Manhattan Synagogue Members Sue To Block $13M Building Sale
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Members of a Manhattan synagogue are asking a judge to halt the sale of their building in a deal made without their knowledge.
Worshippers at Sages of Israel, which is also a nursing home, claim that the board selling their Lower East Side Orthodox synagogue building for $13 million to a developer is not legitimate and lacks the authority to conduct such a transaction. They are also questioning the board’s plan to donate $10 million from the sale to the Ger Hasidic sect for a project in Israel.
The deal appears to have been arranged by Rabbi Samuel Aschkenazi, a Ger Hasid who is Sages of Israel’s executive director and also operates a synagogue in Queens. Most of the board members listed on the sales contract live in Queens and do not attend services at Sages of Israel.
A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday in New York State Supreme Court.
“This is a money grab and it’s offensive,” David Jaroslawicz, the attorney representing the members, told the New York Post. “The synagogue allegedly had a member meeting to pass this deal — even though the ‘members’ were people from Queens who had never stepped foot in the synagogue to worship there.”
The members also allege that Aschkenazi diverted funds intended for the synagogue to a yeshiva his granddaughter attended, in lieu of tuition payments, and, without the members’ knowledge, arranged for the synagogue to lease space in his home for $48,000 per year.
The developer seeking to buy the synagogue, Peter Fine, is reportedly a friend of William Rapfogel, the former CEO of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty who is in prison for an embezzlement scheme.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
