Editing Kiryas Joel, New York (section)

==Effects==
===Of growth===
====Friction with surrounding jurisdictions====
The village has become a contentious issue in Orange County for several reasons, mainly related to its rapid growth.<ref name="NYT-Santos">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/27/nyregion/27orange.html |title=Reverberations of a Baby Boom |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171225041404/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/27/nyregion/27orange.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th |archive-date=December 25, 2017 |url-status=live |first=Fernanda |last=Santos |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=August 27, 2006 |access-date=August 27, 2006 }}</ref> Unlike most other small communities, it lacks a real downtown and much of it is given over to residential property, which has mostly taken the form of [[Contemporary architecture|contemporary]] [[townhouse]]-style [[Condominium (living space)|condominium]]s. New construction is ongoing throughout the community.

Population growth in Kiryas Joel is strong. In 2005, the population had risen to 18,300.<ref name="NYT-Santos"/> The 2010 census showed a population of 20,175, for a population growth rate of 53.6% between 2000 and 2010, which was less than anticipated, as it was projected that the population would double in that time period.<ref>
[http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110325/NEWS/103250372 "Census 2010: Orange population growth rate 2nd highest in state, but lower than expected"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170816232601/http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20110325%2FNEWS%2F103250372 |date=August 16, 2017 }} by Chris Mckenna, [[Times Herald-Record]], March 25, 2011. Accessed December 7, 2011,
In 2006, village administrator Gedalye Szegedin stated:
</ref>

{{blockquote|There are three religious tenets that drive our growth: Our women don't use [[birth control]], they get married young, and after they get married, they stay in Kiryas Joel and start a family. Our growth comes simply from the fact that our families have a lot of babies, and we need to build homes to respond to the needs of our community.|author=Gedalye Szegedin, village administrator|source=quoted in "Reverberations of a Baby Boom", by Fernanda Santos, ''The New York Times'', 2006<ref name="NYT-Santos"/>}}

===={{Anchor|Local impact of growth}}Locally====
[[Image:KJ bus stop sign.jpg|right|thumb|upright=0.6|A bilingual bus stop sign in English and [[Yiddish]].{{efn|On the top sign, the Yiddish text is a transliteration of the English "Kiryas Joel Bus Transportation Bus Stop"; on the bottom, "Village Bus Stop".}}]]
The Town of Monroe also contains two other villages – [[Monroe (village), New York|Monroe]], and [[Harriman, New York|Harriman]]. Kiryas Joel's boundaries also come close to the neighboring towns of [[Blooming Grove, New York|Blooming Grove]] and [[Woodbury, Orange County, New York|Woodbury]].

Residents of these communities and local [[Orange County, New York|Orange County]] politicians view the village as encroaching on them.<ref name="NYT-Santos"/> Due to the rapid population growth in Kiryas Joel, resulting almost entirely from the high birth rates of its Hasidic population, the village government has undertaken various [[annexation]] efforts to expand its area, to the dismay of the majority of the residents of the surrounding communities. Many of these area residents see the expansion of the high-density residential-commercial village as a threat to the [[quality of life]] in the surrounding suburban communities, due to [[suburban sprawl]]. Other concerns of the surrounding communities are the impact on local [[aquifer]]s and the projected increased volume of sewage reaching the county's [[sewerage treatment]] plants, already near capacity by 2005.

On August 11, 2006, residents of Woodbury voted, by a 3-to-1 margin, to incorporate much of the town as a village, to constrain further annexation. Kiryas Joel has opposed such moves in court.<ref>
{{cite news
 | title = KJ tries to stop village vote
 | first = Chris
 | last = McKenna
 | url = http://archive.recordonline.com/archive/2006/08/03/news-camappeal-08-03.html
 | newspaper = Times Herald-Record
 | publisher = Orange County Publications
 | location = Middletown, New York
 | date = August 3, 2006
| access-date = March 22, 2010
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111208000339/http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=NEWS14
 | archive-date = December 8, 2011
 | url-status = live
 }}
</ref>

In March 2007, the village of Kiryas Joel sued the county to stop it from selling off {{convert|1|e6USgal|m3}} of excess capacity at its sewage plant in Harriman. Two years earlier, the county had sued the village to stop its plans to tap into New York City's [[Catskill Aqueduct]], arguing that the village's environmental review for the project had inadequately addressed concerns about the additional wastewater it would generate. The village was appealing an early ruling which sided with the county.<ref name="sewer suit">
McKenna, Chris; March 6, 2007; "[http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070306/NEWS/703060313/-1/NEWS Kiryas Joel sues county over sewage] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160914024438/http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20070306%2FNEWS%2F703060313%2F-1%2FNEWS |date=2016-09-14 }}"; ''[[Times-Herald Record]]''; retrieved March 6, 2007.
</ref> In its action, Kiryas Joel accused the county of inconsistently claiming limited capacity in its suit when it is selling the million gallons to three communities outside its sewer district.

