Kent Avenue Synagogue: What a Shame
How f’d up is the situation with the makeshift synagogue on Kent Avenue in South Williamsburg? Very. It’s been almost a year since the 17,000-square-foot building was thrown up in a kind of urban barn-raising (200 people working in shifts 24 hours a day for 20 days) during which one worker was seriously injured and…
How f’d up is the situation with the makeshift synagogue on Kent Avenue in South Williamsburg? Very. It’s been almost a year since the 17,000-square-foot building was thrown up in a kind of urban barn-raising (200 people working in shifts 24 hours a day for 20 days) during which one worker was seriously injured and a Stop Work Order was issued. Despite the less-than-exemplary track record during construction, the congregation was able to wrangle a Temporary Place of Assembly permit for 10 dates in September and October of last year, which is when this video was made. (Irony of all ironies: the synagogue is next door to a fire station.) Since last fall, the owner (which is listed on DOB filings as Congregation Kahal Adath Krasna of 1623 44th Street) has not lifted a finger to finish the exterior of the building and has been denying access to buildings inspectors who have received numerous tips that it’s being used illegally as a school. The building has yet to receive a Certificate of Occupancy. Our question is who’s running interference for the synagogue? Is the political clout of the Hasidim so great that they can just skate by for a year in clear violation of fire safety and buildings department regulations with no consequences?
Sin-A-Gog Outrage: This Is Getting Ridiculous [Brownstoner]
Synagogue Needs Some Skin, Baby! [Brownstoner]
GMAP P*Shark DOB
Personally, my pet peeve is when people refer to them as “the Jews” (this happens a lot in my neighborhood).
It’s like calling the Amish “the Christians”, Qutbis “the Muslims” or Mormon Fundamentalists “the Mormons”.
They are religious nuts who, unfortunately, have a lot of political power and have built their financial and political empire at the expense of everyone else in the city.
Wow… Imagine if this was a mosque-congregation taking on an identical order of events. Then, after the completion of the illegal mosque, a video surfacing w/ an interior shot of the same thousands in celebration and prayer whilst blatantly disregarding the laws of the powers that be. I personally have read articles in the non-mainstream news outlets that speak to the illegal policing and harassment of “other†houses of worship; sticking them with fines and lockouts based solely off our (as a country) biases towards certain faiths. What a sad un-balanced world we live in.
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what’s this have to do with the building
I often take cabs home and pass the place at night – it’s often full of people inside and out, as late as midnight, or even later…so much for a C of O or place of assembly permit.
Go to Borough Park, go to Williamsburg, hell, go to Monsey (in Rockland County) and enjoy this type of unbelievable behavior time and time again. The Hasidim in New York do whatever they damn well please and they can get away with it, because no, God doesn’t help them, the almighty dollar does.
This synagogue is a disgrace, not only because the people living around it are faced with a risk of danger from such an atrocity, not because it’s outrageously ugly, but because it is a place of worship that looks like a piece of sh*t… I don’t know, perhaps I’m taking this from a different point of view, but wouldn’t you want a place where you worship, and a place that is representative of your culture look somewhat decent, if not at least fully constructed?
Lastly, it is a shame that that video can be, in any way, overlooked as unadulterated evidence that the synagogue is a disaster waiting to happen, however, if “God forbid” something like a fire or other catastrophe occurred there, where people were injured or died, I am 100% certain that the people who use it regularly would find someone to blame (possibly God) for such an event, while they sit idly waiting for, and potentially allowing it to happen.
Money talks, kids.
and they wonder why we dont shed a tear when a place like this burns down
I don’t think it is fair to say that Hassids can get away with anything. They have made a niche for themsleves and they know how to use their political clout.
I do have to agree however that they show no concern for anyone outside their group. But that’s true of many enclaves. I don’t think the Amish care very much for people outside the community and the Jehovahs will have a funeral for you if you marry out of the religion. Ah diversity.
The Hasidim create fine communities for the Hasidim.
They create exclusionary communities for all other groups and erode any diversity in a neighborhood through their bigotry.
They invest nothing in the urban environment, aesthetically, community-wise, or otherwise unless they stand to gain from it.
They exemplify the worst stereotypes of Jews and their conduct exacerbates the anti-semitism prevalent in the city already.
Just symptomatic of the larger issue that the hasidic jews can get away with anything in Brooklyn and have no concern for their neighbors.
Suzy – where is the rest of your post? Did you pass out?