Baltimore’s Jewish Neighborhoods

By Simone Ellin

When my husband and I first moved from New York City to Baltimore, we looked at homes in several neighborhoods. I especially liked Roland Park, but some people warned me––“There aren’t many Jews there. You won’t feel comfortable.” Reluctantly, I changed course. I didn’t want my family to feel unwelcome.

Instead, my husband and I house-hunted in Mount Washington and Pikesville. As we struggled to decide between two homes, one in each community, a realtor representing one of the homeowners remarked, “Pikesville or Mount Washington––it’s a philosophical decision.”

Wow! This was daunting; our decision was obviously about more than which kitchen was larger and which bathrooms newer. It seemed we were choosing something far more important. We were, according to the realtor, deciding what type of people we would be. We chose the home in Mount Washington, but years later moved to Pikesville.

When she learned of our impending move, one friend said, “You just don’t seem like the ‘Pikesville types.’” “Moving to the ghetto?” said another. Here we go again, I thought. What was this all about?

A look at a Web site, urbandictionary. com (a dictionary of slang terms where definitions are created by site visitors) produced the following stereotypes about people who reside in Pikesville.

Pikesville: The “Mecca of all things Jewish;” spoiled teenagers who all get fancy cars on their 16th birthdays; full of doctors, lawyers and CPA fathers, and mothers who play mah jongg, attend stock club meetings and their children’s lacrosse games.

Roland Park: “Where real preppies live”, “Where all the kids drive SUVs that daddy bought them, Roland Parkers are free of the “Baltimore accent”, “Born with golden lacrosse sticks in their hands.” “classiest”, and “old money”.

One need not search the Web to find such stereotypes. Where do such assumptions come from, and are they still relevant?

Most Jewish Baltimoreans above a certain age have some idea of the origins of the residential proclivities of their co-religionists. In an article that appeared in the 1996 issue of Generations Magazine, the journal of the Jewish Museum of Maryland, author Garrett Power explains the path of Baltimore’s Jewish migration over the past 150 years. “Between 1860 and 1960, as its population grew from 7,000 to 78,000, the Jewish community moved from the densely-packed row houses of Old Town in east Baltimore to the leafy suburbs on the northwest side of town.”

It was rare that Jews moved to northeast suburbs like Roland Park, Guilford and Homeland. “The Roland Park Company instituted policies, informal and unwritten but clearly understood, whereby only the ‘right sort’ of people would be welcome in the community. Jews were understood to be the ‘wrong sort’.”

By the early sixties, many middle class Jews had moved to the northwest suburbs like Randallstown and Pikesville. In later years, movement would continue north, reaching into the once rural areas of Owings Mills and Reisterstown and throughout the area.

BALTIMORE CITY

Guilford/Roland Park

Many Jewish Baltimoreans believe that times have changed, and now choose to make their homes in areas that were once off limits to Jewish families. Rosellen Bloomberg, and her husband Norm, live in Guilford with their two boys, Jesse, 9, and Sam, 7. Mrs. Bloomberg says the neighborhood appealed to her because it featured well-made homes, good-sized lots, and a diverse group of neighbors, including, she stresses, many Jewish families.

Mrs. Bloomberg grew up in Pikesville, and says that it wasn’t until she left for college that she was exposed to people of backgrounds different from her own. After college, Mrs. Bloomberg returned to Baltimore, settling in Roland Park. She felt that more Jews were moving to Roland Park and surrounding areas, and denied any feeling of anti-Semitism.

“If anything,” Bloomberg says, “There was, and still is a naiveté’ among non-Jews (old-timers especially) in those neighborhoods. They just don’t know about Jews, what we do, our holidays, things like that.” Bloomberg, whose sons attend schools Boys Latin, and Gilman school, both schools that had few Jewish students in earlier eras, tries to combat “naiveté’ about Judaism among non-Jewish teachers, students, and parents by being active at both boys’ schools. “I go to my kid’s schools and I educate the class about Jewish holidays and customs,” says Bloomberg.

Twice a week, the Bloombergs drive Jesse and Sam to religious school at Chizuk Amuno. “It’s hard sometimes,” says Mrs. Bloomberg. “It takes a lot of time,” but it’s important to us that they learn about their religion, and also appreciate the diverse backgrounds of their peers and neighbors.”

Bolton Hill

Lauren Silberman, 26, resides in Bolton Hill. Originally from Memphis, Tenn., she moved to the city after graduating from George Washington University and landing a job at the Jewish Museum of Maryland.

She loves the architecture, the historic feel of the homes and the tree-lined streets. “Living in Bolton Hill,” says Ms. Silberman, “I really feel part of things. I’m near all the arts events, independently owned stores and restaurants, theatre, the symphony, and I make use of it.”

