Kiryas Joel (, ; often locally abbreviated as KJ) is a village coterminous with the Town of Palm Tree in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 32,954 at the 2020 census, approximately 5% of the estimated 712,000 population of the Kiryas Joel–Poughkeepsie–Newburgh metropolitan area. The vast majority of its residents are Yiddish-speaking Hasidic Jews who belong to the worldwide Satmar sect of Hasidism.

According to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, Kiryas Joel has by far the youngest median age population of any municipality in the United States,Here's The Youngest Town In Every State Accessed September 11, 2014. and the youngest, at 11.4 years old, of any population center of over 5,000 residents in the United States.City Data Accessed December 14, 2006. Kiryas Joel has seen significant population growth since the 2000s. According to 2020 census figures, the village has a high poverty rate with about 40% of the residents living below the federal poverty line. It is the place in the United States with the highest percentage of people who reported Hungarian ancestry, as 18.9% of the population reported Hungarian descent in 2000.

Daniel Presman has served as mayor of Kiryas Joel since 1997; Gedalye Szegedin has served as its administrator since 2004 or earlier.

History Kiryas Joel is named for Joel Teitelbaum, the late rebbe of Satmar and driving spirit behind the project.

The Satmar Hasidim came from Satu Mare, Romania, known when under Hungarian rule as Szatmár.Mintz, Jerome R., Hasidic People. A Place in the New World. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press 1992, pp. 28. Teitelbaum, originally from Austria-Hungary, rebuilt the Satmar Hasidic dynasty after World War II.

In 1947, Teitelbaum settled with his followers in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, a borough of New York City.

By the 1970s, he decided to move the growing community to the Town of Monroe, a suburban location in Upstate New York that was more secluded from what he considered the harmful influences and immorality of the outside world, yet still close enough to the New York metropolitan area. The land for Kiryas Joel was purchased in the early 1970s, and 14 Satmar families settled there in the summer of 1974. Monroe town officials initially expressed skepticism over Teitelbaum's and his followers' plans to build multi-family housing in Kiryas Joel, but they eventually allowed the village to incorporate in 1976. When he died in 1979, Teitelbaum was the first person to be buried in the village's cemetery. His funeral reportedly brought over 100,000 mourners to Kiryas Joel.

In 2001, Kiryas Joel held a competitive election in which all candidates supported by the grand rebbe were re-elected by a 55–45% margin.

In 2019, the village of Kiryas Joel separated from the town of Monroe, to become part of the town of Palm Tree, New York's first new town in 38 years. On July 1, 2018, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill to create Palm Tree, triggering elections for the first governing board. The new town had 10 elected positions on the November 2018 ballot, including a supervisor, four council members, and two justices to preside over a town court.

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

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 1.1 square miles (2.8 km2), and only a very small portion of the area (a small duck pond called "Forest Road Lake" in the center of the village) is covered with water.

Demographics

Racial and ethnic composition {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" |+Kiryas Joel village, New York – Racial composition !Race (NH = Non-Hispanic) !

!2010 !2000 !1990 !1980 |- |White alone (NH) |style='background: #ffffe6; |96.5%(31,356) |98.1%(19,794) |98.3%(12,921) |98.1%(7,295) |100%(2,087) |- |Black alone (NH) |style='background: #ffffe6; |0.2%(57) |0.1%(18) |0.2%(26) |0%(2) |0%(0) |- |American Indian alone (NH) |style='background: #ffffe6; |0.1%(17) |0%(1) |0%(0) |0.1%(10) | |0%(0) |- |Asian alone (NH) |style='background: #ffffe6; |0%(13) |0.1%(12) |0%(3) | |0.1%(5) |- |Pacific Islander alone (NH) |style='background: #ffffe6; |0%(12) |0%(2) |0%(0) |- |Other race alone (NH) |style='background: #ffffe6; |0%(0) |0%(2) |0%(0) |0%(1) |- |Multiracial (NH) |style='background: #ffffe6; |2%(672) |0.4%(76) |0.5%(66) |— |— |- |Hispanic/Latino (any race) |style='background: #ffffe6; |1.4%(465) |1.3%(270) |0.9%(122) |1.7%(124) |0%(1)

2020 census As of the 2020 census, Kiryas Joel had a population of 32,954. The median age was 14.4 years. 58.7% of residents were under the age of 18 and 2.7% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 107.8 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 110.2 males age 18 and over.

100.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.0% lived in rural areas.

There were 5,837 households in Kiryas Joel, of which 77.3% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 91.6% were married-couple households, 3.4% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 4.6% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 4.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 1.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

There were 6,207 housing units, of which 6.0% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0.1% and the rental vacancy rate was 2.5%.

