Tensions Increase This Summer In Catskills Between Hasidim and Locals

Last week the Forward carried an article detailing tensions in Sullivan County, in New York's Catskill Mountains, between local residents and the Skver Hasidim, a Orthodox Jewish sect currently based in New Square, New York. In 2006, the Skvers bought the 450-acre former Homowack property which they initially operated as a summer resort for their members and operated this summer as a girls' camp. In 2007 the Skvers announced plans to invest tens of millions of dollars to turn the property into a new town, Kiryas Skver, as "a twin community to the current shtetl" of New Square which the group is outgrowing. The Skvers' purposely isolate themselves from outside culture to devote themselves to "traditional Torah values." This summer, however, the girls' camp that the Skvers were operating on the Homowack site was cited for numerous safety violations and ordered closed down by the Department of Health. The camp closed on Aug. 9. The Skvers were also charged by the Department of Environmental Conservation over an oil spill, and have a large back tax bill for failing to pay hotel occupany taxes in 2007 and 2008. All of this has increased tensions between the largely non-Jewish year-round residents of Sullivan County and the tens of thousands of Hasidim who visit the area each summer.