16th Street Synagogue To Be Evicted
Following final legal effort, the Union Square shul has five days to move out
January 11, 2013
(Panoramio)
Last month, our peerless senior writer Allison Hoffman wrote of the 16th Street Synagogue’s battle to keep its home following a long legal battle. The backstory: Around ten years, the National Council of Young Israel dealt two of its buildings to a real estate developer, presumably thinking they would have the rights to stay in the spaces for as long as they wanted. Hoffman wrote:
Of course, New York real estate stories never work out the way they’re supposed to. The partnership between the developers collapsed into a protracted and bitter dispute, prompting one of the congregations to find a new home in SoHo. The other, known as the Sixteenth Street Synagogue, stayed put, and last Monday, congregants arrived at the shul to find eviction notices taped to the doors. On Tuesday, a New York State Supreme Court judge denied the synagogue’s motion for a stay. Sheriffs have told synagogue officials that, absent a stay on the synagogue’s appeal, they’ll show up January 8th to kick them out.
This afternoon it was announced that the 16th Street Synagogue has lost its final chance after a court decision denied their stay. President Richard McBee said:
“We are devastated by today’s Appellate Division decision to deny an ‘Interim Stay of Eviction’ and not allow our 67 year old synagogue to plead on behalf of the only spiritual home we have ever known. The court most certainly did not take into full account our historic, legal, equitable and moral rights to this building, as well as the fact that we have been trying to work this out to the best of our abilities.”
It will be a sad final Shabbat in Chelsea this evening.
Earlier: 16th Street Synagogue Fights To Stay
Adam Chandler was previously a staff writer at Tablet. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Slate, Esquire, New York, and elsewhere. He tweets @allmychandler.
