Headquarters | 8 Washington Avenue |
---|---|
Locale | Spring Valley, New York |
Service area | Rockland County, New York, Lakewood, New Jersey |
Service type | coach service |
Routes | 6 |
Fleet | 60-70 buses |
Fuel type | diesel |
Chief executive | Chaim Lunger |
Website | www |
Monsey Trail is a private bus company plying a publicly licensed route based in Rockland County, New York. It is operated by the Jewish Lunger family of the Skver Hasidic sect in New Square. The publicly subsidized carrier uses a fleet of about 60 coach buses, a few of which are publicly owned by Rockland County and leased to Monsey, running about 75 scheduled daily commuter trips. While the county-owned Transport of Rockland provides local service and connects commuters with rail transit to New York City, Monsey Trails, along with Short Line, provides private bus service between the suburbanized region and the area's principal city, New York City. A subsidiary, Monsey Tours, provides charter service.
The company's primary area of service is in the heavily Haredi west-central portion of the county, and much of the company's literature is printed in both English and Yiddish. Routes originate in Monsey, a community with a strong Orthodox Jewish but somewhat diverse population, and New Square, a Hasidic village. Many routes also travel to the heavily Haredi Jewish Brooklyn neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Boro Park. Another route connects Monsey and New Square with Kiryas Joel, an exclusive Satmar Hasidic community in Orange County.
Monsey Trails made the news in 1994, when a Jewish woman filed a discrimination suit against the company, after she was told by Haredi Jewish passengers to leave a men’s section. [1] The dispute raised questions about how far a company which receives government financing can go in accommodating religious practices. Monsey Trails received mass transit subsidies from New York State amounting to nearly $650,000 in 1993, roughly a quarter of the company's annual revenue. [2] The suit resulted in an out-of-court settlement, in which Monsey Trails agreed not to actively segregate male and female riders for Jewish prayers, and neither to provide a curtain to separate the male passengers from women, nor advertise daily prayers in its timetables, as they had done before.
Monsey Trails also operates service between Lakewood, New Jersey and Brooklyn under the Lakewood Express brand. This service was previously operated by Darkanu Bus Company until it shut down after an accident, and Monsey assumed the route. [3]
Monsey Trails also operates service between Baltimore, Maryland and Brooklyn under the Baltimore Line brand. A bus departs once a week from 14th Ave & 53rd St in Brooklyn, and arrives at 7 Mile Market in Baltimore. A bus also departs once a week from 7 Mile Market in Baltimore and returns to Brooklyn at 14th Ave & 53rd St. [4]
Route Number | Route Name | Route Description |
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1 | NYC Route | New Square/Monsey to Manhattan |
2 | Brooklyn Route | New Square/Monsey to Williamsburg/Boro Park |
5 | Forshay Route | Monsey North to Manhattan |
6 | K.J. Express | New Square/Monsey to Kiryas Joel |
7 | Lakewood Express | Lakewood, New Jersey to Brooklyn |
8 | Baltimore Line | Brooklyn to Baltimore, Maryland |
Haredi Judaism consists of groups within Orthodox Judaism that are characterized by their strict adherence to halakha and traditions, in opposition to modern values and practices. Its members are usually referred to as ultra-Orthodox in English; however, the term "ultra-Orthodox" is considered pejorative by many of its adherents, who prefer terms like strictly Orthodox or Haredi. Haredi Jews regard themselves as the most religiously authentic group of Jews, although other movements of Judaism disagree.
Rockland County is the southernmost county on the west side of the Hudson River in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population is 338,329, making it the state's third-most densely populated county outside New York City after Nassau and neighboring Westchester Counties. The county seat and largest city is New City. Rockland County is accessible via the New York State Thruway, which crosses the Hudson to Westchester at the Tappan Zee Bridge ten exits up from the NYC border, as well as the Palisades Parkway five exits up from the George Washington Bridge. The county's name derives from "rocky land", as the area has been aptly described, largely due to the Hudson River Palisades.
Monsey is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of Ramapo, Rockland County, New York, United States, located north of Airmont, east of Viola, south of New Hempstead, and west of Spring Valley. The village of Kaser is surrounded by the hamlet of Monsey. The 2020 census listed the population at 26,954; a 46% increase since the 2010 census.
