From Uncovering to Covering Up - 1926-2022

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What Candidates for Local Office Should Know: Part I

Letter to the Editor

Unanswered Questions

Upcoming Town Meetings

Events at the Library

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Ninety-six years ago, an American historian, scholar, and journalist, Carter G. Woodson, established Negro History Week, the precursor to the month-long celebration we now observe each February.

Woodson was born in 1875 to formerly enslaved parents. Although he had to delay his education and didn’t enter high school until he was 20 years old, he ultimately graduated from Berea College, earned a Master of Arts degree from the University of Chicago, and was the second African American to receive a PhD from Harvard. He would become known as the “father of Black History” and was the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. It was through this organization that he founded “Negro History Week” to uncover and preserve the history of African Americans.

Woodson chose the second week in February to honor the birthdays of two great Americans, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. In acknowledging both Lincoln, a former President, and Douglass, who was born into slavery, he recognized that the American story is incomplete without the inclusion of the stories African Americans.

He said:

We have come a long way. Appreciation and recognition of the significant contributions made by African Americans has grown tremendously. Uncovering the African American story, which completes the American Story, has been a long and painful, but also an enlightening process.

Here we are in 2022. The question is often asked, why do we still need to celebrate Black History Month since African Americans are now represented in so much of the fabric of American life. It is true that much progress has been made. While it is no longer necessary to justify the position of African Americans in society, the need to tell and preserve our history could not be more urgent.

The concerted attempts to cover up, discredit, disown and to destroy the African American story are mounting. The banning of books in classrooms and libraries, the exclusion of the enslavement of African Americans from history books, the impugning of the thesis of Critical Race Theory, general distortions and omission of historical events, the misinterpretation of Black Lives Matter, are some of the efforts being made to thwart the true American story. Racial discrimination in housing, schools and the workplace continue, and result in inequitable life chances for Black Americans.

Most recently, the overt actions taking place to suppress the vote, which disproportionately impacts African Americans, are persistent and spreading at an alarming rate. For all these reasons Black History month, a month in which the value and worth of Black people is celebrated and embraced, is needed now more than ever.

Much of the racially inspired push-back comes from those who feel they are being held responsible for past injustices, and that the teaching of this history makes White students feel guilty or uncomfortable. But we know that truth-telling is essential, and knowledge of the past serves to prevent the worst of history from being repeated.

Teaneck, a community that prides itself as a diverse community, integrated its schools in 1965 without court mandate or violence, the first in the nation to do so. There are those who question whether Teaneck’s desegregation of its schools was truly successful. Let’s examine that and you determine for yourself.

These and so many more questions define what a positive integrated environment means for all students. While the physical enrollment of students may not reflect the same picture seen in 1965, and white flight from public school and school choice have created less diversity, our school’s policies, goals, and aspirations for an inclusive education must remain the same. Maintaining excellence is not based solely on numbers, but quality and implementation.

Moreover, the question must be asked, Is our town living up to its image of being a USA model town, as once identified in 1949? Is diversity embraced? Are we promoting open housing, business opportunities for all, encouraging participation in shaping and maintaining good government? Is there concern for all citizens regardless of what quadrant one lives in? Is excellence in our schools, care of our young, old, and disabled evident in our town?

The Martin Luther King Birthday Committee encourages Teaneck to always

work toward these ideals. This month the MLK Committee invites you to join in the celebration of Black History Month. Join in watching the lecture series each Thursday during the month of February, sponsored by the Committee and the Teaneck Library. Learn more about your African American neighbors. Help us to continue to uncover history and make a commitment not to cover-up the true American story. Teaneck can once again stand out as a model town that continuously works on fulfilling the dream of liberty and justice for all.

Celebrating Black History Month gives us an opportunity to:

Seek the truth

Acknowledge the past

Document and celebrate our progress

Highlight the people whose stories are unknown and untold

Recognize the challenges of the present

Work together for a more just America

If you are not registered to vote, please make it a priority to do so. To complete a registration form or for more information regarding voting in Bergen County, please click onto the this link.

If you are not sure if you are registered to vote in Teaneck, you may search here.

To check the details of your voter record, you may sign up here.

Ask yourself:

One of the key concerns I have about our community (Teaneck is hardly alone) is the breakdown in communication. How remarkable are our public schools and how little we know about them, or worse from ignorance. Of course, there is much work we need to do for the benefit of our students and our community as a whole, and that is the main reason why I decided last summer to run for a seat on the Board of Education.

Notably, my emphasis during the campaign on communication may well be one important reason I won. A recent study has shown that social media, which observers agree fuel polarization, do so only among a fraction of followers. Most of us on social media are, in fact, centrists who vacate extremist posts. That is why I believe the center still holds, and that is why I am organizing informal and confidential conversations.

Those of us at the center require intel, mutual recognition, and a voice. Like mine, your values are civic and your belief in public schools is considerable. Let me know here that you are interested in joining a conversation. For a brief video recap of the conversations I’ve had to date, click here.

