Monsey, New York

History

Rockland County was inhabited by the Munsee band of Lenape Native Americans, who were speakers of the Algonquian languages. Monsey Glen, a Native American encampment, is west of the intersection of State Route 59 and State Route 306. Numerous artifacts have been found there and some rock shelters are still visible. The Monsey railroad station, named from an alternate spelling of the Munsee Lenape, was built when the New York & Erie Railroad passed through the glen in 1841.

In 1943, Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz purchased a property in Monsey with the intention to raise the education level of Torah teachers. Named Aish Dos (Pillar of Fire), the institute comprised two buildings on a 16-acre plot. In 1944 it was reconstituted as Beth Medrash Elyon, Monsey's first Jewish institution.

In the 1950s, Monsey was a one stoplight town with a single yeshiva. In 1979, Rabbi Ezriel Tauber and a group of lay leaders purchased land in Monsey for the American campus of the Ohr Somayach Yeshiva.{{cite book

By 1997, Monsey had 112 synagogues and 45 yeshivas.{{cite news | access-date = February 2, 2012

Located in Monsey is the Houser-Conklin House, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.

Having the largest Orthodox Jewish community in Rockland County, Monsey has become a metonym for Orthodox Jews in all of Rockland, including those who live in neighboring hamlets and villages such as Viola, Airmont, and Spring Valley.

Geography

Monsey is located at .

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has an area of 2.2 square miles (5.8 km2), of which 2.2 square miles (5.7 km2) is land and 0.04 square mile (0.1 km2) (0.90%) is water.

Demographics

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As of the census of 2017, there were 22,043 people, 3,984 households, and 2,596 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 6,554.3 PD/sqmi. There were 4,244 housing units at an average density of 1,400.0 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the CDP was 95.8% White, 3.0% African American, 0.03% Native American, 1.05% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.70% from other races, and 1.08% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 2.86% of the population. 43.98% speak English at home, 41.48% Yiddish, 6.88% Hebrew, 2.69% French or a French creole, 1.85% Spanish, and 1.24% Russian.

There were 2,981 households, out of which 58.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 78.0% were married couples living together, 6.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 12.9% were non-families. 10.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 4.74 and the average family size was 5.16. In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 48.6% under the age of 18, 10.5% from 18 to 24, 18.2% from 25 to 44, 16.3% from 45 to 64, and 6.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 19 years. For every 100 females, there were 106.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 106.6 males. The median income for a household in the CDP was $45,194, and the median income for a family was $45,911. Males had a median income of $41,606 versus $33,576 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $14,000. About 25.4% of families and 30.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 37.8% of those under age 18 and 9.2% of those age 65 or over.

Jewish community

Monsey is a major center of Orthodox Judaism in the United States, along with several other cities such as Kiryas Joel, Kaser, Spring Valley, and New Square. It is the largest center of Hasidic Judaism in the U.S. outside New York City, with approximately 5,400 households (4.2% of the world's Hasidic population). The migration to Monsey began in the late 1940s when New York City's Orthodox Jews were seeking affordable real estate for their quickly growing communities. These spaces offered the possibility of moving en masse and establishing enclaves where they could lead lives based on halakha (Jewish religious law) without coming into regular conflict with non-Orthodox neighbors. This represented a major, distinct suburban demographic shift for these communities. Major Hasidic sects represented in Monsey include Satmar, Vizhnitz Monsey, Sanz and Belz, with the rebbes of Berditchev, Lizensk, Lizensk (Rokeah), Nikolsburg, Sambor Yerushalayim-Monsey, Sassov, Shinave, Spinka Monsey, and Stanislov sects residing in the community. Vizhnitz maintains a cemetery in Monsey.

On December 28, 2019, Monsey was the site of a mass stabbing in the home of a Hasidic rebbe of the Kosonyu sect who was hosting a Hanukkah party, leaving four injured and one dead.

Notable people

• Shalom Auslander (born 1970), author of Foreskin's Lament, which covers his time growing up in Monsey
• Julia Haart (born 1971), fashion designer and entrepreneur
• Mordechai Hager (1922–2018), rebbe of the Hasidic sect of Vizhnitz
• Steven Hill (died 2016), actor, Mission: Impossible, Law & Order
• Yaakov Kamenetsky (died 1986), rabbi who lived in Monsey from 1967 until his death.
• Yosef Mizrachi (born 1968), kiruv rabbi
• Michael Rogers, publisher, journalist, fundraiser, activist
• Mordechai Shapiro (born 1989), singer
• Tovia Singer (born 1960), counter-missionary radio host, author and speaker
• Charlotte Thompson (1843–1898), actress
• Leib Tropper (born 1950), founding rabbi of the Kol Yaakov Torah Center
• Andrew Carpenter Wheeler (1835–1903), prominent theatrical reviewer, editor, author

