ooh, shiny!

[cellio]

I just learned about this one-week learning program (in July) at Yeshivat Hadar, an egalitarian yeshiva in Manhattan. The classes sound really engaging and meaty (click through for descriptions). Here's what they say is a typical day:

Morning:
7:30 am - Davening with Yeshiva community (optional for Seminar participants)
8:00 am - Breakfast
9:00 am - 12:30 am [sic] -- Text Classes offered for participants with varied levels of Jewish text experience, with special Talmud class for beginners, and an opportunity to integrate with Yeshivat Hadar's Talmud class for participants with Jewish text backgrounds.

Afternoon (all classes are with the Yeshivat Hadar fellows):
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm -- Lunch with the Yeshivat Hadar community
1:30 pm - 3:00 pm -- Halakhah Seminar with Rabbi Ethan Tucker
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm -- Break and Minhah (optional for Seminar participants)
4:00 pm - 6:30 pm -- Jewish Thought Seminar with Rabbi Shai Held (and Yeshivat Hadar students)

Evenings:
Dinner
Special Speakers
Nights out in NYC

I only know Hadar by reputation (of, mainly, the associated independent minyan, and what I read in Empowered Judaism by R. Tucker). Do any of my readers know more? They say they welcome students of diverse backgrounds; I assume the guiding principles (for learning and davening) are traditional.

Do I know anybody else who might attend? And is it actually practical to (1) lodge and (2) park a car in the upper west side? (Please take as given that I basically know nothing about NYC neighborhoods and precious little about getting around beyond "I hear good things about the subway system".)

Comments

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

The stuff on their website seems to speak for itself. I saw one of their seminars online and it was great. Shai Held is supposed to be incredible, too. I've always managed to park cars in New York, if you have the patience to wait around for a spot.

[cellio]

One bit of cold hard reality just settled in. I'd been thinking that maybe driving there would be less annoying than flying (given current policies about flying), but my subconscious just spoke up and said: "Yo! Driving in NYC? Are you bloody crazy, you who are afraid of DC and Boston?!" So, um, maybe not, unless I find somebody local who also wants to go and who is willing to do the city driving.

[loosecanon.livejournal.com]

you might park outside the borough and take public transit in?

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

I actually find driving in NY to be less complicated than those cities or Philadelphia. You just have to watch out for the taxis. But the traffic going across the bridges and tunnels is brutal. I really like the train, but it's far from Pittsburgh. Flying is a better plan.

[mbarr.livejournal.com]

It's really not too bad, especially if you know anyone in NJ, and can take the train in... if you leave the car out there, you don't have to deal w/ parking it.

However, it's not that bad to drive up to the west side, and then find a spot to park... if you have some flexibility.

But it's an amazing program, and i have multiple friends that can talk to the quality.. (some of whom are from the other end of the spectrum - ortho)

And it's in my neighborhood :)

[zevabe.livejournal.com]

I heard both Ethan Tucker and Shai Held at the last LimmudNY. Both are amazing and I'd be happy to listen to either of them a great deal more. I am not however going to a Hadar event.

By July I may or may not still be living here, and should ask my wife before offering crash space, but... I for one would be happy to have you.

[zevabe.livejournal.com]

I should note: train ride in will be approx 1 hr, followed by perhaps 30 minutes on the subway to the Upper West Side.

more information than you may have wanted

[gingicat]

When we go to NYC, we stay with my parents in Riverdale (where I grew up) and take a bus to the #1 train south (downtown, street numbers get smaller). These days, anywhere along the #1 train is reasonably safe in daylight, but you'll find everything you need between 122nd St and Broadway (Jewish Theological Seminary) and 96th St and Broadway. The barrio is pretty safe and full of great front-stoop music (or so says my high-school memory), so going east can be fun but you are unlikely to have time.
(and now I am typing around a three-year old who is taking advantage of the fact that I am staying home with the sick 5-year-old)
From Riverdale, it's a 15-minute bus ride (not counting wait time) and then about 40 minutes to 72nd St,
From Jersey City, there are a number of PATH train options that will bring you to the #1 train; one will take you to the World Trade Center, where you take the A train north (uptown) to the 1 train north (uptown).

Train system maps:
http://www.mta.info/maps/
I don't know that much about the NJ end - I know that buses go into Port Authority at 33rd and 9th Avenue and you can easily catch a bus to your destination there. NJ Transit goes into Penn Station (34th St) where you can easily catch the #1 train.

I know you have limited vision, so I should let you know that most subway signage is in a font where the capital letters are about 6 inches high, and 6-10 feet from the floor. (There are exceptions - the station names on the platforms are considerably bigger.) There are lots of signs, and following them has not gotten me lost.

There are four or five kosher restaurants in the general area and most restaurants have excellent vegetarian options.

Columbia University is at 116th and Broadway. St John the Divine (which is well worth a visit on beauty alone) is at 110th and Central Park West, Riverside Church is at 110th? and Riverside Avenue. Grant's Tomb is also in that general area. I've already mentioned the Jewish Theological Seminary. The Museum of Natural History is at ~79th and Central Park West, a pretty easy walk from 72nd and Broadway. Other museums are on the other side of Central Park. There's the Central Park Zoo and a number of other nifty things in Central Park.

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

*wave*

here via a mutual friend

Yeshivat Hadar is super awesomecakes.

Driving in is possibly not too bad if you come in superearly for minyan and miss the worst of the traffic, but finding parking is a bitch and a half, unless you reserve space with a garage which is kind of pricey but maybe worth it for the time and rage you save.

