Journal #4 Structure of Home Community

I live in a Upper class Jewish neighborhood. It is an area consisting of five towns and it is called the five towns. It is located on the south shore of Long Island, near the ocean. I have lived in one of the five towns for a number of years and then moved out of state for a few years and now I am back living in another town in the five towns.

I have seen many changes over the years because of the population growth of the Orthodox Jewish people who live here and are beginning to control this area as their population of people grow. Throughout the five towns there are different blocks segregated with different levels of the Jewish people.

There are different levels of the Jewish religion that live here and some Jewish people who live in the five towns are not religious at all. The Orthodox are the strictest and the highest level of religion, then there are the Conservative Jews and the Reformed Jews. The Orthodox which are the most religious of the Jews in this neighborhood look down on other Jews who are not orthodox and don't consider them Jewish.

The Reformed Jewish people are the least religious in this neighborhood they belong to Temple but are not strict religious and go to Temple only on High Holy days. Then there are the Conservative Jews they are more religious then the reformed Jews and attend Temple on a regular basis. They also attend all Holiday services and their children usually go to after school Hebrew classes and are bar mitzvah ed. There are also the Jewish people who live here who do not practice there religion or attend Temple.

There is a huge problem with the school systems in the five towns because the Orthodox Jews only send their children to private schools or Yeshivas. This greatly affects the public school education system for all the other Jewish people. Through the years it has grown worse because there are not enough kids to support public education which unfortunately has caused some of the public schools to close down.

As the Orthodox population started growing in the five towns it has helped the economy and the businesses, stores and shops thrive. Eventually stores and businesses were greatly impacted by the Orthodox customers and eventually had to adhere to their religious beliefs and close their businesses on Saturdays or the Orthodox People would not support these stores and businesses.

Although some stores have escaped closing down there business, almost all the stores in this town have closed there business on Saturdays conforming to the Orthodox religious beliefs. This influx and growth of the Orthodox people taking over one of the towns business centers has caused a bit of a rift and division with the community who likes to do their shopping on Saturday. This is the main town with all the stores shops businesses and it's where everyone shops however the non Jewish people have started to feel outnumbered and uncomfortable in shopping here. On Saturdays what used to be a busy shopping day for many is now like a ghost town. A few years ago Saturday was the day everyone was out shopping now there are only a few stores open and the many other stores have closed there business altogether.

The housing is also affected in this community. The Orthodox people buy blocks of houses to be near one another and also to be near their temple. If a non Orthodox person lives on this block they will try to buy your house the block and offer you a huge sum of money, that you can't pass up. Because of gaining the control and owning blocks of houses no one else will live on these blocks and in these neighborhoods. Also on Saturdays they take over the streets as they walk to and from Temple. They don't drive on this day and people who are driving have a problem with the Orthodox walking and taking over the space of the streets so it's hard to drive for others in the community.

There are a variety of different stores that cater to everyone and there are lots of kosher establishments that cater to the Orthodox community, bagel stores, grocery stores, restaurants, pizzerias, bakeries that all serve Kosher food for the Orthodox Religion. Kosher means that it is blessed by a Rabbi or receives certain blessings and is cooked in a certain way.

The establishments that I have seen everyone intermingle, is the library and the bowling alley and of course certain shops and eating establishments that cater also to the needs of the Orthodox.