Rabbi Stern, who’s Orthodox bashing? I also believe having a large Jewish family is a mitzvah. If you can afford the extra room, great. And if you can fix up your home and stay in the neighborhood near family, even better, as I wrote.

The problem of McMansions is not a denominational one. There are plenty of suburban Conservative and Reforms Jews who live in McMansions. McMansions are an American Jewish problem. It’s a reflection of how we prioritize our personal spending and what we believe is most important. And it affects how we subsequently fail to adequately share our wealth with the needy, with our movements in Israel and Europe, and with our communal agencies, which are consistently underfunded and thereby hobbled in their efforts to provide sufficient and compelling educational, social-service, and outreach programs.