BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | A fire that broke out early Sunday evening gutted the historic Beth Hamedrash Hagodol synagogue on Norfolk St., between Grand and Broome Sts. It took firefighters three hours to bring the roaring blaze under control.
Fire marshals are investigating the cause of the fire. Federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms also visited the site Monday because the fire involved a house of worship, the New York Post reported.
News reports said video showed three minors fleeing from the area on Sunday. On Tuesday, DNAinfo reported that police believe it was, in fact, arson.
The building was landmarked in 1967. Founded in 1852, it was the oldest Russian Jewish orthodox synagogue in the U.S., but was abandoned 10 years ago. It was originally a Baptist church until being bought by a group of Russian and Polish Jewish immigrants who converted it into a synagogue.
Holly Kaye, the founder of the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy, said trespassers had been climbing up onto the building on its fire escape in recent weeks, according to the Post. The conservancy asked the Fire Department to remove the fire escape, but it refused to do so.
“It seems like it was malicious nonsense from kids playing around,” Kaye said.
Kaye said the congregation and the Chinese American Planning Council had been working on a deal to fund the synagogue’s renovations, the Post reported. It would have involved the council buying air rights from the synagogue to construct a high-rise building on a rear lot. The synagogue also would have built a Jewish-Chinese center with a worship space.
“We were all set. A developer was going to come and renovate the synagogue and everything,’’ said its rabbi, Mendel Greenbaum.
Speaking on his show on 8 Ball Radio on Monday, L.E.S. documentarian Clayton Patterson noted that kids had been caught trying to start a fire in the synagogue just a couple of weeks ago.
“I can’t believe they didn’t use an accelerant,” he said of Sunday’s inferno. “It went up like a fireball. How much did they pay them?” he wondered.
The synagogue’s exterior had been marked with orange boxes with “X” ’s in them — a sign to firefighters not to enter due to unsafe conditions.
In 2013, the congregation, lacking funds to fix up the building and filed an application with the Landmarks Preservation Commission to demolish it, with plans to develop the property residentially. But the congregation had a change of heart and was recently meeting with L.P.C. and the Department of Buildings in hopes of renovating the building, the Post said.
In 2006, a storm blew out the place’s main window, and the conservancy made the synagogue’s restoration its top goal.
As Jefferson Siegel reported for The Villager back then, plans called for a visitors’ center to be a meeting point for walking tours. There would have also been space for cultural programs, art exhibitions and concerts and lectures.
“We see this as our signature project,” Kaye said at the time.
Also in 2006, then-City Councilmember Alan Gerson praised the effort to fix up the synagogue.
“This is another step toward the continued rebirth and revitalization of the Lower East Side, as manifested by this magnificent edifice, this historic synagogue,” he told The Villager.
