Do you consider Passaic out of town

amother

↑ Amaranthus

Yesterday at 11:19 am

itsokay wrote:

I don't think anyone can say that Passaic is less out of town than Toronto/Montreal/LA/Cleveland/Chicago/Baltimore

True, except for proximity to NYC and area

amother

Brunette

Yesterday at 11:29 am

amother Viola wrote:

I do think Passaic is oot.
Similar to Baltimore or Chicago.
It's a more accepting vibe, where externals literally are irrelevant and the various umbrellas are very wide

Passaic does have the additional "intown" benefit of being in NJ so the legal resources, the political resources are there, way more than Baltimore or Chicago.
Also the physical proximity to Monsey

That's not a good or bad thing.
Just fact

I think of Passaic the same way. We have some family there and were there for simchas multiple times, same with Chicago, Baltimore, Cleveland and Detroit. They all have an OOT vibe. It's not just the numbers, which will correlate to the numbers of schools, stores, restaurants but it's the general vibe. Like the stores are quieter, streets quiet down earlier, less traffic and honking, People drive more rather than walking everywhere- a bit of a slower, calmer pace than Lakewood, Brooklyn or even Monsey.
And the diversity- the Lakewood type and the ones walking their dogs lol.
People make choices on where to live based on the vibe they want to raise their families with. No place is perfect.

singleagain

Yesterday at 11:57 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

This. Ive asked this question too many times to count but nobody answers really.
And who decides what in or out of town is.
Such complete silliness really.

See... I always thought out of town was any town I didn't live in.. so Monsey, Lakewood, Brooklyn were all out of town for me since I don't live there.

↑ shabbatiscoming ↓

Yesterday at 12:01 pm

singleagain wrote:

See... I always thought out of town was any town I didn't live in.. so Monsey, Lakewood, Brooklyn were all out of town for me since I don't live there.

Exactly this. Gosh, I grew up in nj and never heard of lakewood until I was well into adulthood Smile

amother

Purple

Yesterday at 12:47 pm

I’m from Passaic and moved to Lakewood when I got married about 5 years ago. I definitely consider Passaic out of town. But I guess it depends what your frame of reference is, like are you comparing to Minneapolis/Houston/Denver/small communities? It’s definitely not anything like Brooklyn/Lakewood/Monsey or even Toronto/LA

↑ shabbatiscoming ↓

Yesterday at 2:43 pm

shabbatiscoming wrote:

Exactly this. Gosh, I grew up in nj and never heard of lakewood until I was well into adulthood Smile

No need to hug me because I never heard of lakewood. Its not every frum jew's epicenter.

amother

Currant

Yesterday at 3:10 pm

amother Arcticblue wrote:

Yes. Oot. I've lived there. (and camp always considered us ooters on neighborhood day)

Lol! I was going to say this! Its always with OOT on neighborhood day in camp!

amother

↑ OP

Yesterday at 3:14 pm

amother Chambray wrote:

What the point of this thread? Is it Loshon Hora?

Nope my point was when I was telling family members that I am thinking of moving out of town they recommended passaic but in my mind I don’t think Passaic has the qualifications that a true out of town community has. To me it is way to similar to Lakewood, yes definitely not as big but still not oot so I wanted to hear others opinions

amother

DarkCyan

Yesterday at 11:17 pm

shabbatiscoming wrote:

No need to hug me because I never heard of lakewood. Its not every frum jew's epicenter.

Yeah I'm in my forties and have never been to Lakewood. Why would I? I dont have family living there. There are enough jewish stores in my own OOT city, why travel for shopping? People think Im totally crazy when they hear I've never been there. I am sure there are others out there like me who have never been to Lakewood!

amother

↑ Crocus

Yesterday at 11:32 pm

amother Viola wrote:

Externals are irrelevant there? Sure didn’t feel that way when I was growing up there. But hey, maybe things chilled out.

↑ shabbatiscoming

Yesterday at 11:49 pm

amother DarkCyan wrote:

But I wasnt judt never there. I had never heard of lakewood. Smile

amother

Catmint ↓

Today at 12:02 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

But I wasnt judt never there. I had never heard of lakewood. Smile

Dont know why someone keeps hugging you.
But if you moved to Israel 22 years ago and didn't go to a litvish school makes sense.
Lakewood only became so big in the past ten years. The reason I knew of Lakewood when I was a kid was because we learned about kotler and I read a lot of biographies of gedolim

amother

Broom

Today at 12:07 am

amother Catmint wrote:

Not knowing of one of the biggest Torah communities in the world is hug worthy.

amother

↑ Catmint

Today at 12:16 am

amother Broom wrote:

Not knowing of one of the biggest Torah communities in the world is hug worthy.

She said she didn't know about it till she was an adult. At that point it wasn't one of the biggest torah communities.
And I disagree about it being hugworthy btw