S/o: Why do many Imas act as if US = the whole world?

amother

Diamond ↓

Sun, Jul 14 2024, 5:55 pm

watergirl wrote:

Right! And in the midwest, it refers to IL, WI, IN.

I just googled, tri-state can also refer to IN, KY, and IL. And there are more.

In the frum NY world, tri-state means Monsey, Brooklyn, and Lakewood.

In my worldview, tristate is Michigan, Ohio, Indiana. Most US locales have a specific tristate are.

amother

↑ Diamond

Sun, Jul 14 2024, 6:02 pm

Fox wrote:

It's kind of ironic to read a complaint about frum people being "provincial" in 2024. If you think things are bad now, you should have seen what it was like before the Internet or deregulated airfares.

Back in the 80s, most Brooklynites had been to the Catskills and, maybe, Miami. They knew there Jews in NJ, but Lakewood was "moving away." Monsey was definitely OOT.

On visits to NY, I regularly got condescending questions about life in Chicago:

"Are you able to get a minyan?" (Yes, there are several yeshivas and 15+ shuls)

"Can you get kosher meat?" (Yes, we grab it off the truck on the way from Iowa to NY)

"Isn't it nice to see Jewish people walking around?" (We're allowed to walk in Chicago, too)

People today have traveled more; interacted with more Jews from around the world; and generally know more about the world outside their daled amos. In many ways, it's a wonderful change. In some cases, though, people think they know more about life and culture in various places than they really do.

Ideally, we should have one eye on enjoying different cultures and the other on what we can learn from them. For example, I'm obviously not going to adopt Japanese culture wholesale, but I incorporated the habit of cleaning the toilet every morning and the value of well-made box lunches for kids -- and my life is better for it.

But if you're using cultural norms of which you disapprove as a sort of cudgel to beat people up . . . well, they're not the ones being provincial.

Overheard at BY Convention in 1999: “where are you from?” Response: I’m from Detroit. Answers to this ranged from: Where in New York is that? Is that in South America? Don’t you mean Denver? Cringeworthy. People are more aware now.