On a Sunday morning at the Kaplen JCC on East Clinton Avenue, you can hear a sound that is rare even in heavily Jewish Bergen County: hundreds of children shouting, arguing and laughing entirely in Hebrew. This is the everyday texture of the Israelis in Tenafly, a community of expatriates who came to this affluent New Jersey suburb for a year or two and, very often, stayed for twenty. They built Hebrew scout troops, stocked grocery shelves with burekas and Israeli chocolate, and made a small Erie Railroad town into one of the densest pockets of Israeli life in America.
The Place
Tenafly is a borough of roughly 15,400 people in Bergen County, tucked between the Palisades cliffs and the New York state line, about half an hour from Manhattan by car. It was incorporated in 1894, the very first of the twenty-six boroughs that broke away during Bergen County’s “Boroughitis” year, and its name traces back to the Dutch settlers of the late 1600s and a phrase often rendered as “Tiene Vly,” or ten swamps, according to the borough’s recorded history.
Today the swamps are long gone and the town is one of the wealthiest in New Jersey, with a median household income above $200,000 and large lots shaded by old trees. Its 2020 population was 36 percent Asian and just over half white, a sign of how thoroughly newer immigrant communities have reshaped what was once a commuter town for Erie Railroad clerks.
How It Became Israeli
The Israeli presence in Tenafly is the local chapter of a much larger and quieter story: the steady flow of Israelis to America in the decades after 1948, and especially after the trauma of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
A reluctant emigration
Israelis who left for the diaspora were long given a sour label at home: yordim, those who “descend,” as opposed to olim, those who “ascend” to Israel. The word carried a sting, and for years many Israeli families abroad described themselves as temporary, certain they would return.
The numbers, though, kept climbing. US immigration data recorded roughly 21,000 Israeli arrivals in the 1950s and around 31,000 in the 1960s, and the wave that began in the mid-1970s never really stopped. The overwhelming majority settled in the United States, with the largest concentration in and around New York City.
Why Bergen County, why Tenafly
For Israelis drawn to the New York metropolitan area, the Bergen County suburbs offered the two things expatriate families wanted most: good public schools and an established Jewish community. Closter, Fair Lawn, Englewood and Tenafly all sat within easy reach of Manhattan but felt safe, green and family-sized. The same school-and-safety calculus had already drawn other immigrant communities to these towns, from the Korean families of Tenafly to the Japanese expatriates of nearby Fort Lee.
By the 2000 census, the three largest Israeli American communities in Bergen County were Fair Lawn, Closter and Tenafly, three of the four largest in the entire state. In Tenafly, Israelis made up roughly 1.3 percent of residents, a figure that understates the cultural weight of a tightly networked, Hebrew-speaking population clustered around a handful of institutions. They settled alongside the long-established American Jewish community of Tenafly and the older Jewish enclave of neighbouring Englewood, sharing some institutions while keeping a distinct Israeli life.
The institutions arrive
The turning point for organised Israeli life came with the founding of Shevet Mezada, the Israeli Scouts troop based at the Kaplen JCC, in 2002. Part of Tzofim Tzabar, the Israeli Scouts of North America, it gave Hebrew-speaking parents something they could not easily find anywhere else in the area: a youth movement run start to finish in Hebrew.
Around the same time the JCC itself became a de facto Israeli cultural centre, layering Israeli movies, Hebrew Bible classes, an Israeli chorus and Israeli cooking onto its broader programming. The community that gathered there was a mix, as one local description put it, of people who came for a year and stayed twenty, of MBA students, of young families, and of older couples who had quietly built American lives.
For more religiously observant Israeli families, Chabad’s Israeli Center on Harold Street added another anchor, with a Hebrew school and programming aimed squarely at Hebrew-speaking households. The result, by the 2010s, was a town where an Israeli family could move in and find scouts, schooling, groceries and friends without ever fully switching languages.
The Landmarks
Kaplen JCC on the Palisades, 411 East Clinton Avenue. This sprawling Jewish community centre is the gravitational heart of Israeli Tenafly. It hosts the Israeli Scouts, an Israeli chorus, Hebrew classes and Israeli cooking sessions, and on Sunday mornings its halls fill with the sound of Hebrew-speaking children.
Shevet Mezada, the Israeli Scouts, at the Kaplen JCC. Founded in 2002 and now serving more than 400 children aged ten to eighteen, this troop is one of the only frameworks in the area run entirely in Hebrew. Older teens lead the younger ones through games, debates, overnight camps and Israeli holiday ceremonies for Yom HaZikaron, Yom HaShoah and Tu BiShvat.
Chabad’s Israeli Center, 11 Harold Street. Led by Rabbi Yitzchak Gershovitz, this Chabad outpost serves observant Israeli families with a Hebrew school and Hebrew-language programming. It sits a short walk from the JCC, completing a small dense cluster of Israeli institutions near the centre of town.
Emanu-el Delicatessen, Tenafly. A kosher and Israeli grocery beloved by homesick expatriates, Emanu-el stocks challah, burekas and a wide range of Israeli snacks, drinks and baked goods. For many families it is the easiest place in Bergen County to find the brands they grew up on.
Tavlin, Tenafly. An Israeli restaurant serving the food of home: creamy hummus, fresh Israeli salads, grilled meats and Mediterranean plates. It is the kind of place where the menu needs no translation for half the room.