In 2017, the village proposed to settle a lawsuit over some additional annexations it had proposed by petitioning the county legislature to allow it to become the county's 21st [[Administrative divisions of New York#Town|town]]. It would be named [[Palm Tree, New York|Palm Tree]], after the English translation of Joel Teitelbaum's name. In return for the village dropping its request to annex {{convert|507|acre|ha}}, United Monroe and Preserve Hudson Valley, the plaintiffs, agreed to withdraw their appeal of a decision allowing the annexation of a {{convert|164|acre|ha|adj=on}} parcel. The new town would also be prohibited from filing annexation proposals or encouraging the creation of new villages for 10 years. Two-thirds of the county legislature must approve the creation of the new town, and a vote of Monroe residents may also be required.<ref name="Mid-Hudson News Palm Tree story">{{cite news|title=Deal to create Town of Palm Tree to go before Orange County legislators, maybe Monroe voters|url=https://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2017/July/20/TownPalmTree_OCL-20Jul17.html|newspaper=Mid-Hudson News|date=July 20, 2017|access-date=July 27, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108152135/https://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2017/July/20/TownPalmTree_OCL-20Jul17.html|archive-date=November 8, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> The referendum passed on November 7, 2017.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.recordonline.com/news/20171107/kiryas-joels-split-from-monroe-overwhelmingly-approved|title=Kiryas Joel's split from Monroe overwhelmingly approved|access-date=November 8, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108224252/http://www.recordonline.com/news/20171107/kiryas-joels-split-from-monroe-overwhelmingly-approved |archive-date=November 8, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Local politics===
{{See also|Orthodox Jewish bloc voting}}
Critics of the village cite its impact on local politics. Villagers are perceived as voting in a solid [[Voting bloc|bloc]]. While this is not always the case, the highly concentrated population often does skew strongly toward one candidate or the other in local elections, making Kiryas Joel a heavily courted swing vote for whichever politician offers Kiryas Joel the most favorable environment for continued growth. In the hotly contested 2013 Town Supervisors race, the Kiryas Joel bloc vote elected Harley Doles to the position of town supervisor. Kiryas Joel then sought to annex {{convert|510|acre}} of land into their village and the new Monroe Town Board has had no comment on this issue. In late 2014 village leadership proposed alternatively that a new village, to be called Gilios Kiryas Joel, be created on the {{convert|1140|acre}} south of the village within Monroe, including all the land it had wanted to annex.<ref name="New village proposal">
{{cite news|last=McKenna|first=Chris|title=Kiryas Joel may propose new village|url=http://www.recordonline.com/article/20141118/NEWS/141119333/101129/SEARCH|newspaper=Times-Herald Record|date=November 19, 2014|access-date=November 29, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141206172423/http://www.recordonline.com/article/20141118/NEWS/141119333/101129/SEARCH|archive-date=December 6, 2014|url-status=live}}
</ref>

Kiryas Joel played a major role in the 2006 Congressional election. The village was at that time in the congressional district represented by Republican [[Sue Kelly]]. Village residents had been loyal to Kelly in the past, but in 2006, voters were upset over what they saw as lack of adequate representation from Kelly for the village. In a bloc, Kiryas Joel swung around 2,900 votes to Kelly's Democratic opponent, [[John Hall (New York politician)|John Hall]]. The vote in Kiryas Joel was one reason Hall carried the election, which he did by 4,800 votes.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

In the [[2020 United States presidential election|2020 presidential election]], 98.5% of Kiryas Joel voters voted for Trump, one of the highest percentages in the country.<ref>{{Cite web |title=DRA 2020 |url=https://davesredistricting.org/maps |access-date=May 12, 2023 |website=Daves Redistricting}}</ref>

