Palm Tree, New York

The town of Palm Tree, which comprises the entirety of the village of Kiryas Joel, was officially created on January 1, 2019. Palm Tree had undergone numerous geographic and name changes prior to its incorporation as an independent town in 2019. Until 1764, the area was part of an enlarged Goshen. Goshen was then divided into two parts, with Palm Tree becoming part of Cornwall. By 1799 Cornwall was also divided, with Palm Tree joining present-day Monroe, Woodbury, and Tuxedo to become the town of Cheesekook. This name was changed to Smithfield (or Southfield) and in 1808 became Monroe supposedly in honor of James Monroe; others believe Monroe was named for a local family. In 1974, the Satmar rebbe Joel Teitelbaum started the Kiryas Joel community, and in 1976 the community was incorporated as the village of Kiryas Joel in remembrance of the Rebbe, 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, that eventually led to a referendum which passed overwhelmingly on November 7, 2017, that resulted in a split from Monroe and the creation of the town of Palm Tree, coterminous with the limits of the village of Kiryas Joel. 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. 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 either the 2018 or 2019 elections; however, two non-resident lawyers were elected as town justices in the November 2019 elections as part of a write-in campaign supported by the leadership of the majority faction of the town's community; while normally New York law requires town justices to be residents of the town, the town's laws were amended to permit the town justices to be non-residents. In the same election, residents voted for a single consolidated town-village government, to be governed as a village rather than a town. == Etymology ==

Palm Tree was chosen as the new town's name as it is a calque of Teitelbaum, the surname of the rebbes of Satmar. It means "date palm" - formed from teitel (date) and baum (tree). ==Geography==

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , and only a very small portion of the area (a small duck pond called "Forest Road Lake" in the center of the town) is covered with water. ==Demographics==

Palm Tree began with a 2019 founding population of 26,905 people, but since it has the same boundaries as its coterminous village of Kiryas Joel, its demographics from before its incorporation as a town is also known. As of the census of 2000, there were 13,138 people, 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. 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. asks visitors to dress conservatively and to "maintain gender separation in all public areas". == See also ==