Community concerns rise over Van Cortlandt Jewish Center's pending sale

The Van Cortlandt Jewish Center is moving forward with selling its property on Sedgwick Avenue, with chair Jack Kleinfeld saying the board is doing what it believes is best for the synagogue.

Gary Jean-Juste/file

This is an institution that has served the community in not only its religious capacity but in its social capacity.”

Laura Chenven, concerned community member

Van Cortlandt Jewish Center members continue to hang in limbo as they await news of a final contract to sell the property at 3880 Sedgwick Ave. to Innovative Development. 

Laura Chenven is a community member who lives several blocks from the Jewish center and has witnessed the influence it’s had on the community. She said the center held weddings, funerals and bat mitzvahs while the building itself once held a senior center and a daycare.

“Those are some of the most important institutions in building stable neighborhoods,” she said. 

In the process of selling the building, the center lost two of its tenants, the Jewish Association Serving the Aged Older Adult Center and the Mosholu Montefiore Early Childhood Learning Center, which functioned as a daycare. 

JASA relocated to 185 W. 231 St., which has become a different problem for people used to frequenting the senior center.

Neil Bhattacharyya is a Riverdale resident who attended JASA often to connect members and participate in lively discussions with neighboring seniors. 

“It’s very inconvenient for us,” Bhattacharyya said. “We’re very old people.” 

Bhattacharyya said the new location on 231st Street is now too far for him to go, so he is unable to continue benefiting from JASA’s services. 

Chenven, despite not being a member of the Van Cortlandt Jewish Center congregation, is concerned with its future because, she said, it has been a community staple and the loss of the building and institution as it is currently could be devastating. 

“If the (center) is not going to serve its own community, it’s a problem and I care,” Chenven said. 

Among the solutions Chenven said she presented was an introduction between the center’s leadership and the chief executive at Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation, Heng Ly, but the meeting was never scheduled.

Chenven said center officials have been given the opportunity to transform the property and provide further community services, much like senior housing, that could support both the seniors in the area and the seniors in the center’s congregation. 

Another solution Chenven said she presented was a partnership with the New York State Council of Churches. Chenven said she spoke to Reverend Peter Cook, the executive director of the council, about faith-based affordable housing, but she said she was unaware of a meeting between Cook and the center’s board taking place.

An online petition was created June 9 to try to stop the center’s sale to Innovative Development. The petition is directed to the attention of state Attorney General Letitia James, borough president Vanessa Gibson, state Sen. Robert Jackson, U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, and City Councilman Eric Dinowitz. 

As of July 7, the petition had more than half the requested 500 signatures.

Kleinfeld said the property, if sold, would include the development of apartment buildings but would also create space for the Jewish center to occupy indefinitely within the building. 

In documents obtained by The Press, dated May 13, members of the congregation wrote to James, requesting the sale of the Jewish center be stopped so alternative solutions could be properly investigated. 

Kleinfeld said he is aware the petition has been sent out, but beyond the attorney general finding validity in the members’ request and reaching out to the center, he does not plan to stop the sale. Kleinfeld said he and the board do not agree with the members who think a sale to Innovative Development is not in the best interest of the center. 

Chenven said that she reached out to Kleinfeld directly, offering her assistance with alternatives for the center to pursue but he asked her to sign a non-disclosure agreement in order for them to continue discussing any future plans. Chenven said she refused to sign the agreement and when they last spoke over email in April, Kleinfeld said he would not be interested in continuing the conversation without the signed agreement. 

“This whole thing has been handled in secrecy,” Chenven said.  

Kleinfeld said he did request a nondisclosure agreement for members of the community who were not members of the congregation who were looking to speak with him regarding the center’s decisions. 

“It’s the board’s opinion that, in order for us to be successful in what we are doing, we should not be reporting details out beyond the board all the time, if at all,” Kleinfeld said. 

He said center’s board is trying to do what it believes is right for the synagogue, and the membership will be included in the vote when the time comes. Kleinfeld said he understands there is suspicion regarding the potential deal with Innovative Development, but he is not profiting off of the deal in any way. 

“Our sale should not be something that non-members get to have a large choice in, and it shouldn’t be something that should be so blatantly attacked,” he said. 

Chenven said she understands, for the center, not moving forward with the sale of the property is not an option, but she wants to ensure any decisions continue to be beneficial to the community.

“This is an institution that has served the community in not only its religious capacity, but in its social capacity,” she said. “Communities are not just about houses, they’re about services and meeting places and what makes a community vibrant.”