KASER – A 2.7-acre property formerly owned by the Viznitz yeshiva in this tiny village surrounded by Monsey has sold for $17.5 million.
The sale is being used to help finance the purchase of a 24.5-acre site in Ramapo that is being mounted by two nonprofit institutions ― Yeshivath Viznitz Dkhal Torath Chaim and Khal Torath Chaim.
The organizations are planning to purchase the site, at 86 Carlton Road West, Suffern for $25 million, records on file with the state Attorney General’s Office show.
The wooded property is within the Suffern postal district but is in unincorporated Ramapo.
The two organizations plan a “major new center” for Viznitz institutions at the Suffern site, according to state documents.
Residential complex eyed for Kaser site
The Kaser land sale was filed with the Rockland County Clerk’s office May 19.
A related May 19 easement agreement was also filed with the Rockland County Clerk, related to the deal between Yeshivath Viznitz Dkhal and Sky 10 Ashel LLC.
That document shows plans for three four-story residential buildings proposed for the site, with two around 53,000 square feet and one shown at around 46,000 square feet.
The plans included in the easement on file with the Rockland County Clerk are marked “unofficial.”
What we know about the Carlton Road site
Yeshiva Viznitz, partnering with Khal Torath Chaim, plans to build a new center at the Suffern site for Viznitz institutions, documents show.
The property, north of north Carlton Road and West of College Road, is a bit more than a mile south of Rockland Community College.
The property falls outside the traditional boundaries of the hamlet of Monsey, but how people refer to Monsey has expanded over the years. The site, in Ramapo planning board documents, is currently listed as being within Monsey.
Plans for the West Carlton Road property include five school buildings with about 300 classrooms and a “mega state-of-the-art House of Worship,” according to the AG’s approval of the application for sale.
Ramapo Planning Board is currently weighing plans for one school, with 728 students, being proposed for that address.
The total price of 86 Carlton Road West site, according to documents provided by the state Attorney General, was $25 million.
The proceeds from the Kaser sale by Viznitz yeshiva and the Monsey sale by Khal Torah Chaim total around $30 million, excluding closing and other costs. Surplus funds were to be used for construction at the Suffern campus, filings with the state AG show.
2 properties sold to same LLC
The property at 10 Ashel Lane was sold by Yeshivath Viznitz Dkhal Torath Chaim Inc. for $17.5 million to Sky 10 Ashel LLC, according to documents filed and dated May 19 with the Rockland County Clerk.
Meanwhile, Khal Torath Chaim was to sell property it owned at 229 Maple Ave., Monsey to Sky 10 Ashel LLC, according to documents filed with the state AG. That sale was to net $12.5 million.
Because the sale of properties were by a nonprofit or religious entities, the state Attorney General’s Office had to grant approval.
Sky 10 Ashel LLC, according to documents, is connected to Shimon Dushinsky of Brooklyn. A call to Dushinksy’s legal representation was not immediately returned.
Viznitz yeshiva has made big, controversial purchases
Yeshivath Viznitz Dkhal Torath Chaim serves the Hasidic Viznitz community of Rockland County and beyond.
The Yeshivah Viznitz entity has purchased key properties in the region.
Yeshivath Viznitz in 2021 purchased the Nyack College property for $45.5 million. A yeshiva currently operates on the main campus. A portion of that land sale, the former Alliance Theological Seminary off Route 9W in Upper Nyack, was sold in 2025. The new owner is currently seeking to operate a cheder, or Jewish primary grade school, there.
Yeshivath Vitznitz also bought the former Pace University Briarcliff campus in 2021, which was reported to be up for sale now by the yeshiva. In 2024, plans were afoot for the property to be sold to developers as a religious discrimination suit against the village of Briarcliff Manor was settled, but no sale appears to have taken place.
Village of Kaser: Roots in the Viznitz community
Kaser is one of two villages in Ramapo formed in the 1900s by Hasidic Jewish sects.
The more well-known New Square is home to the Skver Hasidic sect that started in Chernobyl, moved to Skver, Ukraine and then Brooklyn. New Square, the Anglecized version of Skver, was incorporated in 1961.
The Viznitz are believed to be among the larger Hasidic dynastic groups.
Yeshivah Viznitz on its website reports about 20,000 Viznitz Hasidim among Rockland County’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community that numbers around 100,000.
The Viznitz that originated in Viznitsia, Ukraine, a rural village in the Carpathian mountains. The sect fled to Brooklyn around World War II. The village of Kaser was incorporated in 1990.
Kaser by the numbers: A growing community
The village has seen rapid growth.
According to federal census data, the village’s population was 4,724 in 2010 and 5,491 in 2020. In 2025, the population was 6,121.
It, like most of the Monsey unincorporated area in Ramapo, has a younger population than the rest of the state. Some 53% of Kaser’s population is age 18 or under.
Most Hasidic Jewish households speak Yiddish; 94.9% of Kaser residents age 5 and over speak a language other than English in the household, census data show.
According to census records, about 98.5% of village residents identify as white only; 1.5% report they are two or more races; and 1.4% say they are Hispanic or Latino.
With about 1,235 households in the village in the 2020-2024 period, the average household size was 4.61, nearly double the state average of 2.49.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: How Viznitz land sale in Kaser fuels ‘mega’ center plans in Ramapo
Reporting by Nancy Cutler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
