Not true!
We know that nothing exists in Staten Island, too!
As soon as I saw this thread title on the page, I pictured cmkellerin chaps and a ten-gallon hat. Can’t stop giggling.
Sometimes people assume that Texas and Jews don’t mix but that simply isn’t true. Texas has more Jews than the vast majority of the countries in the world. Some of them are new arrivals but there are also lines of that have very deep Texas roots. That is, they are both full-blood Texans AND Jews. I had a step-grandmother and her kin that were some. You really do see see some Texan Jews that know how to saddle a horse and go to a synagogue the same day.
No one in this thread has claimed it but Texas isn’t unfriendly at all to Jews. The Protestant Evangelical movement that is a constant theme there is very protective of Jewish people in general. They are considered to be the other side of God’s chosen people and you simply do not not mess with them. You could round up the largest posse in human history in Texas if some other group really threatened Israel. That is just something that is considered well out of bounds.
I don’t know how well an Orthodox Jewish household would fare there as opposed to NYC but there are many Orthodox Jews that have done it with little to no drama. I can’t speak to the accommodations for the strict traditions outside of established Orthodox communities other than the fact that they are there and available within reason.
Yeah, I know there are Jews in Texas. And that the first synagogue in the New World was built in Charleston, SC.
I just giggle at the image of ANYBODY in chaps and a ten-gallon hat. Except for Tom Mix, I guess.
Upside: Lower cost of living, no state income tax.
Downside: VERY hot. High property tax.
I would recommend that you rent, not buy. Unless you plan to live here for many years.
One note about cost of living: I assume you want to be in an eruv (is that the right phrasing?), and there are fewer of those and they are not generally in the cheapest parts of town. A lot of the really shockingly cheap Nice Houses are really far out and, I suspect, pretty much unfeasible for an orthodox household for simply pragmatic reasons.
The downside is moving to Texas. OK, I’ve never been there. But I would find the weather absolutely intolerable. Not to mention scorpions and fire ants. Plus there’s the matter of politics- if you lean Democratic you’d have to live with the knowledge that your vote for president will never be felt in the electoral college. IF I were to do such a crazy thing, I would opt for a condo or apartment. You’re going to want to spend all day inside anyway, so why have a yard and have to mow it in the oppressive heat?
The upside is that it isn’t Arizona or Utah or Mississippi or Alabama or South Carolina.
Having lived in Dallas back in my teens and 30s I’ll agree that the heat can be pretty awful but at least you’re not going to be exposed to the concrete jungle of downtown or the other concentrated business centers. One thing you may consider in your home selection is getting a pool and yes, a large percentage of homes there already have them. We use ours from April / May until October and the heated spa year round. It’ll also help secure your house as the one your kid’s friends want to come over to (if that’s a concern), which can really help you keep a handle on what’s going on in a teen’s world.
I apologize if it was unwanted, but if it is at all important to you it’s one factor you may want to consider.
My only word on the ugly political side (is there any other kind?) and then I’ll drop the subject, too – some analysts think Texas could be blue by 2030 or thereabouts.
I live in Houston but have seen families strolling around this eruv near the Medical Center–a big employer in this very diverse city. Texas isn’t solidly Red–most of our cities are Bluish…
Do some online investigation of different Texas localities. Come visit–once the worst of the heat is over! Everything is air conditioned, anyway–& you will never have to shovel snow. Houston is usually a few degrees warmer than the Metroplex in winter & a few degrees cooler in the summer. Humid, though! From here, the Gulf is a short drive; the interesting cities of Austin & San Antonio are easy drives from here or the Metrolex.
No city in the US compares with New York for “culture.” But Houston has some fine museums & a lively art scene. Plus a Grand Opera company & a small opera theaterin my neighborhood. (How often must one attend the opera?) Fort Worth (“where the West begins”) has an older arts community than Dallas–which* has* begun to catch up.
Every Spring, the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo convinces many of us to “Go Texan” for a day…
Watch out for the people telling you to move to Austin - a good friend of mine moved back there a few years and it’s awful, the tech firms have moved everybody from California to Austin but they’re still making California money, so Austin is getting priced out of Austin. They just a jaw dropping property tax increase this year but they’re really not far into their mortgage enough to just up and leave, and they don’t live in a desirable part of town at all (in fact when their house got broken into the cops pretty much told them it was their fault for living there.)
There is the inimitable Kinky Friedman, who’s exactly this sort of Texas Jew you describe, plus pretty damn funny in the bargain.
