From a dairy farm to Shikun Skvira: the history of New Square פון א מילך-פארם ביז שיכון סקווירא: די היסטאריע פון ניו סקווער

New Square (Shikun Skvira) is an all-Chasidish village in Ramapo, Rockland County (9,679 people in 2020). The Skverer Rebbe R' Yaakov Yosef Twersky (1899–1968), a Holocaust survivor, came to Williamsburg in 1950. In 1954 the Zemach David Corporation, on his behalf, bought a 130-acre dairy farm near Spring Valley; building began in 1956 and the first four families moved in that December; by 1958 there were 68 houses. The founders meant to call it New Skvir, but a typist's error made it New Square. Ramapo's zoning blocked multi-family houses and home businesses; in 1959 the town attorney sought condemnation of the whole settlement. A state court ruled for New Square and it was incorporated in July 1961. A kollel opened in 1963. After R' Yaakov Yosef's passing in 1968 his son, the Skverer Rebbe R' Dovid Twersky shlit"a, succeeded him.