A decades-long population surge centered in Lakewood is driving significant demographic, housing, and political changes across neighboring New Jersey towns.
Lakewood, NJ – What began as a small yeshiva community in the 1940s has evolved into one of the fastest-growing Orthodox Jewish population centers in the country, with Lakewood Township now exceeding 100,000 residents and continuing to expand into surrounding parts of Ocean County.
The transformation traces back to 1943, when Rabbi Aharon Kotler founded Beth Medrash Govoha (BMG), now the largest yeshiva outside of Israel. Over decades, the institution drew students and families from across the U.S. and abroad, steadily building a tightly connected Haredi Orthodox community.
By the 2010s, rapid population growth—fueled in part by high birth rates and a young demographic—began pushing beyond Lakewood’s borders. Rising housing costs and limited space within the township accelerated migration into neighboring municipalities.
Key Points
- Lakewood’s Orthodox Jewish population growth is expanding into nearby towns
- Toms River and Jackson have seen the largest increases in recent years
- Housing demand, birth rates, and religious infrastructure are driving expansion
Expansion reshapes surrounding towns
Toms River and Jackson have emerged as key destinations for families seeking more available housing while maintaining proximity to Lakewood’s religious and educational infrastructure.
Toms River is now home to more than 2,000 Orthodox families, along with the development of synagogues and the potential for new religious schools. Jackson has also experienced significant growth, with hundreds of Orthodox families relocating there over the past decade with an estimate of between 3,000 and 4,000 families with that number increasing daily.
Brick and Howell have seen similar, though less concentrated, expansion patterns as development spreads outward.
The movement is driven not only by affordability but also by the need for community institutions, including schools, synagogues, and access to Lakewood’s yeshiva system.
Housing pressure and development trends
As demand has increased, housing markets in these towns have shifted. The need for larger homes to accommodate bigger families has contributed to new development and rising property values in parts of Ocean County.
Past reporting and public discussions within the Orthodox community also highlighted efforts encouraging families to move beyond Lakewood. At a national convention of Agudath Israel of America, Rabbi Shmuel Lefkowitz urged younger families to relocate to surrounding towns, referring to them as “schtickle pioneers.”
“You have to be a schtickle pioneer…buy a co-op, a condo, a house, but buy anything,” Lefkowitz said, encouraging early movers to invest in areas surrounding what he described as the “heart of the neighborhood” in Lakewood.
He also pointed to long-term growth potential in those communities, noting that earlier buyers in the region saw significant increases in property values.
Political and social impacts continue to evolve
The expansion has also brought changes to local governance and community dynamics. Growth in population has increased demand for municipal services, schools, and zoning adjustments, sometimes leading to public debate over development and land use.
Some local governments have responded with new ordinances related to housing, rentals, and solicitation, reflecting the pace of real estate activity in certain neighborhoods.
Within the Orthodox community, leaders have emphasized civic participation and voting influence as population numbers grow. Discussions at past community forums have highlighted the importance of political engagement and representation at the local level.
At the same time, officials and residents across Ocean County continue to navigate the balance between rapid population growth and maintaining infrastructure, housing availability, and community cohesion.
As Lakewood continues to grow, its influence is increasingly shaping the demographic and economic landscape of the region, with neighboring towns playing a larger role in accommodating that expansion.
lakewood nj growth, ocean county development, orthodox jewish expansion nj, toms river housing trends, jackson nj population growth
Rabbi: Brooklyn Orthodox Jewish Encouraged to be “Shtickle Pioneers” to Settle Ocean County
Below is an article published by Shore News Network ten years ago regarding the subject, long before the Tyler Oliveira documentary.
Last November, at a national convention of Agudath Israel of America (AIOA), Rabbi Shmuel Lefkowitz decreed Brooklyn Orthodox Jewish community to become “schtickle pioneers”, to move out of their basement apartments in Brooklyn and to settle in towns like Jackson, Toms River, Brick and Howell.
Lefkowitz is a leader and trustee of AIOA, the organization which serves a leadership role and policy maker for America’s Heredi (Orthodox) Jewish community. Lefkowitz, Vice President of Community Affairs holds a prominent and influential role in the organization.
In Hebrew, the word schtickle refers to something of second class. In the term schtickle pioneer, as it pertains to Lakewood, means to settle in second class surrounding towns, in the hopes that enough growth would ‘turn around’ those communities.
At the convention, held last November 12th, Lefkowitz urged younger members of the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn to uproot from their small rental apartments and settle in regions outside of Lakewood, including Jackson, Toms River, Brick and Howell. Lefkowitz identified these would be religious pioneers as “schtickle pioneers”. These pioneers would settle in a loop that encircles Lakewood.
Lefkowitz said that the decision to settle around Lakewood was not new, but takers were hesitant to “jump” at the opportunity.
While Lakewood is the most attractive destination in Ocean County to the Orthodox Jewish of Brooklyn, Lefkowitz said the reality of poor families moving to large homes in Lakewood may not be attainable due to pricing and availability. Few in the community are selling their homes, so Lefkowitz urged those settlers to settle for second best and to wait for the growth to catch up to them in the Lakewood loop.
He promised future rewards for those willing to take the risk.