While there are a significant number of Jews in Bolton Hill, Ms. Silberman, who attends and teaches at Beth Am, says that there is less of a Jewish community here since the Bolton Street Synagogue moved uptown to Roland Park several years ago. Ms. Silberman, who is engaged to be married next fall, hopes that she and her fiancé will be able to find a larger apartment in Bolton Hill. “Ideally, I’d like to stay in the neighborhood,” she says. “At least until we have kids. After that, I don’t know…”

Federal Hill
Mandi and Brett Miller are also city dwellers. Both grew up in Randallstown, and their parents are long-time Baltimoreans. “Since we both grew up here, and planned to stay in the area, living in the city gave us a different experience than what we had growing up,” says Mrs. Miller.

The Millers have lived in Baltimore City for about 10 years. Before they met, she lived in Mount Vernon, and he, in Bolton Hill. When they married, they bought a renovated townhouse, built circa 1865, in Federal Hill.

“We found that when whenever we went out, we headed to Federal Hill. We loved the stores and restaurants there, and being close to the harbor.” According to Mrs. Miller, there are many Jews in the neighborhood (many singles and young married couples), although she doesn’t believe that the Jewish community in Federal Hill is terribly active.

Despite their affection for Federal Hill, the Millers expect they will probably move to Northwest Baltimore County once they have school-age children. The couple, who are expecting their first child this winter, plan to send their children to Jewish day school, and say that although living in a Jewish community is not essential to them, they do feel it would add a great deal to their lives.

BALTIMORE COUNTY

Pikesville

Yelena and Mike Frankel and their four children, Sasha, Ella, Eva, and David, live in the Greengate section of Pikesville. Yelena and her parents emigrated from the former Soviet Union to Pennsylvania when she was in her early teens. “We never lived in Jewish neighborhoods,” recalls Yelena. Eventually, she met and married Mike, also a Russian émigré, whose family had settled in Randlestown. Mike’s job led the family to Crofton, Md., where they were one of a very few Jewish families.

“In our neighborhood in Crofton, there were almost no Jews. I didn’t mind so much for myself, but it was hard on my kids. “They felt like they couldn’t take part in many of the things that other families were doing,” says Mrs. Frankel. “I wanted them to see their Jewishness within a positive framework, and I wanted them to have a strong foundation of feeling Jewish.”

The Frankels first moved to a townhouse in Pikesville, and then to their current house. Although they make their home in Pikesville and attend Beth El Congregation, their activities are not limited to the Jewish community. “We go everywhere and meet all sorts of different people,” says Mrs. Frankel, “but when we come home, we return to our Jewish neighborhood.”

Hunt Valley
Scott and Susan Fine and their two children Jessica and Jacob, make their home in Hunt Valley, a neighborhood not known for its large Jewish population. Mr. Fine, who says he grew up in Pikeville where he attended the local public schools, chose Hunt Valley for several reasons. For one thing, Fine says, “I wanted to have a little bit of land where my children could run free.” In addition, the fact that the real estate appraisal business that Mr. Fine and his wife Susan own was minutes away, was another selling point.

While the Fines say they value the diversity of their neighborhood, believing that it makes their children “more balanced individuals” they note that there are at least three Jewish families on their block. Mr. Fine relates a humorous story about how they learned about their Jewish neighbors: “When our electrician came to work on the house, he wanted to know if we needed ‘those automatic lights that turn on before sunset on Fridays like our neighbors have?’ I asked him how he knew we were Jewish, and he said, ‘you have one of those things outside your door.’

Although the Fines live in Hunt Valley, they are actively involved in the Jewish community. Their daughter Jessica, 11, is part of Chizuk Amuno’s Simcha Shabbat Program. The program demands that Jessica attend religious school three days a week, and Shabbat services at least twice a month. The Fine children both attend schools in Northwest Baltimore County – Jessica goes to McDonogh School, and Jacob to Park School. As a result, the Fines do a lot of driving. “We’re drivers,” Mrs. Fine explains. “It doesn’t bother us.”

Owings Mills

The Yankellows of Owings Mills have chosen to stay close to their childhood homes. Amy and Fred Yankellow both grew up in the Pikesville area; both of Amy’s parents, and one of Fred’s, are also Baltimore natives.

The Yankellows began their married life in McDonogh Township.They eventually relocated to the Caves Valley corridor of Owings Mills in search of a single-family house with more space, and to be in the Fort Garrison school district.

“People think of Owings Mills as very suburban. But where we live, it feels like we’re out in the country,” says Mrs. Yankellow. The Yankellow’s son Max is in the 5th grade at Fort Garrison, and Jake is in the 6th grade at Sudbrook Magnet Middle School. “It’s funny,” says Mrs. Yankellow, “Both Jake’s father and grandfather attended Sudbrook.”

She says she never really considered living in another area, liking the fact that the area had many Jewish families, and was convenient to stores, restaurants and their preferred school district.

Also nearby is Beth El, the synagogue where the family is affiliated, where Jake will soon become a bar mitzvah, and where Mrs. Yankellow’s grandmother has worked as a secretary for forty years. The Northwest Baltimore native says she has learned a lot about the neighborhoods of Baltimore from her uncle Barry Levinson’s films! How cool is that?

January 11, 2008