A New York State of....

During this holiday season (and I really feel this is my holiday season and not the time that comes 8 weeks from now) there have been several discussions I've been participating in about the virtues and pains of living "out of town". No, not just any town; but New York City; which seems to be the only town that matters to many observant American Jews. Without a doubt, this hemisphere has quite a few urban centers of Jewish life - Toronto, Chicago, Miami, Montreal, Baltimore, Los Angeles...even Cleveland. But still the question to many frum Jews on this side of the pond is, "How would I/we fare in NY?"

To be fair, I enjoy taking trips to New York. There is a certain feel of being a kid in a candy store when you are there. Especially if you are frum...the size and scope of the Orthodox Jewish community pretty awesome. But for better or for worse, that allows for the opportunity to just "ride the waves" and not really feel secure in any one place. This "place" can be either physical or psychological. In the case of frum Jews, the danger is that it will be no problem to act frum (keep Shabbos, keep kosher, etc.), but feel disjointed or at odds even with everything.

A friend of mine is young and single and moved to Brooklyn...for various reasons. Included in those reasons are parnassa and shiddichum. She remarked to me that she was pretty surprised that in the Jewish clothing stores for women, there are all sorts of clothing there she does not feel comfortable buying. It is tznius technically...but she feels it is outside the spirit of Yiddishkeit. However she did remark that since most of the young frum women in Brooklyn dress this way, then maybe it isn't so eye-catching. Nonetheless it is not her style. And when you are "out of town" you have that leeway to dress quite frum, and not have that much in the way of surrounding environment to be compared to.

I am currently reading a book about the history of he Jewish community in Western Pennsylvania from 1745 to 1945. I am not very far into the book (I am around the Civil War period) but I am facinated about how religious Jews must have felt living here in the "frontier" back then. How daunting it must have been. Yet they kept coming. And I don't know if Pittsburgh ever had an environment where it was "easy" to be frum. Instead I think the Jews who came and grew up around here developed a type of heartiness and pride about their Yiddishkeit that was laudable. Not that Jews from New York aren't proud to be Jewish...but who knows if they faced (and more so how they would deal) with the nisayons of being so immersed in a gentile world.

I think it is sad that there is a flight of young frum Jews to NYC. I feel that if more remained "out of town", more options would be available to religious Jews in terms of where they choose to live and the type of communities they want to be in. Yes, I get a "warm fuzzy" feeling to see so many frum Yidden walking around NYC; but when I think of actually living in a place surrounded by Jews, my thoughts default to Israel. I actually feel thankful that I don't live in NYC. My feelings could be unjustified and without basis. Maybe I just don't know what I'm missing.