====Internal friction====
Joel Teitelbaum had no son, and thus no clear successor. His nephew, Moses, was appointed by the community's committee members. But not all Satmar accepted Moses as the community leader, and even some of those who did questioned some of his actions and pronouncements. He responded by running the village in what they called an autocratic manner, through his deputy, Abraham Weider, who also served as mayor and president of the school board, as well as the main [[synagogue]] and [[yeshiva]] in the village.<ref name="1992 NYT story">{{cite news|last=Winerip|first=Michael|author-link=Michael Winerip|title=Pious Village Is No Stranger To the Police|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/20/nyregion/on-sunday-pious-village-is-no-stranger-to-the-police.html|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=September 20, 1992|access-date=May 13, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150526055320/http://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/20/nyregion/on-sunday-pious-village-is-no-stranger-to-the-police.html|archive-date=May 26, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1989, the village forbade any property owner from selling or renting an apartment without its permission. Teitelbaum elaborated that "anyone that rents without this permission has to be dealt with like a real murderer ... and he should be torn out from the roots".<ref name="1994 TNR story">{{cite news|last=Rosen|first=Jeffrey|title=Village People|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/politics/village-people|newspaper=[[The New Republic]]|date=April 11, 1994|access-date=May 13, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150915105344/http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/village-people|archive-date=September 15, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the early 1990s, the [[New York State Police]] responded many times to the village, which has a generally low crime rate otherwise, when self-described dissidents reported harassment such as broken windows and graffiti containing profanity on their property. In one incident, troopers rode a school bus undercover to catch teenage boys [[stoning]] it; the boys later stoned a back-up police cruiser when it arrived. One of Weider's nephews was among those arrested. He admitted that some of the village's young men took it upon themselves to act violently against dissidents because they could not bear to hear the grand rebbe criticized, although he said most of them were provoked to do so by dissidents.<ref name="1992 NYT story" />

"Someone not following breaks down the whole system of being able to educate and being able to bring up our children with strong family values", Weider told ''The New York Times'' in 1992. "Why do you think we have no drugs? If we lost respect for the Grand Rabbi, we lose the whole thing."<ref name="1992 NYT story" />

In January 1990, the village held its first, and, for a decade, only, school board election. "It's like this", Teitelbaum explained when he announced the names of seven hand-picked candidates. "With the power of the [[Torah]], I am here the authority in the rabbinical leadership ... As you know, I want to nominate seven people, and I want these people to be the people."<ref name="1994 TNR story" />

One dissident, Joseph Waldman, decided nevertheless to run on his own. He was made unwelcome at the synagogue, his children were expelled from yeshiva, his car's tires slashed, and his windows broken. Several hundred residents marched in the streets in front of his house chanting, "Death to Joseph Waldman!", after posters calling for that fate were posted in the synagogue. After the election, in which Waldman finished last, but still won 673 votes, 60 families who were known to have voted for him were barred from visiting their fathers' graves in the village cemetery that was owned by the rabbi, and  banned from the synagogue (also, at the time, the village's only polling place). Waldman compared Teitelbaum to Iran's [[Ayatollah Khomeini]].<ref name="1994 TNR story" />

After the election, a state court ruled that Waldman's children had to be reinstated at the yeshiva, an action that was only taken after the judge held Teitelbaum in [[contempt of court|contempt]] and fined him personally. Friction continued as some of the dissidents banned from the synagogue circulated a petition calling for the polls to be moved to a neutral location. It originally drew 150 signatures, but all but 15 retracted their names after being threatened with [[excommunication]] by the grand rabbi, signing a document that they had not actually read the petition. One of the dissidents who signed was attacked while praying, and state troopers had to be called in again to disperse a mob that gathered on Waldman's lawn and broke his windows.<ref name="1992 NYT story" />

In November 2017, a local divorce mediator and an Israeli rabbi with ties to the village were involved in the [[Kiryas Joel murder conspiracy|planning of a contract killing]] on an estranged husband. They were sentenced to prison.<ref name="Orthodox Jewish">{{cite magazine |last=Gajanan |first=Mahita |date=September 7, 2016 |url=https://time.com/4483189/orthodox-jewish-men-arrested-kidnap-murder-plot/ |title=Rabbi and Orthodox Jewish Man Plotted to Kidnap and Murder Husband to Get Divorce for his Wife, Officials Say |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161114154106/http://time.com/4483189/orthodox-jewish-men-arrested-kidnap-murder-plot/ |archive-date=November 14, 2016 |url-status=live |magazine=Time }}</ref>