And Rabbi Henry Cohenestablished his life and rabbinate in Galveston in the late 19th/early 20th century, and in his time, was reckoned one of the foremost religious leaders in the country.
Texas, on the whole, has a pretty friendly relationship with its Jews; there’s FAR more rancor toward blacks and illegal immigrants toward Jews in general.
Real estate prices are up everywhere in the state, not just Austin, although the prices in Austin are getting overheated fast. The prices elsewhere (Houston, Dallas) are in line with where they were in 2007 or so, or maybe a little higher.
The weather is definitely hot between about mid-June through about mid-September, with July and August highs usually sitting between 95-100 F, and the lows falling to about 80. The flip side however, is that we get about 1-2 ice days a year, and if we’re lucky, maybe a snow day or two. The average winter temps are something like a high of 55 and a low of 33, which means that when there’s a cold front, the lows are often in the 20s, and the highs are in the 40s, but once it wears off, it’s highs in the lower 60s, and lows in the 40s. Periodically during the winter, we’ll get back-to-back cold fronts, and the highs will be in the 30s, with lows below 20, but that’s maybe a once or twice a summer thing.
And I’ve lived here 42 years, and the only places I’ve ever seen scorpions are out in rural parts of the Hill Country where I was at Scout camp. They’re not that common in the eastern half of the state where most of the people live. Fire ants, on the other hand, are unfortunately common everywhere.
I think a HUGE adjustment for anyone leaving a true metropolitan area like New York is the reality that for every single thing you want do, everywhere you want to go, step one is now “Get in the car”.
I’ve spent months at a time in the DFW area, and it is, right along with Atlanta and Los Angeles, a car dependent area.
Need a gallon of milk? Get in the car.
Need a prescription refilled? Get in the car.
Craving a kosher hot dog? Get in the car.
rinse, repeat.
Lots of times in the South when there’s water, there’s also water moccasins. While I’ve yet to see any picked up by or flung from a tornado, in the summer they do inhabit some lakes and cricks and will drop from a limb into your canoe.
The best way to handle them is to pick them up by the tail, snap them like a leather whip and duck when their head comes flying off, still biting at the air as if flies past your ear. Okay, maybe that’s not the best way.
Yeah, my family moved down to the Dallas area in 1975, I’ve been here ever since save for four years of college, and I’ve never seen a scorpion outside of a pet store.
On a purely statistical level, sure, maybe a scorpion encounter is more likely than an encounter with a legendary NYC sewer alligator, but it’s not something you should expect to encounter on any sort of regular basis.
Didn’t the OP want a nonpolitical thread?
some people just feel compelled to force their opinions into other peoples’ ears.
This illustrates something a New Yorker will have to adjust to - the size of Texas. I think it’s a general thing for people from the East moving to the West but New York City to Texas will probably be an extreme case.
There are people living in Manhattan who might go months without ever setting foot outside Manhattan - which is a small island. A trip to Brooklyn, three miles away, would be considered a significant journey.
In Texas, people will routinely drive three miles to go to the local supermarket. Bridget mentioned Houston without making any note of the fact that Houston is 240 miles away from Dallas - a distance further than NYC to Washington DC. But Texans don’t consider that a noteworthy distance. Plenty of people in Dallas would drive down to Houston and back for a day trip.
My brother was visiting Texas once and my sister was telling him about her favorite barbecue restaurant and suggested they go there for lunch. My brother agreed and they drove there. It was eighty miles away. The Manhattan equivalent would be going to Pat’s in Philadelphia for a cheese steak sandwich.
One of the things to be very careful of when moving from a very high costings real estate area to a much lower one, is to get a real prospective yourself of the costs and what you want in the new area. Because if you start off telling a Realtor your budget is $800K, then they will show you comes in that and up price range. They won’t show you a $500K home which would fit your situation. I would spend a lot of time using online resources to learn about areas for the income statistics and real estate prices. Also, it’s very important to get to know the neighborhoods in what it would be like to actually live there. Go visit the places you would be grocery shopping in during the times you would normally shop, that sort of thing. It’s all very personal, so only you can do this. After having moved around the country, the worst thing is to ask realtors about areas. Their opinion is largely full of self-interest.
Realtor.com is very helpful.
Also, U.S. & International Address Verification + Data Quality
Put in the zip code of where you want information and it shows the average adjust gross income for those areas going back several years.
Also, very important, look online for crime rate in the areas you are looking at. Sometimes homes can be large and with a lot of property, and they look good, but they are very near higher crime areas. So you have to look at the actual crime rates.