Developers Forcing Synagogues To Make Tough Decisions
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The Beth Hamedrash Hagodol synagogue is one of New York City’s most treasured synagogues – a Lower East Side landmark that has served as a house of worship for Jews dating back to the 1800s.
But the future of the 154-year-old synagogue is in doubt.
Its walls are cracking. Its ceiling is crumbling. Prayer books are rotting.
Sensing a chance to profit, developers have begun to circle the building, offering millions of dollars to turn part of the temple into condos.
Resisting such deals has become harder and harder for those charged with running fading temples amid New York’s supercharged real estate market. Temples with dwindling congregations forced to maintain large, aging buildings are faced with this difficult decision: to sell or not to sell.
“Taking the money is very tempting,” a senior rabbi at Shearith Israel, the oldest Jewish congregation in North America – founded in 1654, Marc Angel, said. “But the guiding rule is don’t give up on a synagogue. If you do, it should be given up to a good cause. It shouldn’t be turned into apartments or a movie theater. But in reality, it’s difficult for communities to always follow that standard.”
In the case of Beth Hamedrash Hagodol, Rabbi Mendel Greenbaum has shunned the developers, instead hoping to raise nearly $3.5 million to restore the synagogue. Developers have offered to turn the main part of the building into condos while restoring a sanctuary in the basement.
Over the years, New York synagogues have been forsaken as demographics shift, only to be revived as apartments, mosques, churches, and a Buddhist temple.
On the Upper West Side, the rundown Temple B’nai Israel was demolished recently to make way for an apartment building.
In the East Village, three synagogues were converted into residential space – the Star of David or Hebrew inscriptions still visible on their facades. One of those is the Eighth Street Synagogue that Clyde Patterson, a local artist and preservationist, fought unsuccessfully to save in 1996. “Each one of these cycles just wipes out these synagogues and buildings of importance,” he said.
