SOUTH BEND, Ind. — At this time last year, Zev and Tehiya Meyers were raising their two daughters, ages 8 and 13, in a two-bedroom apartment in west Los Angeles’ densely populated Pico-Robertson neighborhood.

Zev, 52, forced to retire early from mortgage banking because of a disability, and Tehiya, a teacher, were spending at least $20,000 annually in school tuition while battling traffic congestion and other “big city” ills that Zev, a lifelong Angelino, said he had always known but doesn’t like.

Their world improved dramatically last fall, Zev said, when they moved to South Bend’s Twyckenham Hills area — Tehiya and the girls flew while Zev drove their belongings in a U-Haul. Here, they’re renting a three-bedroom house with a yard for less than half of their L.A. apartment rent. They soon plan to buy a home, possibly spending around $150,000 instead of the nearly $1 million that many typical Pico-Robertson homes cost. And the girls attend South Bend Hebrew Day School for free, thanks to Indiana’s school choice voucher program.

“Even on a rush hour with one lane closed down there’s still no traffic compared to L.A.,” Zev said. “People in the Midwest are nicer. They’re a lot more calm, they’re open. I can have a conversation with anyone at any time, it doesn’t matter what color, what religion, what their politics are. Although there’s a change of pace, it’s a welcome change of pace. I love it.”

The Meyers family aren’t the only Orthodox Jews moving to South Bend from larger metro areas for these reasons. The Michiana Jewish Business Association’s Community Development Initiative has been recruiting them and helping them settle into the community for a decade, adding about 70 families to South Bend during that time. But the growth has accelerated since new CDI executive director Simon Springer took the job in August 2017.

Since the end of last year, Springer said, 20 to 30 people from around the nation, Canada and Israel have been contacting him monthly to ask about South Bend, up from five to seven inquiries per month when he started. There are now about 120 Orthodox families here, and Springer hopes 10 more families he’s been working with will come by December. Another four families have committed for next year.

During a recent interview in his office, housed at the Jewish Federation of St. Joseph Valley’s campus on South Bend’s far eastern edge, Springer showed a reporter a chart that he’d drawn in red marker on a white dry-erase board, with column headings “visited,” ”jobs” and “wants to move.”

“They’re visiting,” he said, pointing to a name on the chart. “His wife is pregnant so they had to wait a little bit but they’re visiting in two weeks. He’s coming next week. And I just spoke with them last night and I’m having a secondary conversation later today with them.”

Of the 10 people on the chart, four live in New Jersey suburbs of New York city, one is in the city itself, two live in Chicago, and others live in Cincinnati, Cleveland and Las Vegas. Most learned of South Bend through job listings Springer has posted online within the Jewish community. Springer, while noting an abundance of job opportunities locally, said he dissuades some from coming if he thinks they’ll have a hard time finding work here.

Springer, who works with human resources officials at area employers, said he’s especially seeking doctors and accountants, but generally professionals, people who won’t need help from “communal funds” in the local Orthodox community or public assistance of any kind.

“This guy is a cybersecurity guy,” he said, pointing to his chart. “This guy’s an accountant. This guy is a highly educated educator in New Jersey. This guy was higher up in the Israeli Defense Force and he wants to move here, and take his training in security stuff and start something here. He’s a young guy. He’s 25 now so he just got out (of the Israeli military) a little bit ago. Everybody I’ve brought his resume to, they’ve been super impressed.”

Springer said it’s become more socially acceptable in recent years for Orthodox in New York, Chicago and L.A. to leave their tightly knit but crowded communities to escape spiraling living costs and congestion. South Bend is one of 57 communities that the Orthodox Union, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, promotes on its website as places to consider for those who are looking to move. But with the exception of South Bend, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, (population 49,000) and three beach towns in Florida, all of the communities on the site are suburbs or are large cities themselves.

Meyers said when the couple decided to move here, some family members asked where South Bend is. But last week his mother-in-law visited and was impressed by the downtown, especially the historic Morris Performing Arts Center.

“When I found it, all I knew about South Bend was AM General was where they make Humvees,” Meyers said. “You can say it’s small but you have, in South Bend, its own symphony, cool theaters, there are great parks here, everything you would have in Los Angeles you would have here.”

The Orthodox mostly live in the Twyckenham Hills area on South Bend’s south side, but not because they’re afraid to fully integrate across Michiana. The neighborhood happens to be within walking distance of two Orthodox synagogues or “shuls,” Hebrew Orthodox Congregation, established in 1887, and the smaller Midwest Torah Center, founded in 2007. Their synagogues must be within walking distance because the Orthodox don’t use machines, including cars, on the Sabbath, which runs from Friday evening to Saturday evening. Springer said the tight housing market has made it “a little tough” to find homes in that area for newcomers.

Another local challenge is the lack of Orthodox amenities, especially kosher food.