For quite some time I have relied on Elie Katz’s Teaneck Tid Bits to keep aware of what was happening in out township. I was stunned when I first read an issue of Teaneck Voices to realize what was actually happening right under our noses. All of a sudden we have a Cannabis factory approved, several multi-story buildings, a threatened closing of Stop & Shop that no one knows how the issue began because the citizens of Teaneck were never consulted.

Jim Reilly

A new COVID-19 vaccine mega-site opened on Wednesday, January 19th at the former Lord & Taylor store, 34 E. Ridgewood Avenue, off Route 17 in the Fashion Center in Paramus.

Operated by Hackensack Meridian Health, the mega-site will provide children ages 5 and older as well as adults initial vaccine doses and boosters.

Hours of operation are as follows: Tuesdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Appointments can be scheduled at www.hackensackmeridianhealth.org/en/covid19/schedule

and walk-ins are also welcome.

Free at-home COVID-19 tests ordered on www.covidtests.gov and delivered by USPS. Limit of 1 order per household. Each order contains 4 individual tests.

Conflicting Information. Town Manager's website says:

But Assistant Superintendent of Recreation confirms that:

Teaneck Library Services and Schedule have been altered due to COVID: See updated schedule

Tuesday February 8th at 8:00pm

Zoom Link and passcode 761138

The agenda as of 2/6 on the website is Click Here 

Notes: The public will have two opportunities to provide input at this meeting.

The first will be the separate public hearing before which Council will vote on whether to adopt 4 new ordinances. Two of the ordinances address parking issues on Jefferson Street; one will set specific employee salary ranges; but the 4th (Ordinance 4-2022) will likely get most attention. It sets fees and rules for residents keeping chickens. Two of the 6 Council members present when this ordinance was introduced on 1/18 voted against its introduction.

Issues which may draw resident attention/input during Good and Welfare are:

Wednesday, February 9, 2022 at 6:30pm

Public access & opportunity for input limited by Advisory Board ordinance. *See below.

Wednesday, February 9, 2022 at 8:00pm at Teaneck High School.

Note: BoE Workshop Information available as of 2/6/2022:

Thursday, February 10, 2022 at 6:30pm

Note: According to the current Library Board website the following statement is still in effect:

Due to the current State of Emergency issued by the Governor of the State of New Jersey as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Teaneck Public Library will be holding its regularly scheduled meetings virtually via Zoom. The link to participate in the Zoom meeting via computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone, meeting ID number, password, one-tap mobile numbers and dial-in telephone numbers are posted on the on the library’s website at www.teanecklibrary.org at least 48 hours in advance of all regularly scheduled meetings.

Thursday, February 10, 2022 at 8:00pm

This is a regularly scheduled meeting date of the Board. No information whatsoever about how to access the meeting or what will be its agenda is available as of 2/6/2022.

Looking Forward for agenda information for Teaneck’s land use boards.

As usual, there is no information available whatsoever about what will be on the next agendas of the Planning Board or when the Board will next be meeting. The previous scheduled meeting (1/27) was not cancelled until the day before the meeting.

By contrast, the Board of Adjustment had, on the Town website, usefully made the dates for hearings on several major applications currently scheduled to be heard by the Board available in its 2/3/2022 agenda.

However, the hearing to be heard and likely concluded at the 2/3 meeting for a proposed 20-unit multi-family rental facility at 54 West Englewood Avenue in a R/S (residential single) zone was suddenly cancelled at the developer’s attorney’s office request, and rescheduled – with no further notice to the public - by the developer for April 7. No reason for the delay was provided. See Video below

The next hearing on the application for a 30-unit multi-family rental in the B2 zone at 205 Cedar Lane currently remains scheduled for a special meeting on Thursday 2/17. Watch this space

Action: Are you interested in serving and having your only opportunity to participate at advisory board meetings? Do you want to be one of the small handful of people who shape development in Teaneck? Complete an Advisory Board and Statutory Board Application

Events at the Library: Click here

Click onto the link below to attend on February 28 at 7:30 p.m.

Passcode: 634229

Or One tap mobile :

  US: +13017158592,,81751843563#,,,,*634229# or +13126266799,,81751843563#,,,,*634229#

Or Telephone:

  Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):

    US: +1 301 715 8592 or +1 312 626 6799 or +1 646 558 8656 or +1 253 215 8782 or +1 346 248 7799 or +1 669 900 9128

Webinar ID: 817 5184 3563

Link for this Thursday: https://vimeo.com/674150993

We're pleased to announce our first ever Teaneck eCitizen Program for adults! This program aims to teach participants how to:

These critical skills are valuable tools in our increasingly digital world and can enhance any job seeker’s resume in a work environment that uses computers and/or the internet or add to your own personal skill-set.

All participants will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the 6-week cohort that can be used to demonstrate their understanding of these key skills to current or potential employers.

Our first cohort will be held virtually and run from January 19 to February 23. Participants will be able to attend weekly classes on Wednesdays from 6:00 – 9:00 PM via Zoom.

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January 19 to February 23 is now FULL. This Program will be offered again in March and April. Click here for more detailed information about this Program.