The Forest Hills Community Is Mixed On The Sale Of A Local Synagogue

FOREST HILLS, NY — People are mixed about the sale of the Forest Hills Jewish Center, an institution that has been in the neighborhood for nearly 70 years as not just a synagogue, but also a community resource.

The Forest Hills Jewish Center at 106-06 Queens Boulevard was contracted for sale to Top Rock Holdings, RJ Capital Holdings and JU Forest Hills Development to make way for an office building.

Congregants voted in 2021 to sell the center because the concert-hall-like space didn't feel intimate and lacked modern amenities, such as air conditioning and elevators, reported the Jewish Telegraph Agency.

The Forest Hills Jewish Center was not available for comment at the time of publication.

"Forest Hills Jewish Center is more than just a place of worship," said Evan Boccardi, who is Catholic. "These places become centers of civic life. They are places where people gather regardless of religion and creed. They come together in unity."

Boccardi, an engineer and member of the Rego-Forest Preservation Council, a landmark preservation group, became familiar with the center in 2017 via the Forest Hills Symphony Orchestra, which called the synagogue home since 1980.

The site also had a religious school, senior center and recreation center with pools and a basketball court, said Boccardi.

Boccardi, a self-described capitalist, has no problem with the congregation listing the aging synagogue for $50 million, but wished that there was more effort in preserving the building itself.

"The board of directors were a bit hasty in jumping into the conclusion of sell or bust," said the conservation member. "There is architectural significance in the building."

Based on his research, the Forest Hills Jewish Center is the oldest mid-century modern-designed synagogue, not just in the state, but also in the country, according to the engineer.

"I cannot find an older synagogue done in this style anywhere in this nation," Boccardi added. "It's a precursor to the buildings that were to come in both Catholicism, Judaism and Protestantism. A lot of houses of worship were brought into a new era with these designs."

In addition to its design, the synagogue incorporates one stone from Israel and another from a desecrated synagogue that was ruined during the Holocaust from Frankfort on the Main, Germany, according to the landmark preservation group.

"As neighborhoods grow and change, the buildings must grow and change," said Boccardi, "but it is my opinion that some sliver of history should be preserved for the next generation."

Boccardi, 31, doesn't care if a 20-story tower is built at the site, so long as the facade of the original building is preserved.

"Could you imagine the effort in Europe in moving a cornerstone across the ocean," Boccardi added. "These people made an extraordinary effort to get to America so these Holocaust survivors could get to a new temple, a new life."

Michael Perlman, another member of the Rego-Forest Preservation Council, is a fifth-generation Forest Hills resident, and he does not want the center to be closed.

"My parents got married at the Forest Hills Jewish Center," Perlman told Patch. "I attended services there on occasion."

A condo turning into an office building is one thing, but to turn a synagogue into one is something else, according to Perlman.

"It's a slap in the face of our heritage," said Perlman.

Perlman, 39, also wants to preserve the architectural nature of the building.

"It borrows from the Art Deco and Art Moderne style," Perlman noted. "It was a first of its kind."

Art Deco often has smooth wall surfaces and vertical presentations. Art Moderne emphasized rounded wall surfaces and flat roofs, according to Circa, a housing website.

"It's a shame that people are thinking only about the almighty dollar," Perlman added. "I consider this sinful. It is very disheartening."

Perlman said a growing Moroccan orthodox synagogue was interested in utilizing the space and he had hoped that the FHJC would have considered that over selling to developers.

Rabbi Matatia Chetrit of MJO Shaar Synagogue, which is also in Forest Hills at 112-21 72nd Ave., confirmed that he was interested in using the space at the center.

"We would like it to be used for the Jewish community," Chetrit told Patch. "The price that they sold it for, which was like nearly $40 million, we don't have that type of money."

Chetrit would have preferred to utilize the space for Jewish and adult education, as well as sports and social activities.

"There were many things that we would have liked to have done if we had access to it," Chetrit added. "We would have also brought other organizations together that are also looking to expand and we could have built it up from there."

Shaar Synagogue works with organizations that have a Sunday school, a young men's Torah program and other groups from other parts of Queens and Brooklyn that have their own initiatives, added the rabbi.

"The people who escaped from the Holocaust were looking for hope for the Jewish future," Chetrit said. "That is one of the reasons that they built the building. An office building is unnecessary."

While terms of the impending sale have not been released, the center is set to relocate nearby FHJC at a more intimate space with room for community gatherings once the sale is finalized, according to multiple reports.