My husband and I are just about to close on our first home next week. Looking for homes was a long and arduous process that made me feel a bit like Goldilocks:
“This master bedroom is too small. This closet is too cramped. This kitchen is too old.”
And then of course there were religious concerns:
“This is too far to walk to services if we wanted to. This kitchen doesn’t have enough room for two of everything. This backyard won’t fit a sukkah.”
That’s no longer the case for some residents of Brooklyn:
Touting “kosher amenities� — including two-sink kitchens, balconies pre-fit for sukkahs, gyms with separate schedules for men and women — these new condominiums are being custom-built for Orthodox populations that are growing in both absolute numbers and wealth. In Flatbush-Midwood, construction is about to start on a new luxury condominium targeting Orthodox Jews. In Williamsburg, several new buildings have been erected specifically for Satmar Hasidic residents. And in Crown Heights, about 20 new buildings with kosher amenities have been unveiled recently — including a 94-unit project by local developer Mendel Drizin, which will include a synagogue in the lobby, a gym with separate hours for men and women, and a special storage room for strollers. (MORE)
Hasidic
Pronounced: khah-SID-ik, Origin: Hebrew, a stream within ultra-Orthodox Judaism that grew out of an 18th-century mystical revival movement.
kosher
Pronounced: KOH-sher, Origin: Hebrew, adhering to kashrut, the traditional Jewish dietary laws.
