What is wrong with selling shul to Buddhist?

I don’t see any problem. Where I live, one shul bought their building from a church that needed a larger building, two closed Hebrew/Yiddish schools were sold to another faith-based school and a very large orthodox shul was sold to a church. These are all Xtian congregations or schools that these sales were made too.

Edited

The reality is if you have a shul in an area with no minyan anymore (Like parts of the Bronx or Brooklyn).

You need money for upkeep and things like insurance (You dont want part of a building falling on someone walking by because the building was not taken care of)

You might not really have a choice, You have to sell the property (and the buyers you might like are not available)

If you can’t keep the building burn it down. You don’t make shoes from Sefarim and you don’t make a Beis Avoda Zara from a Shul!

The Mishna Berura brings down that Shuls are Changed to Avoda Zora if there is talking!

How can agnosticism be Avodah Zarah?

The solution to OP’s question does not come in the form of advocating the commission of multiple felonies, e.g. arson and insurance fraud.

Note to Bombmaniac, while I see you’re mixing Hebrew with Yiddish, the term is “fire insurance,” not burning insurance, i.e. ????? ???? ?? or just ????? ??.

I am certain Rabbi Meles did not approve the sale of his shul to Buddhists. So who did?

I am certain Rabbi Meles did not approve the sale of his shul to Buddhists. So who did?

From the Jewish Exponent (Which I have no intention of linking to):

According to Young Israel’s by-laws, if a congregation can no longer support a daily minyan — something Oxford Circle hasn’t been able to do for some time now — the synagogue property is supposed to revert to the national organization.

“It’s unfortunate,” said Rabbi Pesach Lerner, executive vice president of the National Council of Young Israel.

Lerner said it’s rare that the national council has actually had to take such a step. He added that the fate of the building has not yet been decided, but acknowledged that selling it is indeed a possibility.

What was the case here? The whole story from all sides, not just hearsay.

Let’s look at all the property records on the sale. We know from Bezalel’s posting who was in charge of the sale. Let that person provide all the documentation he has and let’s hear from the rabbonim (if any) who approved the sale as well as those who objected to it. If there were rabbonim on the Vaad Halacha who should have been consulted about the sale but were not, how did it go forward?

There are too many unanswered questions about this sale. Let’s hear those answers and have an independent Chacham determine if there was impropriety.

Yesterday I posted about several Jewish buildings in my city that were sold to Xtian organizations. I happened to drive by one of them today and it did give me a “shtoch in hartz” to see the sign “Church of the Living Hope” where it used to say “B’nai Avrohom”. I have driven by there several times since the sale, which was about 10 years ago and never given it much thought, but after this discussion, I realize that it is a sad thing to have happened. I will say that the new tenants have maintained the building and the landscaping and it is very neat and tidy, but it simply isn’t the same. About 10 years before this shul closed, they, along with some government money, built a low rental senior citizens block right next door that had a walkway attached to the shul. Of course, the apartment building is still there and a lot of Jewish people still live there, but the walkway has (of course) been blocked off. In the old days, if they were short for a minyan, they would just go through the walkway and start knocking on doors. I guess I am just nostalgic today but, we cannot live in the past. Shabbat Shalom to all.

I felt a stab in my heart when I looked at the interior photo of what used to be the shul at 6427 Large St. and saw a fat Phat idol in the spot where an Aron Kodesh containing holy Sifrei Torah used to be. I can only imagine how Rabbi Meles must feel.

As bad as it is for a shul to become a church, it is far worse for a shul to have its Aron Kodesh replaced with a phat Buddha idol.

Charlie, I just got this in an email. It’s about one shul in the Bronx that remains empty rather than become a church.

A Man of Principles (from the obituary of Rabbi David B. Hollander )

But an organization that Rabbi Hollander was ideologically opposed to offered the only hope of the synagogue being able to repay the rabbi. Knowing that he would not approve of the sale, the board members solicited, and received, approbations from several rabbinical authorities.

True to form, Rabbi Hollander refused to sanction the transaction.

Board members exited the room misty-eyed, in awe that the rabbi they came to revere made such a sacrifice.

So what can be done at this point?? It’s already sold and the sale can’t be undone. So what is the tachlis of this thread?? It was an error obviously, and to say the seller “should of known” is pushing it. You can’t always know what a buyer will do once he has title to the property. Be dan lkaf zchus, especially here where it is clear there was no knowledge beforehand.