New Jersey

Culture

Estonian: The Estonian population in New Jersey is concentrated in Ocean County, which has the Lakewood Estonian House. It is home to the Lakewood Estonian Association, Estonian Senior Club, Estonian School, and Estonian Girl Guides (scouting organization). There is also Järvemetsa camp, which hosts Estonian boy and girl scouts, and the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church of Holy Spirit in Lakewood.

Outside of Lakewood there is the Seabrook Estonian Society, with Seabrook being an important place for many in the Estonian diaspora. A large number of Estonian refugees were employed at Seabrook Farms after escaping the soviet occupation of their homeland and fleeing to America. 

Latvian: Westfield has the New Jersey Latvian school (a diaspora/heritage language school held on Saturdays). It functions under the New York Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church administratively, which serves as the umbrella organization for the New Jersey and New York Latvian schools. The church itself has a New Jersey chapter that meets separately. The northern New Jersey and New York areas are really one community.  Because of this, the New York Latvian Organization Council includes northern New Jersey.

In South-Central New Jersey, there is the New Jersey Latvian Association (Priedaine in Latvian), which owns its own building. They host multiple cultural events throughout the year. There are also a few interest groups as part of Priedaine and a New Brunswick-Lakewood congregation that meets at Priedaine for their services & social activities. For the past decade, the Teātris ''Ņūdžersijas jautrais Tomāts" (the Merry Tomato Theater), a Latvian amateur theater, has been delighting audiences in New Jersey.

Lithuanian: New Jersey has a rich Lithuanian American history, concentrated in Elizabeth, Newark, Bayonne, Jersey City, Kearny, Paterson, and the surrounding industrial communities. The anchor of that history is Sts. Peter & Paul Lithuanian Roman Catholic parish in Elizabeth, officially established in 1895 — the first Lithuanian Roman Catholic church in New Jersey. As the Lithuanian community in Elizabeth grew, a larger church was built on Ripley Place in 1910, and the parish went on to seed Lithuanian Catholic communities throughout the state, helping establish parishes in Newark, Bayonne, Jersey City, and Paterson in the early 20th century. The Sts. Peter & Paul Lithuanian Roman Catholic church is currently slated for closure, but the community is fighting hard to keep it open. In addition, there is the Dr. Vinco Kudirkos Lithuanistine Mokykla Sunday Lithuanian school in Union, and the Central New Jersey Lithuanian community. 

Academia

An important academic resource, the Estonian Archives in the U.S., houses over 800 linear feet of books, periodicals, and other materials about Estonia and/or in the Estonian language is located in New Jersey. Rutgers University incorporates Baltic history, culture, and regional topics through the Program in Russian and East European Languages and Literatures (REELL)

Economics

New Jersey is an important state for business in the Baltic countries. Lithuanian food producers such as Vičiūnai Group, UAB Strade, and UAB Mantinga all leverage the State’s port and shipping infrastructure in Newark NJ. Viciunai Group, one of Lithuania's leading frozen and chilled food producers with a presence in more than 70 markets worldwide, recently entered the US market and also has an operational footprint in Bayonne, New Jersey. 

Several New Jersey companies maintain direct investment or commercial relationships with Lithuanian businesses. The clearest example is Cognizant, headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey, which entered Lithuania in 2015 by acquiring Storebrand's Shared Services Centre in Vilnius. That Vilnius operation has since grown into a center of excellence for end-to-end back-office processes in insurance and banking, supporting Nordic and other European clients. New Jersey's life-sciences sector has equally deep ties to Lithuania: Johnson & Johnson, headquartered in New Brunswick, has operated Johnson & Johnson, UAB in Vilnius since 2002, and Merck, headquartered in Rahway, has operated Merck Sharp & Dohme, UAB in Vilnius since 2003.

Ira Lubert, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Lithuania to New Jersey, founded Belgravia Management, an investment firm that represents the interests of the Lubert family. Belgravia actively reviews investment opportunities involving Lithuanian businesses, particularly growth-stage companies with plans to expand into the United States. Belgravia has worked with a leading Baltic law firm Sorainen to identify these promising Lithuanian companies pursuing U.S. growth.

On a smaller, more personal scale, Linos Lithuanian Foods is a local Lithuanian-owned business that is always willing to attend local events to provide Lithuanian food that's hard to come by in New Jersey. 

Latvian American Shipping Line (LASL) was founded by Latvians over thirty years ago, and maintains offices in both Montclair, New Jersey and Riga, Latvia. The company concentrates on shipping specifically between the USA and Baltics, and its founders remain deeply involved in the Latvian-American community.