KIRYAS JOEL is not like other New York suburbs. Although surrounded by bucolic winding roads and stunning vistas of the wooded foothills of the Catskill mountains, there are few stand-alone houses with big back gardens or picket fences. Almost everyone lives tightly packed in a square-mile labyrinth of multistorey condominium complexes. The population of the village, which forms part of the town of Monroe, about 40 miles (65km) north of New York City, has grown by 5% a year since 2000. For the past few years, its surging population and the resulting demands for land have put it at odds with long-time locals. After lawsuits and tense negotiations, Monroe voters will decide in a referendum on November 7th whether to separate Kiryas Joel, add some land and create a new town, to be called Palm Tree.
Kiryas Joel was founded in the 1970s by Joel Teitelbaum, the grand rebbe of the Satmar Hasidic sect. The community has grown from 500 in 1977 to...Continue reading
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