Jewish Families in Lehigh Valley? (Pittsburgh, York: chapel, school districts, subdivision)

[Swimmom32]

Originally Posted by PacoMartin

All municipalities have different tax rates, which is not a concern if you are renting.

Upper and Lower refers to slight changes in altitude for the townships. Upper and Lower Macungie and the three boroughs form the bulk of the suburbs West of the City of Allentown. Nearly all housing in this region is upscale, and has convenient access to Philadelphia.

The Northern Suburbs of Allentown have more ethnic diversity and much lower home prices.

WESTERN SUBURBS ALLENTOWN population
20,063 Upper Macungie township
30,633 Lower Macungie township
3,074 Macungie borough
2,361 Alburtis borough
11,211 Emmaus borough

SOUTHWESTERN SUBURBS ALLENTOWN population (rural / upscale )
7,292 Upper Milford township
3,775 Lower Milford township

NORTHERN SUBURBS ALLENTOWN population (lower cost)
15,703 North Whitehall township
19,180 South Whitehall township
26,738 Whitehall township

SOUTHERN SUBURBS
13,505 Salisbury township
14,808 Upper Saucon township (very upscale)
2,386 Coopersburg borough

NORTHWESTERN TOWNSHIPS & BOROUGHS (very RURAL)
6,624 Washington township
4,923 Weisenberg township
4,229 Lynn township
3,416 Heidelberg township
2,173 Lowhill township
4,232 Slatington borough
3,192 Coplay borough

Your awesome thank you ....we arent looking for Jewish Schools we are not religious by any stretch of the means, but would like to know there are some jewish people around

I remember looking at Whitehall it was OK...

[PacoMartin]

Originally Posted by Swimmom32

I remember looking at Whitehall it was OK...

As a general rule, there are more Jewish people in Lehigh County than in Northampton County. The exceptions that I know about are:
Bnai Abraham in Easton
Brith Shalom in Hanover TWSP near Bethlehem

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Lower/ Upper Macungie are the municipalities in Lehigh County with the highest percentage of Bachelor’s or graduate degree. Values range from 7.0% to 51.9% with 26.7% the average for both counties in the valley.

Lower Macungie Township (47.9%)
Upper Macungie Township (43.8%)
Upper Saucon Township (43.7%)
Hanover Township (Northampton County) (51.9%)

Whitehall Township (24.1%)

City of Bethlehem (26.6%)
City of Easton (16.8%)
City of Allentown (16.6%)

[Greengrass7878]

I'd love to revive this thread -- it's somewhat similar to what we are looking for as well. We have a 2-year-old, and while we may consider sending her to a private Jewish school while she's little, we would like to buy in a good school district where she (and hopefully future kids!) will have some other Jewish students in her public school classes. I keep hearing about Parkland, East Penn, and Southern Lehigh (we are currently renting in the last one) as the best districts. I am thinking East Penn may have more Jewish students than Parkland?

Thoughts on these school districts, or the individual schools within them? Very interested in this.

Other criteria: would like to live in a friendly, safe area, with other young families and professionals, near parks and a great library. Also trying to become more informed about tax differences of the areas, flooding areas, other pros/cons we may not know to ask about in Lehigh Valley etc -- all the first-time homebuyer questions!

One other interest -- we are huge nature-lovers. While this may seem unusual (and hopefully not totally incompatible with a location that has strong Jewish life), we actually are quite interested in buying some land as well that is zoned agricultural, and possibly running a business. We are going to try to look for a home that could be very near this property. Are there areas where this would be more possible than others?


Thank you very much for any insight on any of these subjects.

[toobusytoday]

I don't know how you can find which school district has more people of a certain religion than another one. I don't think that would matter as much school wise, especially in a big school district, because there would be a smaller chance of your kids seeing them in school then they would in a small district. SL has a whole class size (i.e. class of 2014) of about 250 students. Parkland and East Penn is more like 750.

As far as land goes, Lower Milford township in Southern Lehigh is very rural. Just go out Limeport Pike and take a right anytime after the light at Beverly Hills road. I know a few people that have backyard chickens. Parkland has many rural areas up route 309. East Penn has patches of farms, but probably not as many.

[zbeans]

Originally Posted by Greengrass7878

I'd love to revive this thread -- it's somewhat similar to what we are looking for as well. We have a 2-year-old, and while we may consider sending her to a private Jewish school while she's little, we would like to buy in a good school district where she (and hopefully future kids!) will have some other Jewish students in her public school classes. I keep hearing about Parkland, East Penn, and Southern Lehigh (we are currently renting in the last one) as the best districts. I am thinking East Penn may have more Jewish students than Parkland?

Thoughts on these school districts, or the individual schools within them? Very interested in this.

Other criteria: would like to live in a friendly, safe area, with other young families and professionals, near parks and a great library. Also trying to become more informed about tax differences of the areas, flooding areas, other pros/cons we may not know to ask about in Lehigh Valley etc -- all the first-time homebuyer questions!

