Monsey, New York

Monsey (, ) is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of Ramapo, Rockland County, New York, United States, north of Airmont, east of Viola, south of New Hempstead, and west of Spring Valley. The village of Kaser is surrounded by the hamlet of Monsey. The 2020 census listed the population at 26,954.

The hamlet has a large, and growing, community of Haredi Jews.

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.

By 1997, Monsey had 112 synagogues and 45 yeshivas.

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

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 . There were 4,244 housing units at an average density of . 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, Stanislov, and Vizhnitz Monsey 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 CenterNathan-Kazis, Josh
"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."
* 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

See also

* New Square, New York − an all-Hasidic village in the same county
* Lakewood Township, New Jersey – a majority Orthodox Jewish township

References

Further reading

*

External links

Monsey Fire Department

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Census-designated places in New York (state)
Census-designated places in Rockland County, New York
Hamlets in New York (state)
Hamlets in Rockland County, New York
Orthodox Jewish communities
Orthodox Judaism in New York (state)
Jewish communities in the United States