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
I agree Brownstoner has called out developers of all creeds and ethnicities BUT…
“Is the political clout of THE HASIDIM so great that they can just skate by for a year…”
It’s not all Hasidim, collectively, who are building this craphole. It’s this group of Hasidim.
I’m sure it was unintentional, but it’s different only in degree from saying “the political clout of the Jews…” Cite the people acting, not the whole group.
If it is intentional–if Brownstoner has some collective beef with the behavior of all Hasidim–then he needs to back that up.
Otherwise I agree with the post.
Churches and mosques?
Hello?
It is practically illegal to be Roman Catholic in NYC any more.
People are afraid of offending Islam
because they do not want to be blown up
by a 16-year old who has found the ultimate cure for acne.
their is no similarity.
The Hasids have the pols by the nuts because the vote all as one.
They have long been a thorn in the side of Israel, yes Brooklyn jews are hated there, and they are a pain in the ass here, get real.
i find this posting quite offensive. we can go around the borough looking at churches and mosques and see similar situations. i’m quite surprised that this blog would stoop to stereotypes. the only thing you left out is that they control the media and money. i trusted you to have better journalistic instincts. think about it.
How hassidic political clout works;
-take 50,000 or so people who will act like robots and do whatever the leader tells them to do.
-use the financial leverage of this large group of people working towards a single goal to buy property, businesses and trades. (sort of like an ant colony with a religious agenda)
-use this potential voting block to curry favor with political interests; namely the Democratic party (this is New York).Who remembers the famous Clinton pardons in the upstate hassidic community?
-use this voting block to vote in members of your own community to add additional clout to your political interests.
-when dealing with city and state mandates over interests like housing laws, welfare laws, banking law or health laws; simply apply the voting block pressure to gain preferrential treatment in all of the above. All the while garnering the ire of less robotic populations who, while less cohesive, still enjoy the full freedom of expression guaranteed them by the constitution and don’t have to wear a fur hat in NYC on a 98degree day in August. But hey, this kind of stuff goes on in other religious cults as well. nothing new.
1. fistfights and bloodshed throughout the middle east are two different things.
2. Yes, as i said, it would be good if they actually built them to be safe, ie to code. The ugliness argument is just one I was making in response to the entire thread.
3. chill EJ
Two things 6:28 –
(1) don’t believe in violence? They beat each other up in fistfights over the Satmar brothers schism.
(2) The building isn’t ugly – it’s in violation of code in many, many dangerous ways. Although you may have been talking about the buildings they put up in general, as opposed to this specific one.
I think they’re kinda cool. The Satmar hasidim, which I’m assuming these dudes are, dont believe in violence, are anti-zionist, and don’t believe in rebelling against the government of any country they live in — it’s like a silent pact, “Let us live here as we wish, and we won’t get in your face, we won’t rise up against you.” The whole ugly building thing may be an ascetic decision, not an AESTHETIC one: They choose to deny themselves physical temptations (even nice looking buildings).
I’m digging these folks. I just wish they would make their structures SAFER.
Best post above:
“The poor Hasidim, nobody likes them. least of all other Jewish people. They are like the polygamist Mormons. But more urban. And with a lot more dough.
I don’t care what they do, they stay out of my way, I stay out of their way.
At least they don’t preach at the top of their lungs in the subways.”
For me, the Hasidim are really, really strange. It’s remarkable that they manage to live so cut off from others, so insular, in an urban setting.
Also, the fact that they go around in the garb of 18th century polish noblemen is kind of amazing to me. Even in Israel, in the desert, they wear big fur hats. Think about it — descendents of a Middle Eastern tribe wander across the globe, pick up certain sartorial habits in central europe, then return to their cultural cradle but hang on to the clothes. Weird.
I say put it to the above mentioned match-test and if it’s really God’s house, then He won’t let it burn. Ha ha.
And that’s not just for this building, but for any structure, religious or not, that has a printed wrapper showing on the facade.