First Roumanian-American Congregation - Controversy

Controversy

The collapse of the roof, and subsequent destruction of the synagogue, generated widespread concern and criticism among preservationists, who blamed Jacob and Shmuel Spiegel—a charge the family rejected.

Julia Vitullo-Martin, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and director of its Center for Rethinking Development, stated that First Roumanian-American's roof collapse and subsequent destruction dramatized an "ongoing though undocumented synagogue crisis—particularly in poor neighborhoods" and revealed a broader problem peculiar to Jewish houses of worship:

Since Judaism, unlike Catholicism, lacks a hierarchy that could keep track of how many are abandoned and demolished, the breadth of the problem is more difficult to ascertain.

In the years preceding the building's collapse, the congregation had received offers of assistance from the New York Landmarks Conservancy, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Lower East Side Conservancy, and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, though reports on the amounts and types of assistance offered varied. The congregation, then under the leadership of Jacob Spiegel, rejected them. Joel Kaplan of the Lower East Side Conservancy stated that the congregation "didn’t want the several hundred thousand dollars in landmarking grants that went to other Lower East shuls, money that could have kept the shul in repair."

The reasons given for this rejection also varied. According to Vitullo-Martin, writing in The Wall Street Journal, Shmuel Spiegel was not sure why the offers were rejected, as the records were "buried in the rubble". Vitullo-Martin speculated that congregants might have hesitated to agree to a condition that they would need permission from the state for any sale or alteration of the building during the following 20 years. According to The New York Times, Spiegel stated that the repairs required were so extensive that the congregation could not have made them even with this financial assistance. According to The Jewish Week, Spiegel stated that the congregation "didn't want outside interference", was "uncomfortable with the idea of being landmarked and having to answer to landmark guidelines", and was also uncomfortable with making part of the building into a "museum of past glory", as others nearby had done.

Zachter writes

A few blocks away, the Eldridge Street Synagogue survives. Why this synagogue was renovated, and the First Roumanian torn down, is a question for the rabbis and the historians.