Ramat Beit Shemesh

http://www.zichrondovid.com

starwolf, it is an amazing community, and like any other, it has “problem areas” and great areas and amazing schools (and quite a selection at that!), amazing communities – I will say that Ramat Beit Shemesh is unique as each street has it’s own character and mix of types of people, and therefore a person has to look into each one – I do agree with you though, as with moving anywhere else, one must look into both neighborhoods, schools, location, friends etc to find what is the best fit for you…

EDITED

BS”D

The parallel community to RB-Shimush in Haifa is called Ramat Beit Kisse, never chas vesholom to be confused with the very non-kanoi Ramat Vizhnitz of Reb Chaim Banet choir fame. Haifa (Seret) Vizhnitz is in cherem in RB-Shimush and RB-Kisse because its Rebbe is neither a kanoi nor a baal machloikes and they are known for real music, not shouts of Shabbos or Shygetz accompanied by a real “rock” band that gets its victims “stoned”.

RB-Kisse is located somewhere on Har Carmel but it probably only comes out late at night.

More info on RBS:

Yes its a very diuverse community, but the beauty of it is that we can most of the time live together as one big family. Its a pretty nieghborhood with parks and shuls and community centers (not s/t every jewish comunity has in Israel). So for the most part its a really nice place to live. For a/o who wants to live in angloland come join us in RBSA.

BS”D

RB-Shimush is a parody of certain fringe elements who live in RBS-Bet. They probably refer to everything outside of their little dalet amois (physical and hashkofic) as Ramas Byse Shygetz. RB-Kisse does not exist unless you want to use that phrase to refer to the cover of the seat of your porcelain kisse hakavoid.

I’ve been living in Eretz Yisrael for the past three years in RBSA It was a very big adjustment but baruch Hashem with a lot of help and support I was able to acclimate into Israeli society well. I have changed a lot since I made Aliya and I believe its for the better.Living in a population where half of the anglo kids can’t make it in school and just drop out I find it a great achievement to have gotten to where I am today. I can’t see myself living in any other country than the country of my heritage- Israel.

Yes living in Israel is totally hard, but geuss what we’re suppposed to be in EY with yisurim until Mashiach comes. And also those of us that do live here have such a love of the land that by leaving it yopu are literally ripping out a part of our souls. I don’t think anyone that doesn’t live here can understand the tangibility of the kedusha here and if you do how can you as a jew just get up and leave?

Life is hard its supposed to be hard. As a friend once said:”Life’s a climb but the view’s great”

But rebetzin, that makes it an even greater reason to stay. There is more tumah in a place that there is more kedusha so we have to fight harder even as adults to stay ahead of the game and not get sucked into the bad influences, and this issue of at-risk teens is a global phenomenon its not synonymous with just RBS. Its happening all over the world and stating that one place is better than the other or that you’re more protected somewhere else is a very naive approach to the issue at hand. And the statistic was just to prove a point its not a scientific equation that is completely accurate. thank you for the compliment of my staying abilities I hope more people will find the courage to move to Ertz Yisrael so that we can proove ourselves as a united AM-nation. We are a united nation we just have to work a little harder so that the rest of our family feels the same way and they feel like they belong with us. This is where we all belong.

real – rbs is great, each street has a very different nature so you have to find where you fit in best. with a 2 year old should be easier to settle down. cost of living really depends on how you spend in the grocery store, how big of a mortgage you need, if you have a car, how often you drive, etc etc. health insurance you pay either nothing or you can pay around 100 shekel a month for your whole family (and i have 3 kids!) for supplementary “upgraded” health insurance where you can get many more benefits.

Tuition (gan and.oir elementary school) is around 350-600 shekels a month, depending on the school, boys/girls, whether they get government support too and how much, etc…..but substantially lower than in the states.

Groceries cost about the same or a bit more, but can add up if you buy all the american imported products rather than getting used to more of the israeli stuff….figure most american products to cost twice as much after import & import tax.

As per your previous post/thread, feel free to email me with more questions.

RBS A is a good community and for the most part it is very accepting. As for each street being different, that is the beauty of this community. It gives you the ability to choose where you fit in best. You can be with all Anglos or with all Israelis or then again you can be on a street with a mixture of both. Whatever you want and whatever you feel is right for you you can find in the community.

There is no perfect place in life-no right school, no perfect community, but we do our best and live with what we are thankfully given. Thank You……… Hashem! 😉

The Ayalon park is somewhat of a divide between Hebrew Israeli and American Hebrew speakers. There are more Israeli type families from there until the bottom of RBS A, and ore anglo type families living on the other side.

Lately I’ve been going shul hopping trying to find a shul that I like so let me tell you about some of them. I started at Ahavath Shalom which is a very nice mix of Anglos and Israelis. Its for a kind of older established crowd-ppl that are living there with a warm embrace to all visitors and newcomers. There are a few Sphardi shuls next to it that are also very nice. Also on Nachshon there is a new sort of Shtebl at the end of the block.

There are some very established Anglo shuls up and down Refaim, Ayalon, Revivim and Luz. It all depends on what you like and what you’re looking for. This past Shabbos I went to Shivtei Yeshurin which is the last house on Dolev (the Q) and it was also very nice. It had the feel of an Anglo-American Baal HaBayit shul. R’ Yaakov Haber is the Rav there. We also have a Carlebach shul, a Cabad shul and even a Soleveitshik shul. There are shuls everywhere in every nook and cranny and there’s always a new one popping up so I’m sure you’ll be able to find a place that suits you best.

What kind of age group are there children-young or finished school? It will be easier giving a good picture suited to these people’s needs if we know or have some clearer idea of what they’re looking for.

Hope this helped. Lots of Hatzlacha!!!

Ramat Shilo in Ramat Beit Shemesh is a great diverse community..

i would advise anyone coming from Teneck, Passaic, Flatbush, LA to come to ramat shilo…. nice good normal mix of working class people…

RBS Aleph and Bet are completely different, as is the Kiryah. Every shul their has it’s own slice. My daughter(s) was very happy with the high school there, but commuting was a real pain. Plenty of politics, and extremely diverse, too much so. MO and Meah Shearim just don’t blend. Yes, loads of Anglo dropouts, but not 50%. There is an underground spying agency that reports the sem girls not playing by the ryles, but we didn’t have that problem fortunately.

Yeshivaguy1 says:

I love ramat beit shemesh; it’s the closest to America in Israel.

That’s davka a reason not not to live there. I’m very glad we stayed away from the Beit Shemesh/RBS ghetto when we made aliyah. I can definately see that my kids turned out much better (school, socially, speaking Hebrew) than their friends who are there.