New Jersey
Where crossing the border is part of everyday life.
Trenton · Newark · Jersey City · Lakewood · The Shore · Atlantic City
The Journey
New Jersey is different from almost every other state in this project because we never packed our bags and said, “Off to New Jersey.”
Almost like New York, it is part of our everyday life. We cross the border constantly, sometimes several times a week, for one reason or another. Our home sits about fifteen minutes from the state line. The gym, doctors appointments, work, family, shopping, and so many other parts of daily life make New Jersey part of our routine. The highways, towns, restaurants, neighborhoods, and exits have become so familiar that sometimes we barely notice we have entered another state other than the little google maps prompt which jumps up on the screen "Welcome to New Jersey" we have no reminder.
But visiting all fifty forced us to look at New Jersey differently too. It forced us to see it through the same lens we brought everywhere else, asking where the state fits among its peers and what place it holds in the American story. What we found surprised us.
In Trenton, we visited the State House, continuing our journey through every capital in America. Walking around the historic capital made us stop and appreciate a state we usually move through without thinking twice.
Over the years, we have walked the Atlantic City Boardwalk, enjoyed the beaches along the shore, spent days at Six Flags Great Adventure and its safari, and visited Princeton, where Albert Einstein once lived and worked.
More than anything, the girls have become frequent visitors to Liberty Science Center, where we are members. Its constantly changing exhibits and activities have given us countless days of learning and fun.
New Jersey might be small, but there is so much to see, learn, and enjoy that it is almost impossible to get bored.
It reminded us that sometimes you need to intentionally discover what is sitting right in your own backyard.
Jewish New Jersey
Jewish New Jersey is not something we went searching for.
It is part of our life.
We have prayed in its shuls, eaten in its kosher restaurants, shopped in its stores, driven through its Jewish neighborhoods, attended events, visited friends and communities, joined our aunts and uncles for Shabbos, celebrated Thanksgiving with family, and experienced everything in between.
And there is a lot of it.
From Lakewood to Teaneck, Passaic, Bergen County, Deal, Elizabeth, Jersey City, and communities throughout the state, New Jersey has become one of the great centers of Jewish life in America. Yeshivos, kollelim, Hasidic communities, Sephardic communities, Chabad centers, old congregations, and new ones all exist within a relatively small state.
For us, the connection is even more personal. In South Brunswick, we have visited the graves of my great grandparents, adding our own family history to the larger Jewish story of the state.
The roots go back much further. Barnert Temple traces its beginnings to Paterson in 1847, making it New Jersey’s oldest Jewish congregation. In Hoboken, the former Adas Emuno synagogue building, completed in 1883, still stands as the oldest surviving synagogue building in the state.
But Jewish New Jersey, for us, was never really history to go visit.
It was everyday life.
What Stayed With Me
New Jersey is difficult to write about in terms of what “stayed with me,” because we never really leave it behind.
It is too familiar. Too close. Too much a part of ordinary life.
And maybe that is the lesson.
We traveled thousands of miles to appreciate glaciers in Alaska, deserts in Arizona, mountains in Montana, and beaches in Hawaii. New Jersey reminded me that sometimes what sits in your own backyard gets forgotten simply because it is always there.
The key is remembering to stop and enjoy the routine too.
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