The four-story, redbrick building at 235 East Broadway, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, has reportedly been sold for an estimated $1.7 million. According to Boweryboogie.com, there is no record of sale for the building, but according to the city’s property database the new owner, E8 NYC Holdings LLC, has taken out a $1.7 million mortgage on 235 East Broadway.
The building is home to Agudas Harrabonim, the United Jewish Council of the Lower East Side, and the synagogue of the Chasidim of Poland, all three being relics of a century of Jewish life in downtown Manhattan.
Agudas Harrabonim, a.k.a. the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada (UOR), located at 235 East Broadway, was established in 1901 and is the oldest organization of Orthodox rabbis in the United States. For many years it was the main group of Orthodox rabbis in America, but in recent years it lost membership and influence.
The United Jewish Council of the Lower East Side serves as a coordinating body of neighborhood, secular, civic and fraternal organizations. Formed in 1971, the UJC has worked to preserve and stabilize the Lower East Side of Manhattan community with human services and community development programs. The majority of the group’s programs cater to the needs of the elderly, but the UJC also offers programs for families and children.
As noted above, the United Jewish Council of the Lower East Side is still listed as the current owner of the building at 235 East Broadway. Sadly, the building is listed as follows:
“235 East Broadway is a 5,540 square foot property built in 1900 in the Chinatown neighborhood of Manhattan. The property has 4 total units and has an occupancy classification of ‘miscellaneous religious facility.'”
So, 120 years later, this major part of Jewish history has been downgraded to a miscellaneous religious facility in Chinatown…