On a Saturday morning in Englewood, the pavements along Broad Avenue fill with families walking to shul, the men in dark suits, the children running ahead. The Jews in Englewood, New Jersey did not arrive all at once. They came in waves across more than a century, until this small Bergen County city, ten minutes from the George Washington Bridge, became one of the anchors of American Modern Orthodoxy.
The Place
Englewood sits in southeastern Bergen County, a city of roughly 30,000 people incorporated in 1899. Its name traces either to the Engle family or to the old “English Neighbourhood” that grew up here after the English took the Hudson’s western shore in 1664.
The land rises from the flats near the railway toward the East Hill, a district of estates and old money that has long counted among the most expensive in the county. Gloria Swanson once kept a villa here, the Gloria Crest estate sometimes called the White House of Englewood. The diplomat Dwight Morrow, whose daughter Anne married Charles Lindbergh, raised his family in the city, and the public high school still bears his name.
That mix of wealth, proximity to Manhattan, and quiet leafy streets is exactly what later drew religious families looking to leave the city behind. A commuter could be at his desk in Manhattan within half an hour and home in time for an early Sabbath candle-lighting in winter. For an observant family, the geography was close to ideal.
How It Became Jewish
Englewood’s Jewish story is older than almost any other in Bergen County. It begins not with the suburban boom of the 1960s but in the 1890s, when the first Jewish settlers in the county put down roots here.
Eight Families, 1895
In 1895, eight pioneering families conceived the idea of an Orthodox synagogue in Englewood. They bought a Torah scroll and held services in one another’s homes, then rented space on Armory Street and later Durie Avenue. By 1911 the congregation had reached fifty families and bought a plot at 33 Humphrey Street, building a small synagogue on a lot barely eighteen by thirty feet.
This was Congregation Ahavath Torah, the first synagogue in Bergen County. As the membership grew, the families acquired an old church building on Englewood Avenue, which served the congregation for decades.
The Move to Broad Avenue
By 1958 the church building could no longer hold the congregation. A forward-looking membership bought the estate of Baroness Cassel Van Dorn at 240 Broad Avenue for fifty-five thousand dollars, and built the sanctuary that still stands there today.
Two years later, in 1960, Rabbi Isaac Swift became spiritual leader and guided the congregation through twenty-four years of growth. His successor in 1984, Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, became one of the most recognised Modern Orthodox voices in the country, later serving as president of the Rabbinical Council of America. Rabbi Chaim Poupko took the senior pulpit in 2017. The congregation today counts around seven hundred member families.
Refugees, Suburbanites, and a School
The post-war decades reshaped the community. Some families came as part of the great Jewish move to the suburbs that followed the Second World War. Others arrived from the German-Jewish enclaves of Manhattan, above all Washington Heights, where refugees from Nazi Germany had rebuilt their institutions in the 1930s and 1940s before a later generation looked across the river for houses and gardens.
The decisive institution was educational. In 1964 Rabbi Swift founded the Moriah School in the basement of Ahavath Torah, with a class of twelve children. His idea was a dual curriculum that joined serious Torah study to rigorous secular academics, a model that synthesised the two worlds rather than choosing between them.
That formula, more than any single synagogue, turned Englewood into a magnet for Modern Orthodox families, who will move great distances for the right school. The school grew from twelve children to many hundreds, and as it grew it pulled families with it. Where there is a strong day school, an Orthodox neighbourhood tends to follow, and the parents who enrolled their children also filled the pews and bought the houses.
An Eruv and a Critical Mass
For an observant community, infrastructure matters as much as institutions. Efforts to establish an eruv, the symbolic boundary that permits carrying on the Sabbath, resumed in 1978 under Rabbi Moshe Chaim Sosevsky of Congregation Shomrei Emunah. The Englewood eruv became operational during Sukkot in 1979.
With an eruv, day schools, multiple synagogues, and kosher food within walking distance, Englewood reached the critical mass that lets an Orthodox community sustain itself. By 2000, a city of about 27,000 counted roughly 5,500 Jews, and the community has kept growing since, often ranked among the fastest-expanding Jewish neighbourhoods in the state.
The Landmarks
Congregation Ahavath Torah, 240 Broad Avenue. The oldest synagogue in Bergen County and the spiritual centre of the community, housed in the former Van Dorn estate. Its seven hundred families make it one of the largest Modern Orthodox congregations in northern New Jersey.
Congregation Shomrei Emunah, 89 Huguenot Avenue. A warm Orthodox congregation long led by Rabbi Menachem Genack, who also heads the kosher division of the Orthodox Union, the world’s largest kosher certification agency. The drive to build the Englewood eruv grew out of this shul.
East Hill Synagogue, 255 Walnut Street. An Orthodox congregation serving the families of the affluent East Hill, where many newer arrivals have settled in the houses that once belonged to Englewood’s old elite.
The Moriah School, 53 South Woodland Street. Founded in 1964 in a synagogue basement, now a dual-curriculum day school of roughly 740 children from toddler through eighth grade. It is the institution that, more than any other, made Englewood a destination for Modern Orthodox families.
