Feel like I need to point out to some in the NW London echo chamber that there are also lots of Jews not well off *outside* of the Charedi community...
NE London Jewry is a good example (but not the only one).
NE London Jewry is a good example (but not the only one).
Average career of many of my friends parents from when I was at King Solomon High School in Redbridge was cab driver, social worker, teacher etc... most were not lawyers, accountants etc...
NE London/Redbridge Jewish community was the largest UK community til about 20 yrs ago
NE London/Redbridge Jewish community was the largest UK community til about 20 yrs ago
Lots and lots of kids at King Solomon were on free school meals (including myself for a period). I remember seeing all those kids with the blue raffle tickets for their lunches.
That community has shrunk considerably in the last 20 years but whats left is still working class. Equally there are new working class Jewish communities in the Hertfordshire suburbs. Jews who are in no way well off but wanted to live in an area with other Jews.
A friend of mine who works for a charity, and their partner who also works for a charity on hourly low pay literally beg stole and borrowed to afford a small 2 bed house in Borehamwood because they wanted to be around other Jews.
Other friends moved into proper doer upper, but small houses, whilst taking on huge mortgages in the hope that one day they might be able to do up their homes. None of these are affluent. So many other friends in this situation.
The average person I know in my circles who has been able to get onto the housing market are entirely reliant on help from their parents. Identical to so many others in the UK. This normally involves parents significantly downsizing to help their kids.
And there are many more who can't rely on parents for help and like vast swathes of young londoners are stuck in the rental market without any real means to get out of it.
Some people in the NW London bubble maybe themselves forget that they are not necessarily representative. There is huge pressure inside of the Jewish community to be successful, to be more successful than your parents. People often don't talk about their problems.
Of which there are many.
Some additional thoughts: the only economic advantage the Jewish community have is that we are mostly city based communities. House prices mean that comparatively to the wider population Jews on average, on paper are 'wealthier'. But none of that is because of Jewishness.
Its because of historic migration patterns (which more recent migrant communities have followed almost identically - see Enfield for Cypriot or Harrow for Indian communities) and the housing market, in London inparticular, going crazy and the luck of that generation who bought.
