45 - West Bloomfield Schools.

[Crawford]

Though while the trends are real, I'd take that Jewish News article with a grain of salt. There's no way Huntington Woods is 65% Jewish. And a huge share of Jewish households in Huntington Woods will be intermarriage. Huntington Woods is a very liberal community, broadly appealing to young professional households. Maybe 1/3 Jewish using most liberal definition of Jewish household.

[Docere]

Yeah, that seems way too high. Just like I am very skeptical of the claim that Beachwood, Ohio is 90% Jewish.

Toronto's most Jewish CT is 78% Jewish (in Thornhill). It's a subdivision built by an Orthodox developer oriented to the Orthodox community. And it looks like this:

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7995...8192?entry=ttu

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7988...8192?entry=ttu

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.8042...8192?entry=ttu

A large Orthodox synagogue is at the center of the community. You have street names like Chabad Gate, Esther Crescent and Crown Heights Boulevard. And even this most Jewish of Jewish neighborhoods isn't 90% Jewish.

[Crawford]

Yeah, outside of ultra-orthodox places like Kiryas Joel, it's probably pretty rare to have 90%+ Jewish concentrations in North America. I cannot imagine Beachwood is 90% Jewish.

Even Borough Park has some Hispanics, Chinese, former Soviets (not all Jewish) and even elderly Italians on the neighborhood fringes. Many blocks are likely 100% Jewish, but the overall community is maybe 80% or so. Just anecdotal, but I see plenty of Latinos coming out of tenement housing there, which isn't really ideal for Orthodox families.

[Docere]

I'm often skeptical of these claims of 60% and beyond outside the NYC area.

I was initially skeptical of claims that Beverly Hills is around 60% Jewish. But that seems to be correct. The ancestry profile is dominated by groups that are likely to be Jewish. The mayor and entire city council is Jewish. It's about 25% Persian Jews and maybe one- third Ashkenazi Jews.

https://statisticalatlas.com/place/C...Hills/Ancestry

[edale]

Originally Posted by Docere

I'm often skeptical of these claims of 60% and beyond outside the NYC area.

I was initially skeptical of claims that Beverly Hills is around 60% Jewish. But that seems to be correct. The ancestry profile is dominated by groups that are likely to be Jewish. The mayor and entire city council is Jewish. It's about 25% Persian Jews and maybe one- third Ashkenazi Jews.

https://statisticalatlas.com/place/C...Hills/Ancestry

I don't know if this is true, but I've heard that Beverly Hills was essentially founded by Jews who were prohibited in living in other wealthy suburban areas of Los Angeles, such as Pasadena. It makes sense to me that it'd be around 60% Jewish, especially since the community has continued to receive new blood from Persian Jews and the growing Orthodox community in Beverlyglen.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by edale

I don't know if this is true, but I've heard that Beverly Hills was essentially founded by Jews who were prohibited in living in other wealthy suburban areas of Los Angeles, such as Pasadena. It makes sense to me that it'd be around 60% Jewish, especially since the community has continued to receive new blood from Persian Jews and the growing Orthodox community in Beverlyglen.

Beverly Hills wasn't founded by Jews, but by real estate developers (like most other towns in SoCal) with names like Green, Canfield, Whittier, and Huntington. It initially had racial covenants, but home lot sales were slow, which is why the Beverly Hills Hotel was built, to attract potential residents. When movie people, many of them Jews, were forbidden initially to live in Hollywood and Bel-Air, Beverly Hills started allowing them to move there, to increase home sales.