Just an important side point to those of you who don’t live in E”Y – The chareidi world here is very different than the chareidi world outside of E”Y. So much so that I know a lot of people who were chareidi in the US but came here to find out that they were not chareidi. I know way too many more people who won’t move here because of this divide – they are chareidi in the US but know in advance that they won’t fit into the chareidi thing here. How sad is that!?!?
This is partially to do with how people define themselves – the word chareidi is just a word and the concept behind it is a moving target.