An attorney for a community of Hassidic Jews in Ramapo has disclosed that the community has obtained State Supreme Court approval of its long legal fight to incorporate as a separate village under the name of New Square. The village is named after the Hassidic “Skverer Rebbe.”
Abraham Stanger, the attorney, said that Supreme Court Justice John P. Donohue ruled in support of the group’s request for an order forcing authorities of the Rockland County town to comply with the New York State village law. Under the order, Ramapo officials must forward the incorporation documents to the State capital at Albany for action.
The ruling cleared the way for a judicial order instructing Ramapo authorities to certify a map of New Square, and to deliver to the New York Secretary of State a certificate of the vote on incorporation, which was held August 3, 1960. The Ramapo authorities have 30 days to file an appeal.
The Hassidim have been fighting for a separate community so that they can enact their own village ordinances to assure maximum conditions for fulfillment of Orthodox religious practices. There are 530 Hassidic Jews in the community, totaling 69 families with 250 children. The Hassidim began moving to this rural area seven years ago from the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn to escape the intrusion of new housing developments there.
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