I expect you might find a summer sublet on the UWS or in its Jewy-neighbourhood cousin Washington Heights, a little further north. Or crash space.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

If your other crash space falls through, you can come stay with us. We're in Jersey City, but the commute to the upper west side isn't terrible, probably about 1 hour round trip, and it avoids having to drive in Manhattan.

As a bonus, if you come out a bit earlier, you can come to Contata (http://www.contata.org). ;)

[goljerp]

Some thoughts:

If you do drive to NYC, you could easilyleave it parked (or garaged - not sure about rates, but there is a garage across from JTS) and travel everywhere by bus or subway.

Places to stay: assuming you're not crashing with someone (I'd offer our couch, but we will probably be hosting someone that week already), you can investigate JTS guest rooms (just a few, but reasonable), or Union Theological Seminary Guest rooms (across the street from JTS). Of course, it looks like the Hadar stuff will be at 69th street, but that's not bad via subway (or about 35 min by bus). Regular Hotels in UWS are either a lot more expensive, or are not so great - I haven't checked it out recently, but my joke about Hotel Newton was, "Well, the gravity works!"

If you do come, we should figure out a way to get together. My minyan meets on the Saturday after that weekend (as does Hadar, of course). Or we could try to have dinner or something, but I'm sure the program will keep you busy.

[cellio]

True. And I realize I was ambiguous: I would not be talking about driving in every day (that's what the subway is for), but rather, if I drove there, parking my car upon arrival and retrieving it upon departure. Somewhere where it would still be there upon departure, I mean. :-)

[cellio]

Yeah, someday I would like to take a train somewhere, just for the experience, but the trains never seem to go where I need them to. :-)

[cellio]

Yeah, I didn't mean parking on a daily basis but parking somewhere where I could leave it and go in via subway. But I think the plan of driving at all will only happen if I have a driving buddy, and at that point the buddy gets to weigh in on how we commute.

And it's in my neighborhood :)

Take it as given that I would attempt dinner or something with all the folks I know in NYC. :-)

[cellio]

Thanks for the tentative offer. Do I correctly understand that the daily commute would be 1:30 each way? (How do you folks do that? :-) ) If so, it sounds like I should stay somewhere closer in if I can and come out for a group dinner or something. (If I go I'd like to take the chance to meet up with friends there too, after all.)

Re: more information than you may have wanted

[cellio]

Thanks for all the information! (Which I will compare to a map to better understand. :-) ) And thanks especially for the "vision alert" on signage. Street signs and bus signs can be challenging; one advantage of subways is that they tend to be easier to navigate in that regard. (Generalizing from Boston and Toronto.)

And ooh, I completely forgot that there was a zoo in Central Park!

[cellio]

Hello and welcome! Thanks for commenting. (And making me smile -- "awesomecakes" is new vocabulary for me. :-) )

This Hadar program is for a week (not their longer programs that I don't have enough vacation time to do), so I wasn't thinking about sublet possibilities. Are there places that do by-the-week rentals for less than what a hotel would cost?

On driving, I was thinking in terms of parking the car somewhere upon arrival and ignoring it until it's time to leave, rather than driving in every day (which sounds super-stressful). I assume that places where my car would be intact at the end exist for a suitable fee. (Now does a non-local find them, if not staying at a hotel?)

[cellio]

Ooh, thanks! That sounds like a great possibility! (Is there a place near you where I could safely leave a car if I drive?)

When I saw your comment I thought that maybe Contata was the weekend right before the program, which would be awesome, but it looks like they're a week apart. Bummer!

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

That would be awesome, but sadly, yes, they're a week apart.

We're going to be moving into a new place come May, and I don't know what parking will be like on that street, but street parking is relatively plentiful here, save that you have to move the car to the alternate side each night. We may be able to work something out though, given that we'll have a parking sticker and a garage.

[cellio]

Thanks for the info! (And the hotel warning. Hotel Newton sounds...special.) And yes, if I come I definitely want to try to get together with my friends there -- maybe even put some faces to names. :-)

[cellio]

Or I could move the car to the other side of the street each night. :-)

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

Oh oh right, the week-long thing.

I expect there *are* week-long rentals, but I also expect that the Hadar minor deities lesser faculty are used to hooking week-long people up with crash space, spare rooms, etc. I bet if you asked them how people usually manage, they'd be able to give you some Jolly Good Ideas; and they're a nice bunch.

Fraid I don't know so much about where to leave one's car. The airports come to mind, as do the More Genteel Places To Live like Riverdale or parts of Queens.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

o/~ So I do my parking on the alternate side o/~

Re: more information than you may have wanted

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

If the vision thing means you'd rather have sourcesheets in big print, tell them beforehand, and remind them, and be pushy about it. It'll be good for their souls.

[cellio]

Oh, there's a limit on number of cars? Ok, that does make what you said about the sticker make more sense. Oops. :-) (This is not the minhag of my neighborhood, either the sticker or the side-switching. Well, we switch sides on alternate weeks for street cleaning, but not daily.

[zevabe.livejournal.com]

I drive in most days to Washington Heights, another Manhattan neighborhood. This would not shorten your commute significantly, as it would be car followed by subway instead of train followed by subway.

If you do come, we (ok, I. My wife doesn't know you) would be happy to meet you in the city or have you out here for dinner.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

We'll have a one car garage, so having one car on the street with the sticker (the sticker is essential for parking for more than two hours in the neighborhood) is the part that makes it tricky. However, akawil takes the car to work each day, so we could do car swapping tricks, or failing that we can put your car in the flat rate $8 all day lot in the parking lot of what used to the be the Maneschewitz factory.