====Electoral fraud allegations====
On four occasions since 1990, the [[Middletown, Orange County, New York|Middletown]] ''[[Times-Herald Record]]'' has run lengthy [[investigative journalism|investigative]] articles on claims of [[electoral fraud]] in the village. A 1996 article found that Kiryas Joel residents who were students at yeshivas in Brooklyn had on many occasions apparently registered and voted in both the village and in Brooklyn;<ref name="Jweek 1996 fraud story">{{cite news|last=Greenberg|first=Eric|title=New York state investigates voter fraud among Satmar|url=http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/4216/new-york-state-investigates-voter-fraud-among-satmar/|newspaper=[[The Jewish Week|6=New York Jewish Week]]|date=October 4, 1996|access-date=November 29, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141206044740/http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/4216/new-york-state-investigates-voter-fraud-among-satmar/|archive-date=December 6, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> a year later, the paper reported that it had happened again. In 2001, [[absentee ballot]]s were apparently cast by voters who did not normally reside in the village. In some cases, ballots were cast by people who seemed to reside in [[Antwerp]], Belgium, without a set date of expected return, and, thus, would not be allowed under New York law to vote in any election for state or local office. That article led to a county [[grand jury]] investigation in 2001, which concluded that while procedures were not followed, and many mistakes were made, there was no evidence of deliberate intent to violate the law.<ref name="THR 2014 article">{{cite news|last=McKenna|first=Chris|title=Inside the Kiryas Joel voting machine|url=http://www.recordonline.com/article/20141118/NEWS/141119333/101129/SEARCH|newspaper=[[Times-Herald Record]]|date=October 26, 2014|access-date=November 28, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141206172423/http://www.recordonline.com/article/20141118/NEWS/141119333/101129/SEARCH|archive-date=December 6, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>

Before the 2013 [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[Partisan primary|primary]] in that year's [[special election]] for the [[New York State Assembly|state assembly]] seat vacated by [[Annie Rabbitt]], later elected [[county clerk]], members of United Monroe, a local group that organizes and co-ordinates political opposition to the village and those local officials it believes support it, asked the county's [[Board of Elections]] to assign them to Kiryas Joel as [[election inspector]]s, who verify that voters are registered before allowing them to vote. The board's [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] commissioner, Sue Bahrens, initially agreed to appoint six to serve in the village, but later reversed that decision. The six sued the county, alleging [[religious discrimination]]; it{{who|date=December 2024}} responded that they had no [[standing (law)|standing]] to sue. Village Manager Gedalye Szegedin said the citizens were entitled to have inspectors who spoke Yiddish and understood their culture and customs. A [[New York Supreme Court|state court]] justice dismissed the discrimination claim, but ruled that the United Monroe inspectors had been dismissed [[Standard of review#Arbitrary and capricious|arbitrarily and capriciously]], and were entitled to their appointments, but did not say when or where.<ref name="THR 2014 article" />

In 2014, the newspaper examined claims by [[poll watcher]]s from United Monroe that they were intimidated and harassed by other poll watchers sympathetic to the village government when they tried to challenge voters whose signatures did not initially appear to match those on file during the previous year's elections for county offices. They further alleged that election inspectors in the polling place, a banquet hall where 6,000 residents voted, sometimes gave the voters ballots before the signatures could be checked.<ref name="THR 2014 article" />

Some of the United Monroe poll watchers claimed that Langdon Chapman, an attorney for the Monroe town board, which they believe is controlled by members deferential to Kiryas Joel and its interests, was one of those who intimidated them. Coleman told the ''Record'' that while he had been at the banquet hall in question, he had only insisted that poll watchers state the reason for their challenges, as legally required, and had left after two hours. He was subsequently appointed [[county attorney]] (the lawyer who represents the county in civil matters) by new [[county executive]] Steve Neuhaus, whose margin of victory included all but 20 of the votes from the village.<ref name="THR 2014 article" />

After the election, United Monroe members found more than 800 voters in Kiryas Joel whose signatures did not match those on file, in addition to 25 they had challenged at the polls, three of whom were later investigated by the county [[Sheriffs in the United States#New York|sheriff]]; the rest were considered unfounded. Orange County [[District Attorney]] David Hoovler, elected along with Neuhaus, told the newspaper it was difficult to investigate the allegations, since they could not verify the identity of either signer, if, in fact, there were two. The ''Record'' attempted to contact some of those voters; the only one they reached hung up when asked about the election.<ref name="THR 2014 article" />

===Large families===
[[Image:Grand Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, Satmar Rebbe, in synagogue, on Hanukkah, in Kiryas Joel, New York State.jpg|thumb|Grand Rabbi [[Aaron Teitelbaum]], celebrating [[Hanukah]] in the main synagogue in Kiryas Joel]]