Tenafly railroad station. The former Erie Railroad Northern Branch depot is a reminder of the town the Israelis arrived into: a nineteenth-century commuter borough built around the rails. The trains no longer carry passengers here, but the old station still marks the historic centre.
Cedar Lane corridor, nearby Teaneck. A short drive south, Cedar Lane’s kosher markets such as Cedar Market and Ma’adan serve the wider Bergen County Jewish and Israeli population, extending the everyday geography of Israeli Tenafly beyond the borough’s own borders.
Where They Came From
The Israelis of Tenafly came, in the most literal sense, from Israel: from Tel Aviv and its suburbs, from Jerusalem, Haifa and the towns of the coastal plain. Many were professionals, engineers, finance workers and entrepreneurs, drawn to the New York economy and to the academic and corporate worlds across the river.
Their reasons for leaving were rarely simple. Some cited the relentless insecurity of the region, sharpened for an entire generation by the 1973 war. Others came for graduate school, a job posting or a spouse’s career, telling themselves and their parents that the move was temporary.
What kept them in Tenafly specifically was the combination Bergen County offered: top public schools, a safe suburban life and an existing Israeli community already large enough to sustain Hebrew scouts and Israeli shops. Each family that stayed made it easier for the next to arrive.
That chain migration had a particular shape. Word travelled through workplaces and extended families, so that a colleague’s recommendation or a cousin’s spare room often decided which Bergen County town a new arrival landed in. Over time Tenafly, Closter and Fair Lawn each developed their own slightly different Israeli character, but they shared scouts, synagogues and the same handful of grocers, and families moved freely among them. The pull of an existing community, more than any single employer or school, is what turned a scattering of expatriates into a recognisable Israeli place.
Tenafly Today
Israeli Tenafly today is confident and visible in a way the early yordim of the 1970s might not have imagined. Hebrew is a normal sound in the JCC parking lot, on the soccer sidelines and in the aisles of the local kosher grocer. The Scouts have grown past 400 children, and a second generation, raised between two languages, now leads troop meetings that their parents once nervously enrolled them in.
The community also overlaps, without dissolving into, the much larger and older American Jewish population of Tenafly and neighbouring Englewood. Israelis worship in some of the same synagogues, send children to some of the same schools, and shop at some of the same markets, while keeping a distinct Hebrew-speaking, Israeli-cultural life of their own.
That balance is most visible in the children. The second generation grows up bilingual, switching between English at school and Hebrew at home and at scouts, fluent in American suburban life yet able to slip back into Israeli idiom without a beat. Some will marry into the wider American Jewish community, others into Israeli families they met at the JCC, and the line between “Israeli” and “American Jewish” Tenafly grows softer with each passing year. What stays constant is the gravitational pull of those few blocks near East Clinton Avenue.
It is not a perfect or finished story. Some families still talk of going back, and Israeli politics and security continue to ripple through the community whenever the news from home turns dark. But for a town that began as ten Dutch swamps and a railroad stop, Tenafly has become something its founders could never have foreseen: a small, durable piece of Israel on the western bank of the Hudson.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are there so many Israelis in Tenafly, New Jersey?
Israelis in Tenafly were drawn by the borough’s excellent public schools, its safe and affluent suburban setting, and its proximity to the New York economy across the Hudson. An established Jewish community and growing Israeli institutions, including Hebrew-language scouts and groceries, made each new family’s move easier.
How large is the Israeli community in Tenafly?
At the 2000 census, Israeli Americans made up roughly 1.3 percent of Tenafly’s population, one of the highest shares in New Jersey alongside Fair Lawn and Closter. The cultural footprint is larger than the raw number suggests, anchored by a Hebrew-speaking scout troop of more than 400 children.
What is the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades?
The Kaplen JCC on the Palisades, at 411 East Clinton Avenue, is the main Jewish community centre in Tenafly and the hub of Israeli cultural life there. It hosts the Israeli Scouts, an Israeli chorus, Hebrew classes and Israeli cooking, and serves both Israeli and American Jewish families.
What are the Israeli Scouts in Tenafly?
The Israeli Scouts in Tenafly are Shevet Mezada, founded in 2002 and part of Tzofim Tzabar, the Israeli Scouts of North America. The troop now includes more than 400 children aged ten to eighteen and is run entirely in Hebrew, making it one of the only such frameworks in the area.
Where can you find Israeli food in Tenafly?
Emanu-el Delicatessen in Tenafly sells Israeli and kosher groceries including challah, burekas and Israeli snacks and drinks, while Tavlin offers an Israeli restaurant menu of hummus, salads and grilled meats. Nearby Teaneck’s Cedar Lane adds further kosher markets within a short drive.
How are the Israelis in Tenafly different from the broader Jewish community?
The Israelis in Tenafly overlap with the older American Jewish population of Tenafly and Englewood but keep a distinct Hebrew-speaking, Israeli cultural life centred on the JCC, the Israeli Scouts and Chabad’s Israeli Center. Many arrived as expatriates intending to stay only briefly before putting down roots.
If your family’s story passed through Tenafly, or any of the places Israelis have made home in America, Atlas of Home can trace that journey. From a flat in Tel Aviv or a town on the coastal plain, to a Sunday scout meeting on East Clinton Avenue, to wherever you are now.