1776-2025: NYC, End of an Era

What does 1776 have to do with anything? Jews in New York didn’t get full civil rights for at least another ten years, and the city didn’t become the leading economic center until the the Erie Canal opened. For frum Jews, economic freedom didn’t come until the mid-20th century when the New Deal brought in the five day week (previously most people were required to work a Monday-Saturday schedule, leaving few alternatives from Shomerei Shabbos), and the Great Society made it difficult to legally discriminate against religious minorities.

New York City and New York State have been steadily declining since the mid-20th century. The fact that New York City is probably (there is still much that could happen) going to elect a socialist anti-Semite as mayor is more a symptom than a disease. Unless you own real estate (including housing) or have bought local bonds, there isn’t too much to worry about (though for Jews the biggest concern is that he will order the police to stop protecting Jews from violent attacks, though in the case the state or federal government is likely to intervene). For frum Yidden, the “blue” cities and states are increasingly hostile, and have been becoming so for some time. Note that almost no frum Jews invest in municipal bonds, and relatively little is invested in real estate (note that in New York City many if not most frum Jews rent rather than own their housing).

It remains to be seen how the national Democratic party will react to having someone in such a prominent role who self-identifies as a Democrat have views that will discredit the party elsewhere in the country. One option is they could switch to supporting the current mayor who is already on the November ballot, and already has more credibility than a typical third party candidate since he is the incumbent. The most important factor may be the 2026 elections since if WOKE loses nationally, and New York goes purple and elects non-Democrats statewide, the threats will largely go away (so it might be a good idea to wait a bit before moving to Tel Aviv or Texas – though it would be prudent not to buy New York real estate or New York bonds).

NYC has been on the decline since the 1960s. There were some bumps and better times but the trajectory started then. Once the government focuses on social issues rather than the quality of life hard times are ahead. NYC is an exception to most big cities in that (1)it sometimes elected level headed officials and (2)it needs state permission to do a lot of things. Which prevented it from doing many stupid ones. But the way things are now NYC will soon be another Philadelphia, just bigger

Always ask: In the 17th and 18th century Jews couldn’t vote and had limited civil rights (in most cases, less than un-enslaved blacks), and there were few economic opportunities other than self-employment due to strict Sunday-closing laws. While secular Jews who ate treff and worked on Shabbos had full civil rights by the Jacksonian era (early 19th century), frum Jews didn’t really have a meaningful set of rights until the mid-20th century. — Jews who move to suburbs will be unaffected by a collapse in New York City realty prices, and may profit as people and businesses move to the suburbs. If a building has nine tenants and one landlord, and all are frum, only 10% suffer from a collapse of housing prices. If the Mamdani election triggers a backlash in the state and New York turns purple (and not that upstate and Long Island already are at least purple), so that by 2027 the Republicans control the state government, the damage will be limited to New York City – and a lot more than the frum community is threatened by Mamdani’s “socialism”.

There is a reason we are called “The Wandering Jew”
We live somewhere while it thrives both economically & where we are able to practice Judaism until times change & we move on.
I have family that grew up in a small town with a tiny Jewish community. The Jews rode the wave of prosperity mostly through owning small retail businesses until the economy started to decline.
The Jewish kids went off to college & did not return as there were very little economic opportunities or functioning Jewish life.
The parents eventually closed the business & retired.
The community held on in the 70’s & early 80’s until it was unsustainable due to lack of members & rarely if ever attracting new members.
This Jewish community ceases to exist.
It’s sad a place my family has such fond memories of is gone but at the same time these communities were never really meant to be long term Jewish communities.
Perhaps we see NY as different but we had a good run & perhaps it’s time to admit it & move on before it gets even worse.

YYA> Germany in the 1920’s Jews had more rights and opportunities than anywhere else in Europe.

And in US. Fritz Haber (German Noble winner for inventing fertilizer process and saving billions of lives, and forgotten because he invented poison gas for Germany and killed thousands) visited Atlantis city in c. 1910 and was shocked to see “no dogs and Jews” signs – even when he was told this does not affect him personally as a civilized Jew. He said that nothing like that could happen in Germany …

But another question – we have Gemora from Bavel, Rambam from Muslim Spain, Shulchan Aruch from Poland, Litvaks and Chabad from Russian empire. What do we have form NYC? R Avigdor Miller, Chaim Berlin, YU? Jewish bankers and lawyers?

One sefer muses that Jews were sent to different countries to pick up different middos – scholastics from Germany, survival skills from Russians, etc. For America, he chose “scale” – from McDonalds chain to large yeshivos. Not really a middah. but a method. and “large” is not same as “great”. Maybe general uniform education creates some quality like synchronized swimming does (I am told).