Ramapo is a town in Rockland County, New York, United States. It was originally formed as New Hampstead, in 1791, and became Ramapo in 1828. It shares its name with the Ramapo River. As of the 2020 census, Ramapo had a total population of 148,919, making it the most populous town in New York outside of Long Island. If all towns in New York were cities, Ramapo would be the 12th-largest city in the state of New York.
Bobov is a Hasidic community within Haredi Judaism, originating in Bobowa, Galicia, in southern Poland, and now headquartered in the neighborhood of Borough Park, in Brooklyn, New York.
Bais Yaakov is a genericized name for full-time Haredi Jewish elementary and secondary schools for Jewish girls throughout the world.
Rockland Coaches Inc., formerly known as The Red and Tan Lines, and locally shortened to Red and Tan, is a commuter coach company owned by Coach USA based in Westwood, New Jersey, that operates commuter bus service between New York City and points in Bergen County, New Jersey, and Rockland County, New York, and provides local bus service in both locales north of Route 46. Coach USA acquired the company in 1997.
Yeshiva Torah Vodaas is a yeshiva in the Kensington neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.
Lipa Schmeltzer is an American singer, entertainer, and composer. He is a headliner in Hasidic as well as modern Jewish communities worldwide and "the Lady Gaga of Hasidic music". As of 2022, Schmeltzer has released 18 solo albums.
Chaim Zanvl Abramowitz, was known as the Ribnitzer Rebbe, and considered a great Hasidic tzadik from Rybnitsa. Others, including singer Mordechai Ben David, who was one of the rabbi's close disciples, maintain that he was born in 1893, making him 102 at the time of his passing.
Washington, D.C. has a number of different modes of transportation available for use. Commuters have a major influence on travel patterns, with only 28% of people employed in Washington, D.C. commuting from within the city, whereas 33.5% commute from the nearby Maryland suburbs, 22.7% from Northern Virginia, and the rest from Washington, D.C.'s outlying suburbs.
Shomrim or Shmira are organizations of proactive volunteer Jewish civilian patrols which have been set up in Haredi communities in neighborhoods across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom to combat burglary, vandalism, mugging, assault, domestic violence, nuisance crimes and antisemitic attacks, and to help and support victims of crime. They also help locate missing people.
The Transport of Rockland (TOR) is the bus system for Rockland County, New York, providing service along major routes in Rockland County, as well as connections to Clarkstown Mini-Trans in Clarkstown, Spring Valley Jitney in Spring Valley, the Bee-Line Bus System in Westchester as well as connections to Rockland Coaches and Short Line Bus routes providing commuter and local service to Northern New Jersey and New York City's Port Authority Bus Terminal, George Washington Bridge Bus Station, 5th Avenue, and Long Island. Annual ridership in 2008 was 3,862,232.
Short Line is a brand name for three different Coach USA companies, Hudson Transit Lines, Hudson Transit Corporation, and Chenango Valley Bus Lines that provide local, commuter and intercity bus service in lower New York State, primarily along the Route 17 and Southern Tier corridor. Coach USA acquired the companies in 1998.
Vien is an American Haredi Kehilla (community) originating in present-day Vienna. The name of their congregation is "Kehal Adas Yereim Vien".
Chaverim, also spelled Chaveirim, is an umbrella name for Orthodox Jewish volunteer organizations with locations all over the world, they provide roadside assistance and other non-medical emergency help at home or on the road. All services are free. The organizations are supported by local donations.
The response of the Haredi Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York City, to allegations of sexual abuse against its spiritual leaders has drawn scrutiny. When teachers, rabbis, and other leaders have been accused of sexual abuse, authorities in the Haredi community have often failed to report offenses to Brooklyn police, intimidated witnesses, and encouraged shunning against victims and those members of the community who speak out against cases of abuse.
Thirteenth Avenue is a roughly 2.5-mile-long (4.0 km) street in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. Thirteenth Avenue is the commercial center of the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Borough Park, and Dyker Heights.
On the night of December 28, 2019, the seventh night of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, a masked man wielding a large knife or machete invaded the home of a Hasidic rabbi in Monsey, Rockland County, New York, where a Hanukkah party was underway, and began stabbing the guests. Five men were wounded, two of whom were hospitalized in critical condition. Party guests forced the assailant to flee by wielding chairs and a small table. Three months after the stabbing, the most severely injured stabbing victim, Rabbi Josef Neumann, aged 72, died of his wounds.
Rabbi Yakov Horowitz is an Orthodox rabbi, author, educator and advocate from Monsey, New York.