With best wishes,
David Ebin

But it’s not just a matter of risk. A more homogenous community where there is a constant striving among everyone for a certain ideal adds much more meaning to each individual’s endeavour. For example, in Israel, where everyone is Jewish, and where many communities are also very homogenous, the fact that those values permeate the streets of the community is a very positive thing. I don’t see why the same argument shouldn’t apply for an area like the 5 Towns or Teaneck as well.

You should really read this relevant article in the Jewish Week by Gary Rosenblatt that just got posted today: http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c52_a16104/Editorial__Opinion/Gary_Rosenblatt.html
Here’s a great paragraph that really clinches it for me: “Rabbi Brander said that moving to Teaneck has, on one level, been a kind of spiritual exile for him personally. That community, a bastion of Modern Orthodoxy in the U.S., is widely admired for its many well-attended synagogues, Torah learning and highly involved Zionist activities. But the rabbi observed a downside of its homogeneous nature, noting that few if any of the local shuls, accustomed to like-minded congregants, offer beginners’ services for novice worshippers. There are no boxes of kippot for visitors, he said, no posters about the plight of Darfur in the halls. His critique was leveled at similar Modern Orthodox enclaves that tend toward complacency when it comes to wider interaction. “Our community and our children are poorer” for that lack of diversity, he said, “and our Orthodox community is poorer when it retreats and withdraws” from engagement with other Jews.”

Being a part of a community like Atlanta, Houston, or even Stony Brook probably provides a much richer, more meaningful Jewish life than living in Teaneck or the Five Towns.