City of Joel (2018)

Located in the town of Monroe, NY, just over 50 miles north of New York City, the village of Kiryas Joel claims one of the fastest-growing Hasidic communities in the US. When the secular residents of the larger township—already wary of their insular neighbors—learn of Kiryas Joel’s desire to annex adjacent land to address its population growth, this sets off a turf war with political, economic and religious implications, echoing the divide within our nation as a whole.