After a prolonged court battle, the Hassidic community here, honoring the Skvirer Rebbe, will become officially an incorporated village this week, to be known formally as the Village of New Square. The incorporation papers are expected to be processed by the State Secretary of State at Albany tomorrow or the next day. Then New Square will be officially a village, and elections will be held for mayor and other village officials.
The village was founded in 1954 by 530 followers of Rabbi Jacob Joseph Twersky who was born in Skvir, a town near Kiev in the Ukraine. The name New Square is a variation of the name of that Ukrainian town. The orthodox residents, who built 69 one-family homes on the 130-acre tract near Spring Valley, New York, voted unanimously last August to incorporate. They filed the incorporation papers with Ramapo Township, of which the area is a part.
When the Ramapo Township Board of Supervisors failed to send the incorporation papers on to the State capital at Albany, the followers of the Skvirer Rebbe petitioned the State Supreme Court, requesting that Ramapo be forced to act on the incorporation. Last. July, Supreme Court Justice John P. Donohue ruled in favor of the Skvirer. Ramapo threatened to appeal the Judge’s ruling. Today, Town Supervisor Edwin E. Wallace announced: “The incorporation papers were sent to Albany Friday.” Ramapo had surrendered.
New Square plans to enact an ordinance closing all streets to all but emergency traffic every Sabbath, from sundown Friday to nightfall Saturday. Other ultra-Orthodox practices will become local law in New Square. At present, television is forbidden–although nearly every home has a radio. Women may not wear slacks in public.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