2010 census Languages (2010)Modern Language Association base data on Kiryas Joel. Accessed online December 14, 2006.Modern Language Association English proficiency in Kiryas Joel. Accessed online December 14, 2006. Percent Spoke Yiddish at home 91.5% Spoke only English at home 6.3% Spoke Hebrew at home 2.3% Spoke English "not well", or "not at all" 46.0%

2000 census Kiryas Joel began with a 1977 founding population of 500 people. As of the 2000 census, there were 2,229 households, and 2,137 families residing in the village. The population density was . There were 2,233 housing units, at an average density of . The racial make-up of the village was 99.02% White, 0.21% African American, 0.02% Asian, 0.12% from other races, and 0.63% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.93% of the population.

Largest ancestries (2000) Percent Hungarian 18.9% American 8.0% Israeli 3.0% Romanian 2.0% Polish 1.0% Czech 0.3% Russian 0.3% German 0.2%

Kiryas Joel has the highest percentage of people who reported Hungarian ancestry in the United States, as 18.9% of the population reported Hungarian ancestry in 2000. 3% of the residents of Kiryas Joel were Israeli, 2% Romanian, 1% Polish, and 1% European.

The 2000 census also reported that 6.3% of village residents spoke only English at home, one of the lowest such percentages in the United States. 91.5% of residents spoke Yiddish at home, while 2.3% spoke Hebrew. Of the overall population in 2000, 46% spoke English "not well" or "not at all".

There were 2,229 households, out of which 79.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 93.2% were married couples living together, 1.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 4.1% were non-families. 2.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 2.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 5.74, and the average family size was 5.84. In the village, the population was very young, with 57.5% under the age of 18, 17.2% from 18 to 24, 16.5% from 25 to 44, 7.2% from 45 to 64, and 1.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 15 years. For every 100 females, there were 116.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 118.0 males.

The village abides by strict Jewish customs, and its welcome sign, which was installed in 2010, asks visitors to dress conservatively and to "maintain gender separation in all public areas". Poverty and crime The median income for a household in the village is $40,218, and the per capita income for the village is $12,114.

According to 2020 census figures, the village has a high poverty rate with about 40% of the residents living below the federal poverty line. A 2011 New York Times report noted that, despite the town's very high statistical poverty rates, "It has no slums or homeless people. No one who lives there is shabbily dressed or has to go hungry. Crime is virtually non-existent." The article goes on to note that there is a large network of self-funded social services within the community, which makes the official poverty statistics somewhat misleading. On the other hand, the parochial school system is funded by residents, not taxes, and employment in that system is a major cause of the low wages of many residents.

Transportation

Kiryas Joel has a very high rate of public transportation usage compared to other cities in the region. Local transit within the area is operated by the Village of Kiryas Joel Bus System, part of Transit Orange, and also has service to Manhattan and to the heavily Haredi Jewish-populated Williamsburg and Borough Park sections of Brooklyn.

Events since 2000

Growth Friction with surrounding jurisdictions The village has become a contentious issue in Orange County for several reasons, mainly related to its rapid growth. Unlike most other small communities, it lacks a real downtown and much of it is given over to residential property, which has mostly taken the form of contemporary townhouse-style condominiums. New construction is ongoing throughout the community.

Population growth in Kiryas Joel is strong. In 2005, the population had risen to 18,300. The 2010 census showed a population of 20,175, for a population growth rate of 53.6% between 2000 and 2010, which was less than anticipated, as it was projected that the population would double in that time period."Census 2010: Orange population growth rate 2nd highest in state, but lower than expected" by Chris Mckenna, Times Herald-Record, March 25, 2011. Accessed December 7, 2011, In 2006, village administrator Gedalye Szegedin stated:

Neighboring towns

The Town of Monroe also contains two other villages – Monroe, and Harriman. Kiryas Joel's boundaries also come close to the neighboring towns of Blooming Grove and Woodbury.

Some residents of these communities and local Orange County politicians view the village as encroaching on them. Due to the rapid population growth in Kiryas Joel, resulting almost entirely from the high birth rates of its Hasidic population, the village government has undertaken various annexation efforts to expand its area, to the dismay of the majority of the residents of the surrounding communities. Many of these area residents see the expansion of the high-density residential-commercial village as a threat to the quality of life in the surrounding suburban communities, due to suburban sprawl. Other concerns of the surrounding communities are the impact on local aquifers and the projected increased volume of sewage reaching the county's sewerage treatment plants, already near capacity by 2005.

On August 11, 2006, residents of Woodbury voted, by a 3-to-1 margin, to incorporate much of the town as a village, to constrain further annexation. Kiryas Joel has opposed such moves in court.