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Towns like Edison, Iselin, Kendall Park, West Windsor, and Piscataway are known for their high amounts of Middle Eastern and Desi people living there, aka where Hindus and Muslims live peacefully amongst each other. Towns like Highland Park and Lakewood are known for their highly religious Orthodox Jewish populations, while towns like Freehold, Manalapan, Marlboro, and East Brunswick are known for their significant Secular Jewish populations.
One poster mentioned North Brunswick as a 'sweet spot' of where you'll find an equal amount of both Jews and Muslims, and I happen to agree with that. I would also recommend my hometown of Monroe as a place where you'll find about an equal amount of both Muslims and Jews in that area (heck, there are several mosques and temples in bordering towns near Monroe). Good luck with the searching!
haha, they must have some elite joos over in livingston
LOL. Actually, Livingston has an interesting history with Jews that a lot of people don't know about. Every Jew in Essex County that are my parent's age (70's) or older all lived in Newark. These are NJ natives I am talking about. Now, we have so many Long Island transplants. A shame, but that is a discussion for another thread.
No matter what Essex County town they live in now, they all know each other from Weequahic High school in the Weequahic section of Newark. When "white flight" happened, many of them originally moved to South Orange, Maplewood, West Orange, and Millburn which were considered the suburbs back then. Livingston, just a few miles down South Orange Ave, was considered "the boonies" or farm country. At the same time, the Italian section of Newark to the north, fled to the northern suburbs, like Belleville and Nutley. It was all that Frankie Valley and "Jersey Boys" stuff, which for some reason, the Weequahic Jews appropriated and somehow, identify with. I never really got that, but whatever.
When Rt. 280 was finished being built in the early 70s, all of these people started moving west, my parent's included. A lot of Jews ended up moving to Livingston. I remember all the open land, buying vegetables from farm stands, big estates spanning dozens of acres. Most notably the Kean Estate (i.e. Governor Kean's family) and the Boiardo Estate (i.e. The Genovese Crime Family boss). The main business district along Rt.10 was all open space back then. There was a drive in theater and a few restaurants and a hotel, but that is about it. A small group of Jewish real estate investors from Livingston started buying up everything for dirt cheap, and building the Livingston we know today. As the push to the west continued (because of Rt. 280) these real estate investors were so successful, they went on to become nationally recognized companies, like Garden Homes, Vornado Realty Trust, Kushner Properties, etc. And a handful of others that you may never have heard of, but are still big in the real estate development world. My family made some good, ground floor investments with them, as did a lot of other local families. We grew up around the block from the Kushners.
Now, there are still the old homes near the major thoroughfares, that were there back when the town was farms and giant estates, but all those farms and estates are now filled with McMansions, and Rt. 10 is filled with big chain stores and restaurants, all built up on land bought by those real estate developers. And with Rt. 280 providing a straight 30-40 minute drive to the Lincoln Tunnel, those McMansions filled up with Wall St and finance type people, many of whom are Jewish because of the many synagogues and the school system's reputation.
In the last couple of decades, the demographics have been changing. Many Asians have been moving to Livingston, mostly Chinese and Indians. They are not displacing the Jewish population, at least not very much, but the town is expanding, as are most towns in NJ. Livingston has grown about 10% in the last 20 years. One of the synagogues recently was sold, and is now a Church with Chinese letters on it, and there are Mandarin emersion schools. Every time I think there is no more land in town to build on, some new development is going up.
^Couldn't rep again, but thanks for the interesting history on an area of Jersey about which I knew very little. One of my sisters works for Vornado. I will have to pass along the story.
Until the pandemic, I worked for a small (<100 employees) family-owned engineering firm in Manhattan. The owners are Pakistani, a husband and wife, and their two sons were born in the USA and grew up in Livingston. The son told me that when he was growing up, his parents wanted their sons to be as American as possible, so they signed them up for baseball and went to every game, but the parents didn't know squat about baseball. Cricket is the national game in Pakistan (the mother is an avid fan.) So, on the way home from every game, the parents would grill the boys about why this or that happened in the game, and why the coach had them do such and such. They wanted to learn about baseball, because that was American. I thought it was a cute story.
