NEW YORK - The retail empire Wal-Mart has a new enemy: the ultra-Orthodox community of upstate New York.

Over the last few years, the increasingly strong ultra-Orthodox community in New York has been spilling over from the old Brooklyn neighborhoods and into areas north of New York City, like Monsey. These areas have turned into large concentrations of synagogues, yeshivas and revered rabbis.

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Monsey appears to be a peaceful place where the streets are wide, tall buildings banned, and quiet prevails.

But Yaakov Brill of the Vishnitz Hasidic sect says the quiet is misleading. The residents of the area are working to prevent a Wal-Mart superstore from being built in the center of town.

Wal-Mart operates 6,400 stores across the United States, and opened 21 new stores in November alone. Many ultra-Orthodox Monsey residents don't want a Wal-Mart in their neck of the woods because they are concerned that it will attract many non-residents, including non-Orthodox shoppers, and compromise the safety of their community.

Local opposition to new Wal-Mart stores is hardly limited to Monsey. According to the Financial Times, nearly every store that Wal-Mart announces it will open generates opposition from protesters who see the corporation as disrupting the quality of life and negatively affecting small businesses in the area.

A Monsey protester complained that residents would be forced to put bars on their windows if the store is built, in a town where residents don't lock their doors.

Meir Schiller, a Talmud professor at Yeshiva University in New York, says a Wal-Mart store would draw large masses of people, including non-religious Jews and non-Jews, and that some of these outsiders are likely to damage what he calls the special character of Monsey. Schiller explains that the Jews who moved to Monsey came because they wanted to live in a quiet place, and are suddenly being forced to cope with something that will likely transform it into a noisy consumer center.

There are an estimated 35,000 to 50,000 Jewish residents in the Monsey area.

Jewish business owners with stores along Route 59 say the new Wal-Mart would take away their business. Indeed, a Financial Times report has found that everywhere a Wal-Mart is opened, small businesses are forced to shut down.

Wal-Mart, however, argues that restaurants near its stores thrive as hungry shoppers look for a place to eat.

The clashes began several weeks ago, after Wal-Mart announced its plans to set up a superstore in Rockland Country, where Monsey is located. The 215,000-square-foot store is slated to be built on the section of Route 59 that passes through Monsey.

A petition circulating among Monsey residents says the store would lead to increased traffic, competition with existing local businesses involved with community projects, environmental damage and a higher crime rate. It was not clear how many residents signed the petition, as many people refused to discuss the battle with Wal-Mart. Brill attributes their silence to residents' suspicion of the media.

Although media reports have characterized the vast majority of Monsey residents as opposed to the Wal-Mart, at least some give it their full support.

Asher Sapnor, a taxi driver who prays regularly in the synagogue of the Satmar Hasidic sect and is a veteran resident of the area, says he was in favor of the superstore coming to Monsey because of its relatively cheap prices. Sapnor, who bought a jar of olives at a nearby Wal-Mart for 98 cents instead of about twice as much in a regular store, says the opposition to Wal-Mart is only looking to get publicity.

Indeed, Wal-Mart managers have expressed willingness to make an effort to appease the ultra-Orthodox community, by employing uniformed supervisors to make sure the shoppers are behaving appropriately, according to Menachem Lubinsky, the organizer of an annual kosher food fair in New York. He says Wal-Mart has also agreed to pave roads around the superstore in an effort to prevent excess traffic in the area.

The final decision is up to Rockland County officials - but Wal-Mart has yet to lose a legal battle over its right to build a store in a specific location.