Everything’s bigger in Texas, including the opportunities. A group of Houston businessmen make the case for why Houston is the new place to be for frum families
Ten years ago, Mishpacha sent Binyamin Rose to Houston to check out its fledgling Young Israel community. The kehillah was (and still is) headed by Rabbi Yehoshua Wender, who had been there 25 years, and it numbered 100 families. The elementary school had 125 students and there were four kosher restaurants.
The community was already seeing growth then. Rabbi Wender told Mr. Rose that the kehillah had begun with 30 families, and the remaining 70 had arrived within the last four years. But now, a decade later, frum Houston has seen really dramatic growth, boasting about 500 families. There are high schools for both girls and boys in addition to three elementary schools, the kollel is thriving, and the number of kosher restaurants has doubled. Last year, the Young Israel moved into a completely redesigned, spacious new quarters in its old location. The beautiful new building houses not only the minyan with its offices and social hall, but the Kollel of Houston Torah Center, its Lakewood community kollel, has built a new building annexed to the back of the shul.
While housing prices have risen in the past ten years, they’re still a third to a half of what New York area residents pay, and many of the properties come with pools (a necessity, not a luxury, during steamy June through September). With low housing prices, warm weather, Southern friendliness, and all the amenities of frum life, Houston is becoming a magnet for young families looking for a smaller, more affordable community.
But it’s important to do your research: Too many families have moved to out-of-town communities drawn by the low cost of living, only to discover that the local economy is unable to provide jobs. Houston, the country’s fourth largest city, has a booming economy where opportunities are ripe for the taking.
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