Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Brooklyn Activists: Building With Big Apartments Designed for Ultra-Orthodox

The plans for a 1,146-unit apartment complex in South Williamsburg have reopened a debate within the neighborhood’s diverse community over who gets the best affordable housing. Some residents fear that the Rabsky Group’s eight-building development will have a sizable number of multi-bedroom apartments — a layout that they say privileges large ultra-Orthodox families over smaller Hispanic families.

Leaders of the neighborhood’s Hispanic community discussed their concerns about the Rabsky Group project at a community board meeting on Tuesday.

“It’s a segregated rezoning. The city has participated in creating a segregated community through rezoning. How is that right?” Robert Solano, a Williamsburg resident and the head of Churches United for Fair Housing, told DNAInfo. “I walk through the Broadway Triangle rezoning [every day]. Don’t tell me it’s inclusive.”

Despite strong disagreement from community members, the measure to rezone the 200 block of Harrison Avenue for the Rabsky Group development passed 25-15.

According to the Pew Research center, ultra-Orthodox families have about four children on average. The Population Research Institute reported that Hispanic families have slightly below four children on average, though it noted that Hispanic family size is decreasing.

“It’s perceived that it’s a Jewish project because it has a Jewish developer,” Rabbi David Niederman, head of United Jewish Organizations, said of the Rabsky Group project. The company is co-owned by two Jewish men. “This is a project that is going to be [a place] where African Americans, Latinos live next door to each other in wonderful relationships.”

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.