Building series: Satmar’s eyesore on 540 Bedford Avenue

May 27, 2019 Building series: Satmar’s eyesore on 540 Bedford Avenue

Posted at 16:19h in Buildings, Rabbis, Williamsburg by Frieda Vizel 2 Comments

Site: Satmar unfinished synagogue

Location: 540 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211

A shell of what would have been one of the largest synagogues in the world stands abandoned at 540 Bedford Avenue Williamsburg, in the heart of the Williamsburg Hasidic community. From the site, we can see the luxury Williamsburg waterfront and the Manhattan skyline, and just two short blocks away we are at the busy Marcy Avenue subway, one stop from Manhattan. This monstrosity sits on prime real estate. It’s nearly a square block, although the main residence of the Satmar Rebbe Zalmen Teitelbaum cuts out a corner of Ross and Bedford.

The rusting behemoth at 540 Bedford:

The Rebbe’s home on the corner of Ross. The younger brother, Reb Zalmen, occupies this building:

Construction began in 1998 when the congregation was granted a city permit to build the three-story synagogue. But it came to a halt in 2001 when the dispute between the sons of the late rebbe Moses Teitelbaum, over which of the two should lead the flock, blew up into full-scale internal drama and chaos. The stormy succession feud was well-publicized then, and it fizzled out only after the sects split in two.

The Satmar group owns the property. The problem however is that there are now two Satmar groups and the American courts have not been able to rule on the intricacies of who should be the heir to this property.

The feuding sons: Aaron and Zalmen Leib:

For instance, from the case summer of Frankel v Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar of 2008 we learn that there are issues with the 1) the Satmar religious corporation called “UTA” of the Zalman faction, over arguments that UTA was illegally given an invalid lease of the synagogue and 2) that there are disputes over who should be control of the board of Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar, Inc.

With regards to the lease of 540 Bedford to UTA: (emphasis my own):

Friedman followers who claim breach of contract regarding the purchase of seats in the new synagogue under construction at 540 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, New York. The plaintiffs also sued United Talmudical Academy Torah V’Yirah, Inc (“UTA”) asserting that defendant, Sol Perlstein, “vice-president of the Congregation” entered into an invalid lease agreement with UTA which effectively turned over the construction of the new synagogue to UTA.

With regards to the board of elections issue, which the court ruled non-justiciable:

In a seminal decision issued by now-retired Justice Melvin Barasch in a related case over the disputed elections of two competing boards for control of the Congregation, he ultimately determined that a judicial resolution of the validity of either side’s board elections was non-justiciable since it would require the Court to impermissibly entangle itself in religious doctrine in violation of the First Amendment of the constitution.

The ownership dispute over this property involved various religious corporations formed for the enormous Satmar institutions that involve synagogues, charitable organizations, schools, cemeteries, and more. So this is not a case of Reb Aaron v Reb Zalmen Leib but much more intricate bureaucratic structures. The secular courts could not resolve the issue, ruling it non-justiciable.

In 2008, when the split had been fairly complete, the construction was renewed when building permits were issued in Aaron’s name. In 2010 it was again stopped when Zalmen’s followers filed complaints that the Aaron camp was unauthorized to receive permits for the building. Authorities revoked the permit till a resolution could be found.

The building sits unfinished to this day, almost twenty years since its construction began. It is one of the only things in Williamsburg that have stood unchanged over the six years that I’ve been a tour guide here. Everything is changing so quickly in Brooklyn — but this skeleton sits, a monument to the Satmar feud.

Here’s the Google Maps street view from June 2009:

Here’s the Google Maps street view from September 2018:

We pass this site on our tours and occasionally the big garage door is raised and we are privy to what’s inside, mostly storage for the Zalmen faction; bleachers and sukkah boards. But most important of all (:) the scaffolding makes this one of the few places in the area where we can find reliable shelter from the rain.