Sarah Griesbach 
With only one square mile to call its own, this small city that is often considered only in relationship to its Big Apple celebrity neighbor, gets little credit for widespread connections across the globe. Hoboken is, in fact, loaded with international ties that stretch across disciplines and dimensions. Read on to learn about the many ways Hoboken has built civic, cultural, culinary, and some rather random bridges to people and places all around the world.
A Port City with a Diverse Culture
Historically a major port, Hoboken has facilitated global movement for centuries, connecting the United States to residents’ countries of origin. Along with Jersey City, Hoboken was a gateway west for immigrants, bringing diverse cultures to America and creating a worldly atmosphere. Today, Hoboken is a vibrant city with an international feel and a rich cultural scene. Hoboken, and all of Hudson County, loves its polyglot population and accompanying abundance of foods from everywhere.
Hoboken Around the World
If you’ve seen the phrase “Hoboken around the world,” it was probably in reference to the famous expedition of Nellie Bly, aka Elizabeth Cochran Seaman, whose real-life globetrotting adventure of 1889 began in Hoboken and ended in Jersey City. In a mere 72 days, the “stunt girl” journalist accomplished a world-circling trip by cargo ships, trains, tugboats, and rickshaws that her fictional competition from the classic Jules Verne novel completed in 80 days. The story can be found in movies and in documentaries, and in the adventuress’s own memoir. Jersey City’s Speranza Theater has celebrated her on the stage, and in so doing, showed a light on the early importance of the centrality of Hoboken to the world.
Official Connections
To start with official Hoboken links, we look to Hoboken’s sister cities. In July of 2023, Hoboken Mayor Ravi S. Bhalla and Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov declared their cities’ family with the relationship made official by the United States Agency of International Development (USAID). Hoboken’s Ukrainian sister is located in the southeastern part of the country, near the coast of the Azov Sea —their weekend at the shore destination. Melitopol is currently under Russian occupation and is a city under constant threat. Hoboken has honored its civic sisterhood with Melitopol in Ukraine by working to be a boon to its war-beleaguered sibling city.
Even more recently, in late August of 2025, Taichung’s Xitun District of Taiwan and the great City of Hoboken declared their sisterhood, “establishing a cultural and economic partnership for exchanging ideas, people, and technology.”
Hoboken’s Global Good Works
Hoboken’s City Hall has, in recent years, made the city better known through acts of goodwill. In 2022, Hoboken partnered with the Hoboken Relief Fund and the nonprofit Welcome Home to fundraise for a campaign that provided housing to Ukrainian refugees living in Bialystok, Poland.
Back in 2017, following Hurricane Maria, Hoboken’s Public Safety Department partnered with Villalba, Puerto Rico, to provide that municipality with Hoboken’s retired police vehicles, a fire truck, and donations from generous residents. Hoboken’s post-hurricane support for Villalba was not a one-time event but was recognized as still necessary a year later, when all of Puerto Rico continued to be affected by the storm’s devastation.
Hoboken has also built a special bond with Montgomery Bay, Jamaica, a city that was brought to the attention of Hoboken residents in October of 2025 when Hurricane Melissa wrought havoc on all of Jamaica and Hoboken’s leadership took action to be of assistance.
Networks & Coalitions for a Better Future
Hoboken participates in worldwide municipal partnerships that connect it conceptually to many cities across the globe through shared climate and sustainability goals. The Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy aligns Hoboken with hundreds of cities in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and beyond to share data and strategies for climate action, energy reduction, and climate resilience. Hoboken’s participation in the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) added the city to a global network of cities that are pursuing clean energy and sustainability initiatives.
A Hub of International Education
Hoboken can brag about its wide-reaching intellectual linkages at all levels of education. Hoboken’s HoLa Dual Language Charter School is recognized as an International Spanish Academy (ISA) by the Ministry of Education of Spain. Students graduate with credentials facilitating study in Spain and the US. The charter school hosts visiting teachers through Spain’s consulate programs, and the school’s language and culture programs connect students with Spanish-speaking regions across the globe.
