Rural Aesthetics, Urbane Spirit

But talk to locals, people who prowl the shore and bustle about town after the leaves have faded, and another Hamptons emerges: tight-knit communities that value the small-town friendliness on the East End’s South Fork. Generations of families have farmed the land, caught the fish and spent summers sunning themselves here. More recently, a steady influx of year-round residents and weekenders has given the area a new sense of vitality and strengthened its institutions.

"I think it’s the most fabulous place in the whole world," said Ruth Appelhof, executive director of Guild Hall, a venerable arts center

"It’s the air quality, the ocean, the beaches," added Appelhof, who came here years ago to write her master’s thesis in the house of Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock’s widow, and returned 10 years ago to live. "But it’s also the fact that this is a secure community, where you don’t have to lock your doors and you can leave your keys in the car."

Continuity and family life have always defined the Hamptons — actually a collection of hamlets and villages that together constitute two official towns, East Hampton and Southampton, most of which are linked by Route 27, Montauk Highway. Heading east from Manhattan, one arrives first in Westhampton Beach, a more low-key scene than those further east, and the heart of a blossoming Jewish presence. Past Hampton Bays, an unpretentious hamlet with stunning beaches on both the Atlantic and Great Peconic Bay, the highway ends and Route 27 becomes a winding two-lane byway.

Southampton and East Hampton Villages are the two largest and most substantial burgs; each has a picturesque, walkable downtown, dotted with pricey cafes and boutiques. Within the Town of Southampton, Water Mill and Sagaponack are tiny, mostly rural hamlets with coveted ocean beaches and quaint general stores; Sag Harbor is lively and youthful, its namesake harbor jutting north into the bay. The thick oak woods of Springs and Wainscott and the historic Colonial houses of Amagansett round out the Town of East Hampton, along with Montauk, a spit of eastern land that many do not consider "the Hamptons."

With its white New England-style cottages and windswept aesthetic, the Hamptons has long been associated with a certain kind of WASPy chic. But the days when Jews were excluded from golf courses and social clubs are long gone, and the South Fork’s Jewish community has been steadily growing over the past decade.

Rabbi Leibel Baumgarten, who oversees Chabad "from Coram on east" as director of Chabad Lubavitch of the East End, recalls when the organization held Shabbat services in Jewish homes around the Hamptons 25 years ago, before other worship options existed. Five years ago, he moved his family to East Hampton full-time, and today he oversees three Chabad houses: a full-service, year-round center in East Hampton, a weekend center in Southampton and a summer weekend satellite in Water Mill.

"I started to feel that presence throughout the year," explained the rabbi of Chabad’s eastward expansion. "We haven’t missed a daily minyan in years, even Monday morning." Chabad also has popular summer camps and a weekend children’s program; the rabbi’s wife, Goldie, hosts a Thurday evening challah-baking session and the Sunday religious school.

Goldie also operates KosherHamptons, an online kosher-food delivery service (www.kosherhamptons.com) that trucks out freshly prepared Shabbat dinners, glatt brunches and more from caterers in Great Neck. Kosher food is still difficult to find in much of the Hamptons, which lacks kosher restaurants and whose Jewish community is low-key in observance.

The Jewish Center of the Hamptons, a 450-family Reform temple across the street in East Hampton from Chabad, was established 15 years ago and has become a de facto community center for many East End Jews. "We have a summer institute with speakers, concerts, classes, Shabbat on the beach and children’s programs," said Sandy Messing, the shul’s executive director. Summer Shabbat services draw as many as 250 worshippers, many of whom hold dual affiliations with temples in the city.

The Hamptons’ other Reform synagogue is Temple Adas Israel in Sag Harbor, which boasts of being Long Island’s oldest congregation. It was established in 1893, when Sag Harbor was a thriving industrial center with a large community of Jewish merchants. Today its simple, graceful New England-style facade looks much as it did generations ago.

The Conservative Synagogue of the Hamptons, based in East Hampton, is the area’s Conservative option and rotates services among several East End locations, with a summer cultural program as well. In Westhampton Beach, the Hampton Synagogue is an Orthodox congregation with a diverse membership and a Manhattan satellite, the New York Synagogue, both led by high-profile Rabbi Marc Schneier.

In both the Jewish community and the larger Hamptons population, retired people and young families are heavily represented, with fewer people in their ‘20s and ‘30s. This is a reflection of both the relative lack of professional opportunity compared to urban areas, and a lifestyle that is geared to children and to retirement: senior centers and recreational activities like golf are plentiful, as are well-regarded public and private schools.

Hamptons residents often talk of the struggle to maintain the area’s "rural character," but the secret of the Hamptons’ appeal lies in a certain unique synthesis of rural aesthetics and urbane spirit. The rustic landscape of roadside tomato stands and sunflower fields belies a community deeply infused with the culture of Manhattan, from the artesian offerings at numerous gourmet shops to the star-studded summer music and theater offerings to the robust local media. A large influx of immigrants from all over Central and South America has given the area a notable diversity and an international flavor.

Hedge-fund barons and media executives are more likely to be your neighbors than potato farmers these days, given that finding any house at all under $500,000 is nearly impossible. Celebrities such as Alan Alda, Itzhak Perlman, Julie Andrews and Steven Spielberg throw parties, sponsor arts events and rub shoulders with farmers at the corner store.

Ruth Vered, an Israeli-born art dealer who has overseen Vered Gallery in East Hampton for 33 years, said it is precisely this sophistication that endears her to her adopted home. "You have fabulous beaches, intelligent people," said Vered, whose gallery is currently showing Burt Stern’s legendary Marilyn Monroe photographs and a retrospective of the American painter Milton Avery. "It’s very international; all the artists and collectors come here."

Indeed, the Hamptons’ summer arts scene is legendary. Guild Hall, which opened in 1931, has an art museum with rotating exhibits as well as a theater; this summer’s offerings include performances by Mandy Patinkin, Metropolitan Klezmer, and Tennessee Williams’ "The Glass Menagerie," starring Amy Irving. The Music Festival of the Hamptons in July and the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival in August bring world-class classical musicians to outdoor music tents, while the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor and the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center offer varied programs of plays, children’s events and cabaret.

With all this glamor, traffic can be a No. 1 complaint of Hamptons residents from May to September, when Montauk Highway is bumper-to-bumper and beach parking fills up by 11. Despite the grumbles, though, East Enders cherish their symbiotic connection to New York City. Many locals telecommute, and the city and its resources are only two hours away by car, Long Island Rail Road or the Hampton Jitney shuttle, which picks up and drops off at Manhattan locations.

"It’s the Hamptons," said Sandy Messing of the Jewish Center, responding with slight bemusement to the question of why she lives here. "What more do I need to say?"