Later I was talking to the father and mentioned the story about baseball. He laughed and said, "Oh yes, we wanted our boys to fit in. And you know, in Livingston, there are many Jewish families so our boys had Jewish friends. When they got to be about thirteen, we were invited to all the bar mitzvahs. It's a big party, and they invited the whole family! So, we put on the little hat, and we went!"
MD, thanks for that interesting history trivia about Livingston. I worked in Livingston on Mt Pleasant Ave in the early 1990s, and lived about 10 miles west in Boonton. I really enjoyed the area and found the history of how it developed to be interesting. I am originally from the west coast so it was a big contrast from SF Bay Area, but in a good way.
that is interesting. all the joos here seem to have come through brooklyn like my family. my grandpa used to have stories about the jewish vs italian rivalries in brownsville when he was young. he owned a deli during some riot and he told me that the locals helped protect it. i really wish i got his ww2 stories recorded or written down. he was drafted and he wasnt too happy about it. he felt the military was for the christians not the jews.
^Couldn't rep again, but thanks for the interesting history on an area of Jersey about which I knew very little. One of my sisters works for Vornado. I will have to pass along the story.
Until the pandemic, I worked for a small (<100 employees) family-owned engineering firm in Manhattan. The owners are Pakistani, a husband and wife, and their two sons were born in the USA and grew up in Livingston. The son told me that when he was growing up, his parents wanted their sons to be as American as possible, so they signed them up for baseball and went to every game, but the parents didn't know squat about baseball. Cricket is the national game in Pakistan (the mother is an avid fan.) So, on the way home from every game, the parents would grill the boys about why this or that happened in the game, and why the coach had them do such and such. They wanted to learn about baseball, because that was American. I thought it was a cute story.
Later I was talking to the father and mentioned the story about baseball. He laughed and said, "Oh yes, we wanted our boys to fit in. And you know, in Livingston, there are many Jewish families so our boys had Jewish friends. When they got to be about thirteen, we were invited to all the bar mitzvahs. It's a big party, and they invited the whole family! So, we put on the little hat, and we went!"
Unlike the other two I mentioned, Vornado was actually a company before the Livingston guys bought into it. They owned the Two Guys chain of stores, so the Route 10 Two Guys in East Hanover had something to do with the connection and subsequent merger, or buy out, or whatever it was.
And yes, anyone who grew up in Livingston, whether they were Jewish or not, went to a lot of Bar Mitzvahs. LOL
Unlike the other two I mentioned, Vornado was actually a company before the Livingston guys bought into it. They owned the Two Guys chain of stores, so the Route 10 Two Guys in East Hanover had something to do with the connection and subsequent merger, or buy out, or whatever it was.
Vornado was actually the corporate name for the Two Guys chain of stores, and after the stores went belly-up, the corporation survived--albeit much more lucratively--as a real estate owner specializing in commercial properties. Having known a few members of the Hubschman family, who owned Two Guys, I'm astounded that it took as long as it did for the stores to go belly-up.
that is interesting. all the joos here seem to have come through brooklyn like my family. my grandpa used to have stories about the jewish vs italian rivalries in brownsville when he was young. he owned a deli during some riot and he told me that the locals helped protect it. i really wish i got his ww2 stories recorded or written down. he was drafted and he wasnt too happy about it. he felt the military was for the christians not the jews.
I don't think there were many Jewish vs Italian rivalries in Newark. As far as I know, they got along pretty well, other than the organized crime stuff. The boss in Newark was a Jewish guy for a while named Longy Zwillman. That is until he "committed suicide" by hanging himself in his West Orange home. He was bruised up when they found him, but I dont think the police at that time really did much investigating.
Funny about your Grandfather. Mine was always proud of his WWII service. I have a box somewhere with all of his medals and stuff. He used to tell stories about his unit liberating one of the concentration camps.
Vornado was actually the corporate name for the Two Guys chain of stores, and after the stores went belly-up, the corporation survived--albeit much more lucratively--as a real estate owner specializing in commercial properties. Having known a few members of the Hubschman family, who owned Two Guys, I'm astounded that it took as long as it did for the stores to go belly-up.
I guess taking on partners that knew what they were doing, helped.
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