Palm Tree, New York

Palm Tree is a town in Orange County, New York, United States. New York's first new town in 38 years, it was created by a referendum that came about due to zoning and other conflicts between residents of the village of Kiryas Joel, New York, inhabited by the Satmar Hasidic community, and the municipality to which it belonged, Monroe, New York.[2]

Palm Tree, New York
Town
Kiryas Joel view
Location in Orange County and the state of New York.
Palm Tree Location within the state of New York Show map of New York Palm Tree Palm Tree (the United States) Show map of the United States
Coordinates: 41°20′24″N 74°10′2″W
Country	United States
State	New York
County	Orange
Government
• Supervisor	Abraham Wieder[1]
• Council Members	Joshua Blumenthal Morris Steinberg Isaac Glanzer Gerson Neuman
• Town Clerk	Gedalye Szegedin
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (EDT)

History

The village of Kiryas Joel was created in the early 1970s at the behest of Satmar rebbe Joel Teitelbaum, who the village was named for, as a semi-rural retreat for his Williamsburg, Brooklyn-based community. Over time, the need to annex additional land in order to accommodate Kiryas Joel's burgeoning population created zoning conflicts with the town of Monroe.[3] These conflicts were eventually solved with a referendum, which passed overwhelmingly on November 7, 2017, that resulted in an amicable split from Monroe and the creation of the town of Palm Tree, which was to be coterminous with Kiryas Joel.[4]

On June 14, 2018, special legislation was passed that moved up the target date by one year. The bill was signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo on July 1.[5][6] The town became official on January 1, 2019, with officials elected in November, 2018 being sworn in on that date. No candidates ran for town justice in the 2018 or 2019 elections, and Palm Tree remains the only town in the state without a justice court, as the law requires.[7]

Etymology

The name "Palm Tree" is a calque (translation) of the surname/family name of Joel Teitelbaum. In Yiddish, teitel (טייטל) means "date" (of the palm), and baum "tree".

See also

• Kaser, New York − a majority Hasidic village in a neighboring county.
• New Square, New York − a majority Hasidic village in a neighboring county.
• Hasidic Judaism

References

1. "Election Results: 2018 Local and State Races". recordonline.com. Retrieved 2018-11-07.
2. https://www.recordonline.com/news/20190105/845-confidential-town-of-palm-tree-takes-root-in-orange-county
3. Foderaro, Lisa W. (November 19, 2017) "Call It Splitsville, N.Y.: Hasidic Enclave to Get Its Own Town", The New York Times. Retrieved April 6, 2020.
4. McKenna, Chris. "Kiryas Joel's split from Monroe overwhelmingly approved". recordonline.com. Retrieved 2017-11-14.
5. McKenna, Chris. "State OKs forming Town of Palm Tree one year earlier". recordonline.com. Retrieved 2018-06-17.
6. "NY State Senate Bill S7861A". NY State Senate. 2018-04-13. Retrieved 2018-07-02.
7. McKenna, Chris (September 18, 2019). "Neighboring towns forced to handle Palm Tree court cases". Times Herald-Record. Retrieved 16 January 2020.