HOW THE ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR TURNED THIS QUIET JEWISH SUBURB INTO A BATTLE ZONE

How the Israel-Hamas War Turned This Quiet Jewish Suburb Into a Battle Zone

The heavily Jewish New York suburb of Teaneck has become a flash point for Jewish-Muslim tensions over the war in Gaza. 'There's a sense that this is beyond the usual anti-Israel activities,' says one concerned local rabbi, as another calls the protests in the town 'outright intimidation'

April 18th, 23PM April 18th, 23PM

TEANECK, N.J. – Joseph Kaplan attended his first iftar feast a year ago almost to the day. The retired lawyer had been invited to participate in this traditional fast-breaking meal on Ramadan by a group of Muslim community leaders.

"It was held in a big gymnasium, with tables set for hundreds of people and all this delicious food," he recounts. "They even arranged for kosher food for me and the other Jewish guests from a Chinese takeout place in town. But we all sat together at one table – the Muslims with their halal food and the Jews with our kosher Chinese takeout."

It would be hard to imagine a similar scene during this latest Ramadan, which ended a week ago.

"Looking back, it must have all been on a slim reed, because everything fell apart after October 7," laments Kaplan, 77, who describes himself as FBB ("frum from birth") and has been living in Teaneck for more than 40 years.

Over the past six months, this "wonderful town," as Kaplan describes the heavily Jewish New Jersey suburb, has become a key East Coast flash point for Jewish-Muslim tensions over the Israel-Hamas war.

In the past month alone, Teaneck has been the scene of two major anti-Israel protests that specifically targeted synagogues. Hundreds of police had to be deployed to these stormy events to prevent violent altercations with Jewish residents who had responded with counterdemonstrations.

In late November, hundreds of students at the local public high school staged a walkout, marching through the streets chanting slogans that could be interpreted as calls for Israel's eradication, including "From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free."

The twice-monthly town council meetings have turned into ugly shouting matches between residents wearing kaffiyehs packing one side of the room and men in yarmulkes on the other. The Jews get accused of complicity in genocide at these highly charged gatherings, while the Muslims and their allies are denounced as Hamas supporters.

If that weren't enough, the usual peace-and-quiet of Sunday afternoons in this bedroom community has been disrupted nearly every week by out-of-town convoys of honking cars brandishing big Palestinian flags making their way down Cedar Lane – a shopping area full of kosher restaurants and Jewish-owned businesses.

Pro-Palestinian activists argue that they are not targeting synagogues because they are Jewish houses of prayer, which would be blatantly antisemitic, but because the synagogues host events celebrating Israel.

With just over 40,000 residents, Teaneck is home to one of the largest Modern Orthodox suburban communities in the United States, if not the largest. Depending on what qualifies as a house of worship, there are somewhere between 15 and 20 synagogues in town, including one large Conservative congregation and one large Reform congregation. Jews, the overwhelming majority of them observant, account for about 40 percent of the total population, which might explain why there is little traffic on the streets here on Shabbat.

Teaneck is also home to a sizable Black population, and until not very long ago was considered a model of coexistence. It was the first white-majority town in the United States to vote for school integration. While Muslims account for a much smaller share of the population, there are two very active mosques in town, and a Muslim has served as mayor twice in the past 15 years.

In close proximity to the George Washington Bridge, which provides easy access to Manhattan, Teaneck is by no means the only heavily Jewish town in the greater New York metropolitan area. So, why here, of all places, have tensions over the Israel-Hamas war boiled over to such an extent?

Many blame its location. Teaneck is located about 10 miles (16 kilometers) away from the neighborhood of South Paterson – widely known as "Little Palestine" for its large Palestinian diaspora community. The anti-Israel protests and convoys of recent months, Teaneck's Jewish community leaders charge, are organized by out-of-towners, many of them from Paterson.

Teaneck provides an ideal target not only because of its proximity, but also because of the unabashedly Zionist local Jewish population (to distinguish it, for example, from other very Jewish towns like Lakewood or Monsey, which are ultra-Orthodox and less visibly connected to Israel). Indeed, during several recent visits, Israeli flags could be seen flying outside many homes and attached to the windows of many storefronts.

Pro-Palestinian activists argue, therefore, that they are not targeting synagogues because they are Jewish houses of prayer per se, which would be blatantly antisemitic, but because these synagogues have chosen to host events celebrating a country they hold responsible for the heavy death toll in Gaza.

"I venture to say that, per capita, you have more Jews in this town who have made aliyah, are considering aliyah or have children and grandchildren living in Israel than any other place in America," says Abe Foxman, the former director of the Anti-Defamation League who has called Teaneck home for the past 50 years.

The tendency of Teaneck's Black residents to embrace the Palestinian cause out of a shared sense of victimhood has added further fuel to the flames. Indeed, many of the students who participated in the recent high school walkout were Black, as are many of those who regularly show up in kaffiyehs to town council meetings.