Women in Kiryas Joel usually stop working outside the home after the birth of a second child.<ref name="NYT-Santos"/> Most families have only one income, and many children. The resulting [[poverty]] rate makes a disproportionate number of families in Kiryas Joel eligible for [[Welfare (financial aid)|welfare]] benefits, when compared to the rest of the county. ''The New York Times'' wrote,

{{blockquote|Because of the sheer size of the families (the average household here has six people, but it is not uncommon for couples to have 8 or 10 children), and because a vast majority of households subsist on only one salary, 62 percent of the local families live below poverty level and rely heavily on public assistance, which is another sore point among those who live in neighboring communities.<ref name="NYT-Santos"/>}}

A 60-bed post-natal maternal care center was built with $10 million in state and federal grants. Mothers can recuperate there for two weeks away from their large families.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2011/04/again-hasidic-village-kiryas-joel-poorest-place-in-us-456.html|title=Again: Hasidic Village Kiryas Joel Poorest Place In US - FailedMessiah.com|work=typepad.com|access-date=September 5, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150725022707/http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2011/04/again-hasidic-village-kiryas-joel-poorest-place-in-us-456.html|archive-date=July 25, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

====Hepatitis A and vaccine trial====
In the 1990s, the first clinical trials for the [[hepatitis A]] vaccine took place in Kiryas Joel, where 70 percent of residents had been affected. This disproportionate rate of hepatitis A infection was due in part to Kiryas Joel's high birth rate and crowded conditions among children, who bathed together in pools and ate from communal food at school. Children who were not infected with hepatitis A were separated into two groups, one receiving the experimental vaccine and the other receiving a placebo injection. Based on this study, the vaccine was declared 100 percent effective. Merck licensed the vaccine in 1995, and it became available in 1996, after which the hepatitis A infection rate fell by 75 percent in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blog.advocatesaz.org/2012/05/22/sti-awareness-viral-hepatitis/|title=STD Awareness: Viral Hepatitis|date=May 22, 2012|website=advocatesaz.org|access-date=September 26, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170926102310/http://blog.advocatesaz.org/2012/05/22/sti-awareness-viral-hepatitis/|archive-date=September 26, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Litigation===
The unusual lifestyle and growth pattern of Kiryas Joel has led to litigation on a number of fronts. In 1994, the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] ruled in the case of ''[[Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet]]'' that the [[Kiryas Joel School District]], which covered only the village, was designed in violation of the [[Establishment Clause]] of the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]], because the design accommodated one group on the basis of religious affiliation.<ref>512 U.S. 687 (1994).</ref> Subsequently, the New York State Legislature established a similar school district in the village that has passed legal muster.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/20/nyregion/controversy-over-enclave-joins-school-board-group.html |title=Controversy Over, Enclave Joins School Board Group |first=Tamar |last=Lewin |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=April 20, 2002 }}</ref> Further litigation has resulted over what entity should pay for the education of children with disabilities in Kiryas Joel, and over whether the community's boys must ride buses driven by women.<ref name="NYT-Santos"/>

In 2011, a case (''Kiryas Joel Alliance v. Village of Kiryas Joel'') against the village was heard in federal district court; the plaintiffs, who were followers of competing factions of Satmar to Rebbe Aron Teitelbaum's, argued that the control of the village government by the Aronite faction's supporters was being abused to discriminate against them.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Dissident Jews say enclave in NY oppresses them|first=Jim|last=Fitzgerald|publisher=Associated Press |date=June 13, 2011|url=http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Dissident-Jews-say-enclave-in-NY-oppresses-them-1422405.php |access-date=September 14, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131128180701/http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Dissident-Jews-say-enclave-in-NY-oppresses-them-1422405.php |archive-date=November 28, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> The case was dismissed, and in 2012 the Second Circuit rejected their appeal of the dismissal.<ref>{{Cite web |title=International Center for Law and Religion Studies {{!}} 2nd Circuit affirms dismissal of dissident Hasidic group's discrimination claims against Kiryas Joel |url=https://www.iclrs.org/blurb/2nd-circuit-affirms-dismissal-of-dissident-hasidic-groups-discrimination-claims-against-kiryas-joel/ |access-date=2024-06-12 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite court |litigants=Kiryas Joel Alliance v. Village of Kiryas Joel |vol=495  |reporter=Fed.Appx. |opinion=183 |court=2nd Cir. |date=2012 |url=https://content.next.westlaw.com/Document/I7741baa6fb2a11e1b60bb297d3d07bc5/View/FullText.html?transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default) }}</ref>