TEANECK, N.J. — Teaneck’s Town Council race turned sharply political at an Oct. 1 candidates forum, with TEANECK FIRST candidates going after Councilwoman Hillary Goldberg over a pro-Israel, anti-Hamas resolution passed after the Oct. 7 attack and ONE TEAM ONE TEANECK candidate Avi Berliner coming to her defense.

The clash was one of the most pointed moments of the Teaneck League of Women Voters’ 2026 Candidates Forum, where eight of the nine candidates seeking four Council seats appeared.

Sharon L. Kolb was the only candidate who did not attend. The League read her opening statement, while her positions were included in the League’s Voters Guide.

The dispute centered on a resolution Goldberg and fellow Jewish Council members introduced in late 2023 following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

The TEANECK FIRST candidates challenged Goldberg over her support for the resolution, while Berliner pushed back in her defense.

The exchange underscored how national and Jewish communal issues have increasingly become part of a local Teaneck election.

Another major flashpoint involved the Municipal Green and two planned memorials.

The Northern New Jersey Holocaust Memorial has announced that it is lining up funding for its planned memorial, while a separate memorial honoring enslaved Africans has struggled to meet its fundraising goals.

The disparity is significant because the township has made commitments to the community groups behind the memorial projects.

Yet Belcher, a TEANECK FIRST candidate and the township’s deputy mayor, said she opposed having any monument on the Municipal Green.

“I voted against any monument on Municipal Green,” Belcher said.

Belcher argued that the Green belongs to all Teaneck residents and should not be used for monuments representing individual communities.

That position could put her at odds with commitments the township has made to the groups behind the memorials, particularly as the Holocaust memorial moves toward securing the funding needed to proceed while the memorial to enslaved Africans continues to struggle with fundraising.

George Fernandez similarly said he opposed monuments on the Green, saying the property belongs to everyone.

Duane M. Harley took a different position. He said he personally believed nothing should be placed on the Green because it could divide the community. But because the Council had already approved the locations, he said he would support construction of the monument and other monuments as well.

Goldberg was the lone candidate at the forum to rise in support of the Northern New Jersey Holocaust Memorial.

The memorial debate reflected a larger question that ran through the forum: whether Teaneck should honor commitments already made to community groups or reconsider how public land is used.

The candidates also split sharply over the Crossroads redevelopment plan.

Goldberg, Belcher, Harley and Fernandez opposed the current plan, although their reasons varied. Kolb, in her Voters Guide response, supports it.

Amrit Ramjattan defended the Council’s decision to move forward, pointing to Teaneck’s affordable-housing obligation and the possibility of a builder’s remedy if the township failed to meet it.

Berliner likewise argued for balancing the township’s legal obligations with concerns about Teaneck’s character, traffic, parking, infrastructure and density.

Taxes, the DPW, drainage, parks, transparency and the relationship between the Council and Board of Education also produced sharp differences.

But the Oct. 1 forum made clear that this election is about more than budgets and development.

It is also about how Teaneck handles Israel and Hamas, how it treats competing community memorials and who ultimately gets to decide what belongs in the center of town.

Eight candidates took the stage. Their answers offered voters a detailed look at where they stand. Individual profiles of each participating candidate will follow, examining what they said at the forum and what they submitted in the League of Women Voters’ Voters Guide.