I’m one. Sometimes, I think I’m the only one, if I don’t stop to think of my father, who’s also quite middle-middle class.
I can’t afford to live anywhere near the Far West Boulevard area, the part of Austin that is considered to be the closest thing to a Jewish neighborhood that Austin has. Even in areas with smaller homes that are a couple of miles away, houses cost $200 to $300 a square foot and up, compared to $100 to $150 a square foot for the rest of the region.
In Cleveland, where I lived before I moved to Austin, the bulk of the area’s Reform and Conservative Jewish community live in the most affluent East Side suburbs; Beachwood, Pepper Pike, Solon, Shaker Heights, and upscale sections of otherwise middle-class 'burbs like University Heights, Lyndhurst and South Euclid. I lived in South Euclid, but on the “wrong side” of Mayfield Road.
There’s a special real estate pullout in this month’s Jewish Outlook, the area’s local Jewish newspaper. It’s all ads for high-end custom homebuilders, and million-dollar plus houses. The other ads are for high-end auto dealers (Lexus, Infiniti, BMW, Mercedes, etc), high-end retirement communities, jewelery stores, plastic surgeons, expensive summer camps, and so on. It’s the same ad mix one might see in a local magazine, which usually caters to those a notch above upper-middle-class.
So, aside from me, are there middle-class Reform and Orthodox Jews? Where do they live?
Yes. They live all over the US (maybe not in Manhattan). Chicago’s suburbs has loads of middle class Jews (well, the ones that have Jews) – like Skokie (famous for the Nazi march there).
Living in a “Jewish area” (not talking Orthodox) often means higher property values because of the high emphasis on schooling. There’s a circularity there: middle-class Jews tend to want areas with good schools, and they’re willing to pay the taxes to support them. Hence, higher property taxes and higher property values.
There’s a neighborhood in Pittsburgh that seems fairly middle class. The homes are nice, but you can rent a 2br for about $700. Otherwise, I grew up outside Philly/near Delaware. My parents were a nurse and a school teacher, and our conservative congregation was pretty firmly middle class. My grandmother lived in Reading, PA. I’m pretty sure that counts as middle-class and there was, at one time, a very large congregation there. She died a while ago though, and I haven’t been back since, so I’m not sure what current conditions are.
There are plenty of middle class Jews in Austin, just as there are plenty of middle class Italians, Chinese and Poles.
Problem is, as is the case in most Sun Belt cities, these people all moved to Austin relatively recently. Hence, there’s no Jewish neighborhood, no Chinese neighborhood (a few shopping centers that cater primarily to Chinese customers, yes), no Italian neighborhood and no Polish neighborhood. Middle class folks of every possible ethnicity are spread out all over the place, both in Austin and in its many suburbs. So, having just settled into a new home in, say, Pflugerville or Round Rock, ANY middle-class family may start wondering, “Where are the others like us? They must be here, but where?”
This doesn’t pertain just to ethnicity, either. As a fairly liberal city in a conservative state, Austin has a lot of gays… but unlike many cities, Austin has NOTHING like a gay district or a gay neighborhood. There’s no Castro Street or Christopher Street in Austin. Like everybody else in Austin, gays buy houses wherever they can get a good deal, and THEN start looking around for other gays.
In many cities, newcomers make a point of buying a house in a neighborhood where they’ll be surrounded by “their kind.” People moving to Austin generally DON’T look for their own kind until AFTER they’ve bought a house!
I’m in the Northwest suburbs. After maybe two years living here, I realized - my God, there are no Jews. Like, none. Zero. I’m sure I exaggerate, but it was a shock.
I’m not Jewish. I came from Madison - hardly a Jewish enclave, but I had a number of school friends and acquaintances that were Jewish.
In my current area (northwest suburbs - Elgin, Carpentersville, Dundee) there seem to be exactly zero Jewish persons. It’s kind of a weird revelation. Like you move to a city, then two years later you figure out there are no left-handed people.
After my “revelation”, I started asking my local friends - hm, how many Bar Mitzvahs did you attend in middle school?
The answer, invariably: Zero. A shock to me. Like I said, I’m not Jewish but came from a place where there were plenty of Jewish people, spread out of course. But a consistent percentage of the population.
Fair enough. I’m thinking a little further in on the North Side (Evanston, where I grew up, Skokie, Niles, Buffalo Grove, Glenview/Northbrook/Wilmette [a bit wealthier], and also places like Oak Park. North West Suburbs I don’t know much about.
Yep. My parents moved here when I was a baby because it was a happy medium of good public schools and diversity. There certainly isn’t a Jewish majority here, but there is a big enough minority that we got major Jewish holidays off from school, and if we didn’t have them off, teachers would, say, not schedule exams for Jewish holidays (I was shocked when I got to grad school in Indiana that the issue even came up! Let’s just say that when I was in undergrad at NYU, it never would have arisen.) Skokie was much more Jewish when I was a kid than it is now. But a fair number of the north Chicago suburbs have significant Jewish populations.