Small-Town Feel Meets Kosher Pizza

by Hilary Larson
Special To The Jewish Week

Residents insist that Plainview, a hamlet in Nassau County, L.I., is more exciting than its name would suggest. But they also acknowledge a certain sweet truthfulness to the title: Plainview has a reassuringly familiar, almost old-fashioned quality, they say, that makes it a comfortable community in which to live.
“It’s kind of small town-ish,” said Rabbi Elie Weissman, who moved here several years ago to lead Young Israel of Plainview, a Modern Orthodox congregation. “Everyone knows you — police officers, firefighters. I walk into the Baskin-Robbins and they ask about my kids. And there’s lots of civic involvement.”
Officially, Plainview is a tidy suburban hamlet of about 25,000 in the sprawling administrative entity known as the Town of Oyster Bay. Plainview is often referred to in the same breath as Old Bethpage, the neighboring hamlet; they share a school system, a library and various other public services.
Gently priced real estate and top-notch public schools are among the frequently mentioned lures of the area, in addition to a wide variety of housing, family-friendly community facilities, and close proximity to some of Long Island’s best shopping along Old Country Road and Manetto Hill Road.
In addition, residents enjoy convenience. Manhattan is 45 minutes away by Long Island Rail Road, while the hamlet straddles three major roadways: the Long Island Expressway, the Northern State Parkway and the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway.
While it lacks the religious reputation of the Five Towns or Great Neck, Plainview has quietly grown into a full-service Jewish community, with all the requisite amenities for observant families. For this reason, David Gross, who grew up in Plainview and moved back to raise his family here, calls the hamlet “one of Long Island’s best kept secrets.” “People are surprised to learn how large of a Modern Orthodox community has grown here,” he elaborated.
As a child in the 1980s, Gross enjoyed living in the suburbs and also having access to New York City. But 20 years ago, “we had to drive 20 minutes to get a slice of kosher pizza,” he recalled.
Fast-forward to the early 2000s, when Gross, his wife Sarah and their newborn found themselves attracted to the community where his parents still lived. When they visited, they noticed the large number of families with young children, just like theirs, and the many new kosher amenities. The Grosses say they were attracted to the friendliness of the community, and they accepted frequent Shabbos dinner invitations even though they were technically out-of-towners.
So once Sarah finished her doctorate, the Grosses settled back home in Plainview, joining Young Israel, and David said he has seen about 10 new Orthodox families move in each year. They enjoy kosher pizza on Central Park Road, a kosher baker and butcher at the local Shop Rite, a kosher-stocked Food Emporium, and several kosher ice-cream, bagel and takeout cafes.
“It’s really an old-fashioned Modern Orthodox community,” is how Rabbi Weissman, who has three young children, describes both his congregation and his new home.
The Young Israel now counts more than 150 member families, adding about 10-15 each year. Nearby is the Plainview Jewish Center, the area’s oldest temple, a Conservative shul founded in 1953; additional local shuls include the Plainview Synagogue and the Manetto Hill Jewish Center. Several smaller havurot exist as well, and there is a nearby Chabad Center. In Old Bethpage, shuls include the Bethpage Jewish Community Center and the Reform Temple Beth Elohim.
Local public schools elicit raves, while observant families tend to send their children to either the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County, which has a location in Plainview, or the North Shore Hebrew Academy, based in Great Neck.
The Mid-Island Y Jewish Community Center, a longtime civic nexus on Manetto Hill Road, draws local residents of all religious persuasions, from the observant to non-Jews who take advantage of the Olympic-size pool. Joanne Ethe, the JCC’s membership director, said the institution now counts 7,500 member families and serves an additional 5,000 non-members each year with educational, child care, cultural and health-related programming.
In the 21 years she has lived in Plainview, Ethe said, she has seen the neighborhood change in superficial ways. Newly affluent East Asian and Indian families have moved in, creating a more ethnically diverse feel. But in the ways that matter, she said, Plainview remains the family-oriented hamlet where her now-grown children attended years of Y holiday parties, after-school activities and teen programs.
“A lot of Jews are unaffiliated, but many are active temple members who use us as their social and recreational outlet,” Ethe said.
Ethe said the JCC strives to keep pace with the needs of the community, offering a wide new array of social programs for special-needs children and teens, including those with autism, and increasing social options for baby boomers who settled here to raise children and are not ready to consider themselves seniors.
Once they do, they may well bid this family-centered hamlet adieu. “It seems that everyone here over 60, in our shul at least, moves to Florida,” observed Rabbi Weissman.
Those who stay, enjoy what many call the best possible combination of urban and suburban access and local friendliness. Increasingly, Plainview and Old Bethpage residents shun the city commute in favor of the growing professional industries right on Long Island. “We have lots of accountants, lawyers, teachers, people in the computer industry who work locally,” said the rabbi.
And if they need it, New York City is always there. “Here I have a small-town lifestyle,” said Weissman. “And I didn’t have to leave New York.” n

Westchester Jewish Conference

Westchester’s Jewish Community Relations Organization