Hoboken High School is a heavy hitter in international education. The public high school runs a Classrooms Without Walls program that organizes international educational trips to amazing locations. Past destinations have included the Galápagos Islands and Ecuador, and multiple cities in China. The Hoboken High School Theatre Department has performed at the International Thespian Festival, a global gathering of theater students from multiple countries. And, last but hardly least, the school’s International Club focuses on global issues and community awareness about international cultures and events.
Read More: A List of Hoboken + Jersey City Non-Profits to Donate to Year-Round
Stevens Study Abroad program maintains formal exchange partnerships with Tsinghua University (Beijing), Central University of Finance and Economics (Beijing), Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Xi’an Jiaotong University, University of Liverpool, École Pour l’Informatique et les Techniques Avancées, University of Strasbourg, Eindhoven University of Technology, Athens University of Economics and Business, University College Dublin, University of Nicosia, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Anna University in Tamil Nadu, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Queensland University of Technology, and the University of Queensland. As a major research university, Stevens University also brings extensive international academic collaborations with universities around the world to the small city of Hoboken.
An Odd Assortment of Name Sharing
An obvious international link to Hoboken, New Jersey, is, of course, the Belgian location of the same name. While the Hudson County, New Jersey city name is sometimes reported to be derived from Hopoghan Hackingh, a Lenape reference to the soapstone tobacco pipes produced in the area before colonial attacks. The city name has also been linked to the Old Dutch word for high bluffs that could be spelled Hobooken. The district of Hoboken in Antwerp, Belgium, is quite flat; however, that’s not where they got their moniker. They claim the origin of their name as a garbled version of Hooghe Buechen, meaning high beech trees, of which they have many.
Hoboken, Georgia, is a small city in Brantley County. That Hoboken is known for its quiet, rural feel and strong tradition of Sacred Harp singing. With a population of between 480 and 500 people, it takes up more than three times the physical space that New Jersey’s very densely populated Hoboken occupies. Georgia’s Hoboken hosts two bluegrass conventions every year and is, apparently, a great destination for camping and hiking — always while singing, of course.
The unincorporated community of Hoboken, Alabama, gets a shoutout here despite its domestic US location. If not in this record, the tiny dot on the few maps where it shows up will be unlikely to receive much notice, despite the fact that Hoboken, Alabama, boasted its very own post office from 1877 to 1887.
More impressively, a historic Gold Rush boomtown called Hoboken existed in Sacramento in 1853. It was a short-lived settlement that sprang up when floods in Sacramento City forced businesses to relocate. Abandoned by mid-February of 1853 as the waters receded, this blip in Sacramento’s early history is now marked only by a historical plaque.
Rather randomly, but not to be skipped over in this very thorough collection of Hoboken rabbitholes — a Dutch man by the name of Anthony van Hoboken is recorded to have been a musical collector, bibliographer, and musicologist whose scholarship on the music of composer Joseph Haydn led to the creation of what was named, in his honor, the Hoboken catalogue — the standard scholarly catalogue of Haydn’s works.
Hoboken Everywhere Always
Is Hoboken linked by degrees to all of the many, many places where Frank Sinatra is heard? Or to every place where baseball is played? Or Maxwell Coffee found to be “good to the last drop?” How about the global audiences of all the many TV series and movies filmed here? Are those global connections for Hoboken? Habsolutely.
Foodwise, the city has a reach that can’t be contained. Carlo’s Bakery’s Cake Boss origin story is a tale of American entrepreneurship and family. The name Hoboken is used to market pasta sauces, coffee, and whiskey. Fiore’s famous roast beef mutz sandwich was once spotted under a different name in Melbourne, Australia’s Pretty Boy restaurant. Hoboken Eddie’s is a popular restaurant in Madison, Indiana — another historic river town. Popular local eatery with Hoboken in the name? Makes sense.
Why does Hoboken show up so often on camera and in culinary lore? Hoboken is just the right size, with more than enough people to create a hotbed for artisans and their small-batch goods. What is made in Hoboken is generally worthy of export, and the city’s location is arguably at the heart of the world. For businesses, for celebrities, for students, and political do-gooders, Hoboken is a good place to be from.
See More: A Look at New Jersey 100 Years Ago, in 1925
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