West Orange shul seeks approval to erect a new $500,000 building

by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer

Pending approval from a zoning board, Congregation Beth Israel, the oldest Orthodox synagogue in West Orange, will get a new building as part of a planned $500,000 facelift.

The synagogue, formerly known as Young Israel of West Orange, plans to knock down its existing structure, a modest one-family home on Pleasant Valley Way. In its place will be a new building that will accommodate 100 people.

The synagogue has 43 members and has met in the same house since it was founded in the 1960s.

“We have an old one-family house. It’s not attractive. We want to put up a more aesthetically pleasing synagogue,” said congregation treasurer David Levitt.

At a hearing of the West Orange Zoning Board of Adjustment on Sept. 21, some neighbors expressed their displeasure with the plans, saying they are worried about potential growth of the synagogue community, parking issues, and noise and that the new building would not be in keeping with the neighborhood.

Levitt testified that the community is not interested in expansion. “There is no change in usage contemplated.” He added, “We are a self-selected group. Our kids are grown. We’re not looking for a social environment. We just want a place to hold services and go home.”

Levitt also suggested that families with children would likely select Ahawas Achim B’nai Jacob and David, located a short distance down Pleasant Valley Way, over Beth Israel. That larger Orthodox synagogue has “hundreds” of children and provides an array of family activities, from children’s services to youth groups.

Nevertheless, neighbors still had their doubts. “You can’t predict whether new or existing members will seek to increase membership, can you?” neighbor Barbara McCullough asked Levitt.

Another neighbor, Joe Garibaldi, worried about cars parking too close to his next-door lot for comfort.

Levitt said the plans have already been revised in response to this concern, with the number of parking spots cut from eight to four and relocated farther from Garibaldi’s property line.

“I’m not sure they will get any closer to your house” than they do now, said Levitt.

The board meeting was adjourned partway through the hearing before all of the witnesses had testified and before full public comments were taken; the board will take up the matter again Oct. 19.

The synagogue must apply for a conditional use variance even though the use will not change, because it is knocking down the existing building. The congregation had already gone through a series of hearings in the town council before being sent to the zoning board for the variance. The process has set the plans back by about six months, according to Levitt.

The new building would be turned on the lot so that the entrance, now facing Pleasant Valley Way, would instead face a side street. Levitt estimates the construction costs at $500,000 and said the synagogue community would begin raising funds as soon as the plans are approved by the zoning board, which he expects they will be.

“Despite the opposition, we are not changing the use; they may not like us, but we’re not going away,” he said in an interview.