One example would be Jasmine Rae, who at a recent council meeting denounced three members of the council, all Jewish, and devoted much of her allotted three minutes to an anti-Zionist rant.

If the council were truly interested in stopping the endless protests in Teaneck, Rae suggested, it should stop inviting to town Israeli organizations that "promote and commit domestic and international crimes" and "deconstruct the callous racism so many of our palest neighbors relentlessly share."

'Magnet for anti-Israel protesters'

Reflecting on recent events in his hometown. Foxman, who made a profession out of tracking antisemitism, is reminded of another famous incident in American history involving a very Jewish town: the neo-Nazi march in Skokie, Illinois – a town with a relatively large population of Holocaust survivors – nearly half a century ago.

"In the business I've been in, nothing is surprising, certainly not people taking out their antagonism against Israel on Jews," he says. "But what makes Skokie and Teaneck different from other places is that, in both cases, the demonstrators chose to go to where the Jews live rather than stay where they were."

The first big pro-Palestinian rally in Teaneck was held about a month ago outside Keter Torah, an Orthodox congregation that was hosting an Israeli real estate fair. Deemed particularly offensive to the demonstrators was the fact that the event was promoting housing projects in West Bank settlements.

Two weeks later, pro-Palestinian activists held another protest outside Bnai Yeshurun, the largest Orthodox congregation in town. The catalyst this time was an event platforming Zaka, the Israeli organization whose volunteers collect body parts after terror attacks to ensure a proper Jewish burial. Zaka volunteers were among the first responders to the October 7 massacre.

In the business I've been in, nothing is surprising. But what makes Skokie and Teaneck different than other places is that, in both cases, the demonstrators chose to go to where the Jews live rather than stay where they were.

Upon learning of the planned Zaka protest outside this mega shul, the Jewish community mobilized and staged its own counterdemonstration with thousands in attendance, including many out-of-towners.

"We saw that our town was becoming a magnet for anti-Israel protesters and it didn't matter to them that in this case, the event they were protesting was for a truly noble cause," says Rachel Cyrulnik, vice president of the newly formed Bergen County Jewish Action Committee, which organized the counterdemonstration. "So, we decided we needed to shift our approach and become more pro-active."

More than anything else, it is the choice of venues for these protests that has the Jewish community on edge.

"There's a sense that this is something beyond the usual anti-Israel activities," says Rabbi Chaim Strauchler, the spiritual leader of the Orthodox Congregation Rinat Yisrael. "And I think there's a real risk that things could turn violent."

Rabbi Joel Pitkowsky of Beth Sholom, the Conservative congregation in Teaneck, joined the counterdemonstration outside the Zaka event two weeks ago, as did many of his congregants.

Instead of people getting up and talking about potholes and traffic regulations, zoning issues and fixing the playgrounds, 90 percent of our council meetings are now devoted to Israel-Gaza.

"The intimidation that many Jews in this town are feeling is not limited to the Orthodox community," he says.

"I have no problem with people protesting outside the Israeli consulate in New York or the embassy in Washington if they're concerned about Israeli military and foreign policy. But I really don't understand the rationale for protesting American Jews who have no role in these decisions other than outright intimidation."

Deepened divisions

As far as the opposing camp is concerned, the opening shots in this community battle were fired long before the synagogue protests. As early as 10 days after October 7, to be precise.

On October 17, the town council, which has a majority of Jewish members, most of them Orthodox, passed a referendum denouncing Hamas and expressing support for Israel. Much to the outrage of many Muslim residents and their allies, the council refused to include a sentence expressing grief for loss of innocent lives on both sides. By the time a revised and somewhat more balanced referendum was passed at the next council meeting, the battle lines had already been drawn.

Yassine Elkaryani, chair of the council's advisory board on community relations, quit on October 17. Half a dozen other members followed suit. He blames the council for "getting involved in a topic that's out of their reach, and doing it in a way that's incompetent and tribal."

"They were basically telling the Muslim community that it didn't count as much, and that they were elected not to govern this town but to prioritize their own identity and their own people," says the 38-year-old information technology consultant who moved to Teaneck 17 years ago from Morocco.

In retrospect, Kaplan, who also serves on the advisory board, regrets supporting that initial referendum.

"With 20/20 hindsight, I can say that maybe it wasn't the best idea because it deepened divisions in this town and allowed the council meetings to be taken over by something happening thousands of miles away. Instead of people getting up and talking about potholes and traffic regulations, zoning issues and fixing the playgrounds, 90 percent of our meetings are now devoted to Israel-Gaza."

Elie Katz, a two-time Teaneck mayor and current deputy mayor, has been involved in local politics for more than a quarter of a century. Never before, he says sadly, has he witnessed such strife in his hometown.

"My goal is to make sure Teaneck gets through this," says Katz, who describes himself as observant and says he is proud to have many close friends in the local Muslim community. "We're neighbors, and we're going to be neighbors after the war as well."

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