While housing costs squeeze frum families in New York and Israel, a new answer is rising in the Sunshine State: Lakefront, a planned chareidi city near Lake Okeechobee, 80 families have already moved in, and a four-bedroom house costs less than a three-room flat in Bnei Brak
Frum families in New York and Israel have been living with a housing crisis for years. But the American answer to that crisis is now taking shape in Florida, and it is vast in scale and ambition.
In the heart of a wide plain stretching to the horizon, dotted with green lakes and open country, a brand-new chareidi city has been built over the past year. The main avenue is called Rambam Boulevard, and the streets branching off it bear the names of Rashi, the Rosh and other gedolim.
Along those streets, dozens of private homes in various sizes are going up, all designed to a high standard and set in open grounds with gardens. Around 80 families now live on the site, with hundreds more expected to follow, on the way to becoming a thriving, uniquely frum city.
About 200 kilometres from Miami, in Glades County near the shores of Lake Okeechobee, is a purpose-built residential community designed from the ground up for the chareidi population. It is a city fulfilling a vision not yet seen in America, and perhaps nowhere else in the Jewish world: a purely chareidi city, offering the ultimate answer for families seeking space, security and a strong spiritual infrastructure, far from the challenges and crowding of the established Jewish centres in New York and the older hubs.
A visitor to Lakefront will find a rare quality of life: clean air, clear lakes and endless space that allow a family to grow in peace and without pressure. But beyond the pastoral setting, the beating heart of the city is its ruchnius. At the centre of the city, Torah institutions of enormous scale are being built right now: shuls and batei medrash, Talmudei Torah and girls' schools, yeshivos ketanos and gedolos, and kollelim for avreichim. Every building is planned down to the last detail with the highest level of finish. Alongside them, employment centres are being planned, huge shopping complexes with a large supermarket, shops tailored to the chareidi public, and an advanced medical centre, allowing the city to meet all the needs of its residents entirely on its own.
The vision of Lakefront's planners and developers is not limited to housing solutions. Under rabbinic guidance, the stated goal is "not to build apartments, but to build generations". The city is planned from the outset as a spiritual capital, with Torah and chinuch institutions as the foundation on which everything else is built. The vast tracts of land surrounding the city serve as unlimited building reserves, so that as the kehillah grows, the place will continue to expand and develop without encroaching on living space.
In order to make the city accessible and bring in the masses, the developers had to meet a price point that does not exist in any other real-estate market. In the first phase, 1,000 housing units are now being built, most of them sold at prices ranging from just $460,000 for a private four-bedroom house, up to around $890,000 for huge luxury villas with up to eight bedrooms. In addition, 300 rental apartments are being built at reasonable monthly rates for any purpose. Because of the enormous land reserves, supply is expected to exceed demand, which ensures that housing prices will remain attractive in the future as well.
To put it in perspective: a Jew pounding the pavement or groaning under the weight of a mortgage for a cramped three- or four-room flat in Bnei Brak or Yerushalayim could sell his property and buy in its place a spacious villa in the heart of sunny Florida.
Lakefront residents are proving in practice that it is permitted and even desirable to step out sometimes from the expensive and crowded race of the central cities, in favour of peaceful and spacious life in the developing periphery. The sight of children playing happily in the streets of the new city fills the heart with pride and hope.
The rapid growth of the kehillah naturally attracts less friendly elements as well. Recently, a crude and ugly incitement campaign was spread by a group of primitive local antisemites, including elements who tried to stir up public anger and mount opposition to the establishment of the Chassidic settlement in Okeechobee. Among other things, extremist activists tried to harass residents and demonstrate at the gates of the settlement, but met with a wall of indifference.
The residents of Lakefront are choosing to ignore the incitement and continue developing the kehillah with strength and a strong tailwind. As members of the kehillah point out, those same antisemitic elements are trying to incite in every chareidi concentration in America and around the world, but nowhere do they succeed in stopping the momentum or bending the spirit of bnei Torah.
Meanwhile, as a sign of support and solidarity, a highly impressive and unprecedented visit took place yesterday (Wednesday) in Lakefront. A line of senior American government officials arrived at the chareidi kehillah, led by the Attorney General of the State of Florida and other senior figures in the state government. The visit was intended to follow closely the development of the kehillah, to hear directly the needs of the residents, and to send a clear message to local authorities and law enforcement that the safety, security and freedom of the residents are guaranteed without any compromise.
The new kehillah continues to flourish, and the excitement in the air is enormous. May it continue to grow and spread.
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