Places of interest

• Houser-Conklin House, a historic structure dating to 1775
• Monsey Church (currently New Hope Christian Church), built in 1824
• Ohr Somayach, a men's college of Judaic studies

File:HOUSER-CONKLIN HOUSE, MONSEY, ROCKLAND COUNTY, NY.jpg|Houser-Conklin House File:Bais hamedrush.jpg|Bais Hamidrash File:Community synagogue monsey.JPG|Community Synagogue File:New Hope Christian Church 2.jpg|New Hope Christian Church File:Monsey Glen 9.jpg|Monsey Glen Park File:Historic Monsey Cemetery Sign.jpg|Historic Monsey Cemetery File:טאשנאד מאנסי.jpg|Tashkent Mansi File:צאנז קלויזענבורג מאנסי.jpg|Sanz Klausenburg Mans

References

References

1. "ArcGIS REST Services Directory". United States Census Bureau.
2. "Quickfacts: Monsey, NY".
3. "How Monsey became a center of Hasidic life in America".
4. Weinstock, Cheryl Platzman. (February 10, 2002). "If You're Thinking of Living In/Monsey; Low Inventory, Lots of Kugel, Some Deer". [[The New York Times]].
5. Rosenblum, Yonason "Reb Shraga Feivel" Mesorah Publications, Inc. 2002. Pages 291, 299
6. "Ohr Somayach Monsey « Ohr Somayach".
7. (2010-10-08). "National Register of Historic Places". National Park Service.
8. Berger, Joseph [https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/27/arts/television/my-unorthodox-life-debate.html Netflix Series Stirs Debate About the Lives of Ultra-Orthodox Women] ''New York Times'' Oct. 27, 2021
9. (2011-02-12). "US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990". [[United States Census Bureau]].
10. "Monsey. DataUSA.io".
11. "U.S. Census website". [[United States Census Bureau]].
12. Modern Language Association, [http://www.mla.org/map_data_results&SRVY_YEAR=2000&state_id=36&place_id=48010 Data center results for Monsey, New York]. Retrieved on 2008-03-26.
13. Wodzinski, Marcin. (2018). "Historical Atlas of Hasidism". Princeton University Press.
14. Margulies. (2000). "The Spatial Culture of the Hasidic Community". Columbia University.
15. (May 18, 2020) [https://hamodia.com/2020/05/18/viznitz-bais-hachaim-monsey-close-rosh-chodesh-sivan/ "Viznitz Bais Hachaim in Monsey to Close Before Rosh Chodesh Sivan"], ''Hamodia''. Retrieved June 16, 2022.
16. "5 stabbed in 'act of domestic terrorism' at Hanukkah party; suspect held on $5 million bail".
17. Green, Emma. (2019-12-29). "'We're Not Safe as Jews in New York'".
18. McGrath, Charles. [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/02/arts/02iht-lament.1.7715996.html "Shalom Auslander: An Orthodox Jewish outsider grapples with his past"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', October 3, 2007. Accessed May 9, 2016. "MONSEY, New York — Shalom Auslander ends ''Foreskin's Lament,'' his memoir of growing up in, and eventually breaking away from, the Orthodox Jewish community here, not with an acknowledgments page but with a list of people God might consider punishing instead of the author's family."
19. Rosenberg, David (November 4, 2016) [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/210702 "War of the 'Kiruv' Rabbis Escalates"], ''Israel National News''
20. (12 March 2019). "We Can All Sing". Mishpacha Magazine.
21. Hoggman, Allison. [http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/23483/con-game "Con Game"], ''[[Tablet (magazine)]]'', January 13, 2010. Accessed May 9, 2016. "Aguiar said Kaplan introduced him to Tropper in 2003, after he had already begun studying Judaism with another Monsey rabbi, Tovia Singer, who specializes in reaching out to evangelical Christians who, like Aguiar, were born Jewish, and getting them to 'return' to Judaism."
22. Nathan-Kazis, Josh. [http://forward.com/news/207652/rabbis-barry-freundel-and-leib-tropper-ensnared-in/ "Rabbis Barry Freundel and Leib Tropper Ensnared in Scandals Tied to Conversions"], ''[[The Forward]]'', October 21, 2014. Accessed May 9, 2016. "The Tropper scandal centered in Monsey, New York, an ultra-Orthodox enclave far from Freundel's cosmopolitan Washington, D.C. congregation that includes beltway Jewish royalty like U.S. Treasury Secretary [[Jack Lew]], former senator Joe Lieberman and Leon Wieseltier, The New Republic's longtime culture and arts editor."