Everything’s bigger in Texas, including the opportunities. A group of Houston businessmen make the case for why Houston is the new place to be for frum families

Photos: Elisheva Golani Photography

HOUSTON THEN AND NOW

Ten years ago, Mishpacha sent Binyamin Rose to Houston to check out its fledgling Young Israel community. The kehillah was (and still is) headed by Rabbi Yehoshua Wender, who had been there 25 years, and it numbered 100 families. The elementary school had 125 students and there were four kosher restaurants.

The community was already seeing growth then. Rabbi Wender told Mr. Rose that the kehillah had begun with 30 families, and the remaining 70 had arrived within the last four years. But now, a decade later, frum Houston has seen really dramatic growth, boasting about 500 families. There are high schools for both girls and boys in addition to three elementary schools, the kollel is thriving, and the number of kosher restaurants has doubled. Last year, the Young Israel moved into a completely redesigned, spacious new quarters in its old location. The beautiful new building houses not only the minyan with its offices and social hall, but the Kollel of Houston Torah Center, its Lakewood community kollel, has built a new building annexed to the back of the shul.

While housing prices have risen in the past ten years, they’re still a third to a half of what New York area residents pay, and many of the properties come with pools (a necessity, not a luxury, during steamy June through September). With low housing prices, warm weather, Southern friendliness, and all the amenities of frum life, Houston is becoming a magnet for young families looking for a smaller, more affordable community.

But it’s important to do your research: Too many families have moved to out-of-town communities drawn by the low cost of living, only to discover that the local economy is unable to provide jobs. Houston, the country’s fourth largest city, has a booming economy where opportunities are ripe for the taking.

A few of Houston’s leading frum businesspeople met in a local office building to weigh in.

The Panel

ON THE BUSINESS CLIMATE

Yaakov Polatsek: In general, Houston is a great place for business. It’s the fourth, maybe even third largest city in the US after New York and Los Angeles. [Ed. — Houston and Chicago are neck and neck for third and fourth place.] There’s no state income tax in Texas, and business taxes are low. There’s a franchise tax, but it’s also low — less than one percent.

There’s tremendous opportunity here for professionals. People think of places like Baltimore and St. Louis as big communities, because they have older established Jewish communities, but as cities go, they’re much smaller, and they have much less to offer economically.

Gavriel Toso: The industries here are very solid. The Houston medical center is the largest medical center in the world — it’s like an entire city. My wife is a nurse, and we see great opportunity for anyone in health care. Real estate is spreading exponentially, which creates opportunities not only in that field but in real estate–related fields like construction and legal services.

Yechiel Polatsek: Houston is a great place if you’re an entrepreneur, because it’s so business friendly, with plenty of openings where you can start your own business.

Eric Pines: Ten years ago, I was working as an in-house attorney for Social Security’s Labor Union in Baltimore. My wife and I moved here to be closer to her family, and Houston then was a small but growing community. I was still working for the Labor Union, but I slowly began my own law firm out of my garage —Gavriel Toso was actually my first law clerk! Later he worked for me as an attorney.

In time, I moved into a building with a daily Minchah minyan and regular shiurim by the kollel. I took on a partner who was looking to move here from Far Rockaway, and together, we have hired many frum people from cities like Jerusalem, Atlanta, Baltimore, and New York, as well as members of the local community — from the Young Israel, kollel wives, members of the Chabad community.

Today, the firm has grown to 20 employees in an office located within a five-minute drive of the community — and we also have offices in other states, and even a supervisor in Israel. The business climate here really allows for growth — Hashem has really blessed us! And to think it all started in my garage, just me and Gavriel…

Yaakov Polatsek: People from the Northeast are used to moving at a fast pace, and that serves them well here. Houston has a slow, relaxed mentality — people will tell you, “I’ll call you back in a week,” which turns into two or three weeks. If you’re on top of your game, you’ll seize opportunities before all the others, and by the time they’ve gotten around to looking at the property, you’re already closing on it. I picture it like those third lanes that sometimes open up around traffic lights to allow people to pass — you’ll have people lined up in cars in the first two lanes waiting, and the third lane is empty. The New Yorkers come here and pass into that third lane, leaving everybody else behind.