“How do you that? One of the problems I have seen over the years is that young families are not ready to become schtickle pioneers,” Lefkowitz said. “It’s almost silly to think that people would not jump at the opportunity.”
Lefkowitz admitted that when AIOA began urging Brooklyn Jewish years earlier to resettle in Ocean County, it was a hard sell, but now through educational opportunities, he said the settlement of towns in neighboring communities is advancing at a healthy pace.
“One of my children bought in Coventry Square in the late 1990’s for $70, 000,” he said. “The blocks were not that great, it was a mixed crowd…my daughter asked me what do I think, I said jump. Two years later they sold for $190,000 and moved on to a bigger house.”
Now, Lefkowitz sees those towns surrounding Lakewood, which he referred to the “heart of the neighborhood” as prime settlement and investment opportunities.
“If you want to be 100% guaranteed and have it ready for you, it’s not going to happen,” Lefkowitz said. “But buy anything, you have to be a schtickle pioneer…buy a co-op, a condo, a house, but buy anything.”
“Those people that take the opportunity and be the schtickle pioneer, they are going to gain and everyone else is going to be sitting by, still living in a basement in Brooklyn and struggling in that little apartment,” he added.
Lefkowitz said Brooklyn’s Orthodox should have their eyes set on “turning around” neighboring communities in the Lakewood loop like past pioneers had “turned around” Lakewood, meaning creating a majority Orthodox community.
“Lakewood is the same thing, we gotta keep reaching out to Brick, Toms River, Howell and Jackson,” he said of the expansion into towns in the loop. “There are developments where goyem (non-Jewish) live, there are no Yiddim (Jewish) there yet. All these housing developments…they could turn it around…there are a lot of other opportunities for people to take that jump.”
“Look for housing that is doing poorly,” he suggested, citing that’s how the town of Monsey, New York was “singlehandedly turned around” into an Orthodox majority community.
If schtickle pioneers cannot buy existing homes at affordable prices, Lefkowitz urged developer to build large, low income housing developments under New Jersey’s affordable housing laws.
“The atmosphere in many towns in New Jersey and New York is extremely anti-Semitic,” he added. “You need a few hundred units sometimes to develop in order to make a community.”
He said New Jersey’s Mount Laurel decision benefits the schtickle pioneers heading to Ocean County because it requires New Jersey towns to allow the construction of affordable housing.
“In New Jersey, it is a little easier. While we had a democratic governor, it was quite easy,” he said of building low income housing. “Things were going very well, now under a Republican administration, Christie; some of these things are going away.”
But why does the migrating Orthodox population in Ocean County require settlement of entire blocks and entire neighborhoods? The answer, according to speakers at the convention lies in political power.
“Orthodox households are home to 64% of the Jewish community in the New York area,” Motzen said. “Heredi birth rate is three times that of the non-Orthodox world, we are growing and with that comes opportunities for political power…to fulfill our needs for our community.”
While Lefkowitz focused on the responsibility of Heredi to settle these communities, Motzen focused on the political growth of the Orthodox migration to Ocean County.
“Is it better to have a block vote?” he asked.
How does the migrating population assert political control? To vote as a block and to elect Orthodox politicians.
As much as 58% of the Orthodox community votes Republican according to Motzen. He said members of the community often ask for his guidance on political power.
The area is now drawing comparisons to Five Towns, a section of the city
Related News: YouTuber Tyler Oliveira Fought Lakewood and Lakewood Won
“Is it better for us that now Republicans are paying a lot of attention to our community?” he said. “Should we be trying to identify with a party each year or should we be a swing vote? Let them buy our vote and chase our vote. Let them do something for us so we can vote for them.”
Chaskel Bennet, AIOA Board of Trustees said voting in blocks in important to the Orthodox community, “If we don’t vote we don’t matter,” he said. “It’s not a cheap phrase, it’s not a cliché. It is the truth.”
Michael Fragin, an Orthodox political consultant said in his experience in New York, local elections have been determined by those who vowed to block the growth of the Orthodox community.
“It’s a climate that is incredibly hostile to the Orthodox community,” Fragin said. “Right now, we’re looked at as a special interest…as a group that really doesn’t care about everyone else…that we’re not interested in governing in a way that cares about everyone else.”
“It’s nonsense, absolute and utter nonsense,” he said. “It’s how people see our community and we have to get out from under this. We have to learn how to counter this by better messaging. There’s nothing like having an elected official who is not just familiar with your community, but he’s part of their community. They can be a champion for you.”
“Control of the levers of government, not from the outside, but from the inside is really important,” Fragin said. “Other ethnic minority groups have done this successfully and there’s no reason the Orthodox community should not be permitted to also take a seat at the table.”
The timing of the edict to by the AIOA to settle in Ocean County coincided with aggressive real estate tactics employed by some Orthodox based real estate firms based out of Lakewood.
In the months after the conference, aggressive purchasing led to towns in the Lakewood loop enacting stricter real estate soliciting legislation, including no-knock ordinances and door to door bans on soliciting in some areas of Toms River.
The edict also seems to correlate with the spike in homes being purchased in Jackson and Toms River by LLC’s based out of Lakewood and Brooklyn.
The sharp increase forced Jackson Township legislators to beef up an existing landlord registry ordinance, requiring landlords to register with the township when investment homes are rented to tenants.