One other interest -- we are huge nature-lovers. While this may seem unusual (and hopefully not totally incompatible with a location that has strong Jewish life), we actually are quite interested in buying some land as well that is zoned agricultural, and possibly running a business. We are going to try to look for a home that could be very near this property. Are there areas where this would be more possible than others?


Thank you very much for any insight on any of these subjects.

We love nature too and there are a lot of wonderful places here such as the Wildlands Conservancy in Emmaus. The lower Macungie library is fantastic. That being said, Please, please stay FAR away from East Penn!

We just left the school district after dealing with antisemitism for years. We had the only Jewish kid in our grade, maybe the entire elementary school. Apparently it is well known this is not a healthy area for Jewish people, unfortunately we didn't find that out until after we moved here. After some incidents, I sought out the JCC, they told me the Macungie area was not the "right place to live" and the ADL has also had reported incidents of issues here.

The transplant area - NY/NJ in the newer developments provide a bit of a buffer in terms of comfortable living... (I've had friends that are shocked at what we've experienced). We live in a more locally populated subdivision and it has been a pretty toxic environment for a non-Christian family.

You need to know there are a lot of born again/evangelicals locals and many of them are in the schools. We are not religious but cultural and constantly had to deal with our child being "helped". The "Good News" club is big in East Penn schools (google it).

We are (finally) in the process of moving - hope this helps...

[blazerj]

Originally Posted by zbeans

We love nature too and there are a lot of wonderful places here such as the Wildlands Conservancy in Emmaus. The lower Macungie library is fantastic. That being said, Please, please stay FAR away from East Penn!

We just left the school district after dealing with antisemitism for years. We had the only Jewish kid in our grade, maybe the entire elementary school. Apparently it is well known this is not a healthy area for Jewish people, unfortunately we didn't find that out until after we moved here. After some incidents, I sought out the JCC, they told me the Macungie area was not the "right place to live" and the ADL has also had reported incidents of issues here.

The transplant area - NY/NJ in the newer developments provide a bit of a buffer in terms of comfortable living... (I've had friends that are shocked at what we've experienced). We live in a more locally populated subdivision and it has been a pretty toxic environment for a non-Christian family.

You need to know there are a lot of born again/evangelicals locals and many of them are in the schools. We are not religious but cultural and constantly had to deal with our child being "helped". The "Good News" club is big in East Penn schools (google it).

We are (finally) in the process of moving - hope this helps...

Wow. I'm surprised especially because people seem to love Macungie and East Penn. Good to know.

[ElijahAstin]

Since this thread has been bumped, while I am not a Lehigh Valley expert, as a general Jewish demographics junkie, there is some information I can provide vis-a-vis the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton area. Most of this information, derived from a 2007 Lehigh Valley Jewish population study, shouldn't come as a surprise to any of you.

The 18104/Allentown zip code (most of which feeds into Parkland HS IIRC?) contains 3,608 people in Jewish households, or 36.8% of the expanded Jewish community (Jewish + non-Jewish household members) of 9,800. That's also 8.3% of the zip code population of 43,236. 6.9% of this community (671 persons) resides in 18062/Magungie, which is 2.8% of the zip code population of 24,351. 7.3% of this community (717 persons) lives in 18017/Bethlehem, which is 1.9% of the zip code population of 37,549. 6.1% of this community (595 persons) lives in 18103/Allentown, which is 1.3% of the zip code population of 45,336. Beyond that, the Lehigh Valley Jewish community is extremely scattered. No other zip code contains more than 5% of the Jewish community.

The results of the study, which indicate a steady to moderately declining community, can be read here:
The 2007 Lehigh Valley Jewish Community Study | Berman Jewish DataBank

I had friends who attended Lehigh for undergrad, and they told me almost all of the area Jewish kids went to Parkland. Given the above poster's warning about East Penn, it would seem that barring Jewish day school, it's Parkland or bust.

[Greengrass7878]

Thank you very much for all of the comments so far. I'm disappointed to hear those kind of things about East Penn, but really appreciate the warning. The "only J kid in the school" is something I was concerned about, especially when it comes with "being helped". Any particular school recommendations within Parkland?

Lehigh Valley Academy (in Bethlehem) is actually ranked #2 in the state. I'm kind of curious about it as well.

HeavenWood, thank you for the demographics info. If anyone has other neighborhood advice as well, or other pros/cons about some of the areas, I'm definitely all ears.

[toobusytoday]

If I were looking to find a school district where my kids would find other people of their religion, I think I would attend a synagogue and ask the people there. It looks like there are some Jewish youth groups in the area: Kids & Stuff Frankly, I would be more concerned with tolerance and appreciation of overall diversity than numbers.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by toobusytoday

Frankly, I would be more concerned with tolerance and appreciation of overall diversity than numbers.

For Jews especially, strength comes in numbers. Again, I'm an outsider, but I do know enough to say that "Jews go to Parkland," something the population study clearly confirms.