Wandering Que, 52 East Palisade Avenue. A glatt kosher smokehouse specialising in barbecue and charcuterie, one of the kosher establishments that line East Palisade Avenue and feed the Sabbath and weekday crowds alike.
Chabad of Englewood, 157 Van Nostrand Avenue. A Chabad-Lubavitch centre serving the broader Jewish population of the city, including families less strictly observant than the Modern Orthodox core, with classes, holiday programmes, and outreach.
Dwight-Englewood School, 315 East Palisade Avenue. Not a Jewish school, but a marker of why families come. Formed in 1973 from the 1889 Dwight School for Girls and the 1928 Englewood School for Boys, it is among the area’s premier independent schools, part of the strong-schools reputation that draws professionals to the city.
Where They Came From
The earliest families were part of the Central and Eastern European Jewish migration that built American Orthodoxy in the late nineteenth century, the same stream that filled the Lower East Side before fanning outward.
A distinct later layer came from German-Jewish New York, especially Washington Heights, the uptown Manhattan neighbourhood that took in thousands fleeing Nazi Germany. As that generation prospered, the bridge to Bergen County made Englewood a natural next step.
The largest modern wave has been internal, families moving out of New York City and from neighbouring Bergen towns in search of houses, yards, and good schools while staying inside an Orthodox community. Some came directly across the George Washington Bridge from the Upper West Side and the Heights; others arrived from the older Brooklyn enclaves, trading a walk-up apartment for a house with a sukkah in the garden. Englewood’s identity is now bound up with its neighbours: it sits at the heart of a corridor that runs through the Jewish community in Teaneck, Orthodox Bergenfield, and Fair Lawn, towns that share schools, shops, and Sabbath tables. Some trace their lineage all the way back to old Brooklyn enclaves such as Borough Park.
Englewood Today
Englewood remains strikingly diverse. Across the whole city, the Jewish community is one community among several, sharing the streets with large Black and Hispanic populations and a growing Asian presence. The Orthodox families cluster on and around the East Hill and along Broad Avenue, where the synagogues and the eruv define the walking radius of Sabbath life.
The community is closely tied to its neighbours. Children from Englewood fill the classrooms of regional schools such as Yeshivat Noam, which draws from Teaneck, Bergenfield, Fair Lawn, and Englewood alike. Many of the largest kosher restaurants and markets sit a short drive away on Cedar Lane in Teaneck, so daily life flows easily across municipal borders. Bergen County now holds the largest Modern Orthodox population of any county in New Jersey, and Englewood is one of its oldest hubs, the place where the county’s very first synagogue opened its doors.
That continuity is the quiet point of pride. The eight families of 1895 could not have imagined the corridor that now stretches from the East Hill through Teaneck and beyond, but the institution they founded is still standing, still full, and still the address a new family is told to visit first.
What gives Englewood its particular character is the layering. The old estates of the East Hill, the century-old congregation on Broad Avenue, the day school born in a basement, and the steady arrival of young families all sit on top of one another in a city barely four square miles across. For more on the wider region, the city’s history and the records of Congregation Ahavath Torah document a community that has been here since before the city itself was incorporated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How large is the Jewish community in Englewood, New Jersey?
By 2000, a city of about 27,000 residents counted roughly 5,500 Jews, around a fifth of the population. The Jews in Englewood, New Jersey have continued to grow since, and the city is often ranked among the fastest-expanding Jewish neighbourhoods in the state.
What is the oldest synagogue in Englewood?
Congregation Ahavath Torah, founded by eight families in 1895, is both the oldest synagogue in Englewood and the first synagogue in all of Bergen County. It has stood at 240 Broad Avenue since 1958 and counts around seven hundred member families.
Is Englewood a Modern Orthodox community?
Yes. The Jewish community in Englewood, New Jersey is predominantly Modern Orthodox, anchored by synagogues such as Ahavath Torah, Shomrei Emunah, and East Hill Synagogue, and by dual-curriculum day schools. The city sits within the county with the largest Modern Orthodox population in New Jersey.
Does Englewood have an eruv?
Yes. The Englewood eruv, a symbolic boundary that permits carrying on the Sabbath, became operational during Sukkot in 1979 after efforts led by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Sosevsky of Congregation Shomrei Emunah.
Where do Jewish families in Englewood send their children to school?
Many attend the Moriah School in Englewood, a dual-curriculum day school founded in 1964 with around 740 students. Others attend regional schools such as Yeshivat Noam, which draws from Englewood, Teaneck, Bergenfield, and Fair Lawn.
How is Englewood related to Teaneck and Bergenfield?
Englewood sits at the heart of a Bergen County Orthodox corridor that includes Teaneck and Bergenfield. The towns share day schools, kosher shops, and family ties, with the largest kosher markets clustered nearby on Cedar Lane in Teaneck.
If your family’s story passed through Englewood, or any of the places Jews have made home in America, Atlas of Home can trace that journey. From the synagogues of Washington Heights and the shtetls of Europe to the East Hill of Englewood, to wherever you are now.