mentalblog.com comments:
Phil Parker was never Rosh Yeshiva. He was Mashgiach in OT for many years and he is not there anymore (even though he is the best guy they ever had!).
so what's with boston, why hasn't it become a florida or california or chicago?
8-the prestige and the $$
Leaving Lubavitch out of the pic for a moment,Boston has had no Jewish luck so to speak.The community is quite week despite having a large community, worthy rabbis (R'Soloveichik,Bostoner Rebbe,R'Savitsky ,Twerskies)and a community infrastructure.
Look at Baltimore, well established, very vibrant Orthodx community and Boston, which years ago were pretty much the same size.
I think it may be housing costs and elitism of the Maiminodies crew that have driven the others away.Also I've noticed that a community that has many Lubavitch shluchim is usually week.The reasons are imho:Lubavitch must be dominant or there''ll be war aka my way or the highway, they send their mekurovim and kids for indoctrination in Crown Heights weakening the community and will open up shuls, schools ina week community that ends up killing of the local communities institutions with Chabads survivin because they never leave.
I would be interested to hear from others if they know of a community which is both strong with the local Orthodoxy and a strong Lubavitch community.The only one that comes to mind is maybe Chicago.
Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Miami, Toronto, Detroit, Montreal
Is there anything besides Chabad in Pittsburgh?
Large MO community, Lakewood Kollel, about 10 Frum Shuls.
overkill, mate. A non lakewood locally run Kollel, 3 other frum shuls, combination of MO-Mizrachi type and Litvishe lite.
Kesser Torah, Kollel, Shaarei Torah, Bnei Emunah, PZ, Young Israel, White Oak, I'm not sure if you'd count it but the Shul in Downtown, East Liberty if you're really desperate for numbers... And of course, Lubavitch Center!
And then there are some minor Chabad Houses all around which probably each count for more than Dahntahn and S'liberty combined like at CMU and the South Hills.
Now that I've divulged my identity...
Kesser Torah is essentially Lubavitch, the kollel was mentioned, white oak is not Pittsburgh. That leave you with Shaarei Torah, PZ, Young Israel that are not Lubavitch.
Kesser Torah essentially Lubavitch? Not in my days at least... it only has the early Lubavitch Shachris Minyan but the membership was not Lubavitch at all. There are a few families on Bartlett St. that will frequent it for an early Friday night Minyan during the summer. And by anyone's standards having a Lubavitch Rov does not make you "basically Lubavitch." Oh, and they hosted the Moshiach Minyan for it's two month tenure back in '97.
But now that you mention in, Kesser Torah is a shining example of Lubavitch's coexistence with the general community in Pittsburgh.
White Oak isn't Squirrel Hill but it most definitely is a part of the greater Pittsburgh community, sending their kids to Hillel {there have been a few on occasion that went to Yeshiva} and using the local Kashrus and restaurants.
You conveniently forgot that I mentioned Bnei Emunah. It's on Murray Avenue and very much a part of the community.
Mentioning the Kollel as an organization and a particular Orthodox sect doesn't take away from it's being a Shul.
Maybe ten was an overestimation, but even leaving Lubavitch out of the picture you're still left with five.
Sorry, my "fancy" education has eluded me. Seven.
Mendel was in my class.
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