Bed Stuy Synagogue Raises Thousands of Dollars to Rebuild After Fire

The black Jewish congregation at the historic synagogue on Greene Avenue in Bed Stuy has started a fundraising campaign online and has already raised $23,165 to rebuild after a devastating fire in November.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams helped arrange a partnership with Home Depot, as well as donations of $2,500 and $5,000 from Express Lumber and Midwood Lumber, respectively, for B’nai Adath Kol Beth Yisrael at 1006 Greene Avenue. And 182 people have donated to the campaign at GoFundMe.

The congregation and Adams announced the campaign and funding Wednesday, the first day of Hanukkah, at the synagogue, which was built in the 1870s as Trinity Baptist Church.

The congregation hopes to raise $1.5 million altogether to rebuild the roof and interior. They were already working with architect Landau|Zinder of Princeton, N.J., to repair and update the building when the fire occurred.

The congregation was formed in Harlem in 1954 and relocated to Bed Stuy two years later, according to the group’s website. It is one of at least two Israelite congregations in Bed Stuy — another is Beth Shalom at 730 Willoughby Avenue.

The congregation has been resisting pressure from real estate developers to sell the property. Rabbi Baruch Yehuda fielded “three calls from people wanting to buy the building on the way to the fire,” he told the New York Daily News.

“Instead of accepting defeat, we are looking forward to the bright future that will rise from this tragedy,” the group says on its fundraising page.

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