Fire-damaged New Brunswick synagogue for sale

NEW BRUNSWICK - In October 2015, a fire tore through the historic Congregation Poile Zedek on Neilson Street in New Brunswick, damaging all but the outside shell and leaving the building uninhabitable.

Now, the site of the abandoned building is for sale, according to Abraham Mykoff, the congregation’s rabbi.

The asking price for the 145 Neilson St. property is $750,000, according to a posting from Century 21 J.J. Laufer in Highland Park.

The description indicates that the buyer would be responsible for “all township approvals and demolition.”

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Efforts to restore the century-old, Orthodox, Ashkenazi synagogue to its former glory were cost prohibitive, according to Mykoff, who has led the congregation as rabbi for the past 20 years.

He declined to provide any further details on the nature of the sale.

A GoFundMe page was launched by the congregation’s leadership in the months following the fire. But as of March 2018, they garnered only $16,000 toward the $1 million restoration price tag.

Virtually all of the artifacts, decorations and prayer books were destroyed, either by the heat, water or smoke. The nine Torahs were damaged beyond repair.

Mykoff was able to save a handwritten Sefer Torah by reportedly rushing into the burning building to salvage it.

In the heart of the former Hiram Square Market, the synagogue opened in 1924, according to the Rutgers University Special Collections and Archives. It was named to the National and State Registers of Historic Places in 1995.

“Poile Zedek Synagogue, its design a blend of Romanesque, Classical Revival, Georgian and Moorish Revival styles, is a fine representative of the eclectic architecture that characterized Raritan Valley and American synagogue architecture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,” reads the National Register of Historic Places registration form.

“The synagogue was built probably around 1924,” New Brunswick Councilman John Anderson said in 2015. “It’s really been here all this time doing a lot of work for the community. It’s devastating for the city of New Brunswick and the community.”

Congregation Poile Zedek was founded in 1901 as the Independent Sick and Death Benefit Association of New Brunswick, according to the website.

Mainly composed of Polish and Russian Jews, the name was changed to Congregation Poile Zedek, or “Workers of Righteousness,” in 1904, and property at 145 Neilson St. was bought in 1905, according to the Rutgers archives.

Construction of the building went on for several years. The cornerstone ceremony was held in 1923 and the building opened the next year.

While the synagogue was under construction, the congregation operated out of the home of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Elfant, who lived at 25 Hiram St., according to the Rutgers archives.

By the time of the fire, the congregation was serving roughly 100 families from across the region, according to the website.

An influx of Russian immigrants in the years leading up to the fire led to a revitalization of the congregation, on top of nearby Rutgers University students who would come in for services.

Over the decades, the landscape of the market district drastically changed. The neighborhood went from being the city’s market district and port, to housing many of New Brunswick’s undocumented residents.

Now, the area is filled with houses and condominium complexes, the Hyatt Regency Hotel and the headquarters for pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson.

As of 2017, the property upon which the empty building sits was valued at $2,226,200, doubled from its 2016 assessed value.

One other Jewish center of worship still stands in New Brunswick — the Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple. Built in 1859, it was the fourth synagogue in New Jersey and the first in New Brunswick.