Plan for religious gathering place brings lawsuits and charges of antisemitism and rigged decision

A fast-growing Orthodox Jewish movement that has operated a religious, social and educational center on Banks Street in Cambridge since 1999 is suing the city and its Board of Zoning Appeal for denying a permit to expand. Lubavitch of Cambridge, also known as Harvard Chabad because of ties to Harvard students and activities on campus, accuses the board and neighborhood opponents of antisemitism and says it must sometimes conduct religious activities and feed several hundred guests in a tent even in winter temperatures because it doesn’t have enough indoor space.

The zoning board on June 20 turned down Lubavitch’s request to almost double the total size of its indoor space by moving one building closer to Banks Street in Riverside and expanding it with a connection to a second structure. Besides larger space for religious services, the proposed new building would have a ritual bath in the basement and a roof deck available for religious ceremonies. Although the board voted 3-2 to approve, the application needed four votes.

Near the end of the meeting, with defeat for Lubavitch likely, its leader, rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, said of the opposing neighbors: “They just don’t want us here, and they’ve made it very, very – they told us, ‘We don’t want you here.’”

The Kerry Corner Neighborhood Association, the group of residents opposing the expansion, denied that its views resulted from “antisemitism or Nimby,” a term meaning “not in my backyard.” The organization said roughly 25 percent of its members are Jewish “and are concerned that regardless of what the petitioner promises today, should the building be allowed to expand, it will offer significant growth and occupancy well beyond current activities in a residential neighborhood of intimate scale.”

The rabbi gave veiled warnings of a lawsuit, saying that “millions of dollars of taxpayer funds built Chabad centers in America” after religious organizations were denied “by citizens who don’t care about the other minority communities, or what’s good for the city or what’s morally correct. So there is a liability here.”

Lubavitch filed suit in U.S. Federal court in Boston on Sept. 20. All parties requested mediation on Nov. 21, before Cambridge and the zoning board had even filed an answer. Last month the mediator, magistrate judge M. Page Kelley, reported that mediation is continuing. Zarchi declined to comment for this story because of the “confidential nature” of the mediation, he said in an email Wednesday.

Strong feelings

Mediation contrasted with the strong feelings expressed during two hearings by the zoning board on May 9 and June 20. Though the Kerry Corner Neighborhood Association said it welcomes the presence of Harvard Chabad and cited its Jewish members, Zarchi said: “Somehow, we’re fair game and somehow if you call yourself a Jew, that gives you a license to fight a project and attack it.”

At the first zoning board meeting May 9, the rabbi also questioned the knowledge of the group’s Jewish members about religious customs because it had calculated that the total capacity of the new center would be 890 people. “Clearly, either they have no involvement with the Jewish community, because when they say we’re going to have 800 people, that speaks to zero familiarity with how a Jewish institution functions,” Zarchi said.

Lubavitch’s architect said he designed the project to serve up to 250 people at one time – the capacity needed now – noting that different activities such as meals and religious services would never occur concurrently. The neighborhood group maintained its position, saying it is based on the building code and details of the expansion plan.

At the June 20 hearing, the rabbi also took aim at what he perceived were complaints about the size of his family. “They told me a month ago ‘When you had two kids, you were fine. Then you had three, then you had four. Then you had five.’ Yes, our garbage is 10 times more than our neighbors.’ You know why? Thank God we’re blessed with six children. Most of them don’t have any children. That’s choices they made, or their children moved on. So it’s insulting … This is a public prosecution of a family and of the Jewish community here.”

Accusation of rigging

The Kerry Corner Neighborhood Association said the increased floor-to-area ratio of the expansion would change the character of the neighborhood, a complaint that Lubavitch interpreted as antisemitic. “It is not uncommon for antisemitic groups to form and try to impede zoning applications by Jewish groups,” Lubavitch’s lawsuit said, citing a case in Rockland County, New York.

At the May 9 hearing, board associate member Carol Agate “insinuated that Chabad’s growth was detrimental to the neighborhood, stating that, ‘When there is more space, there are going to be more people. And more people is going to change the nature of the neighborhood,’” the lawsuit said. “The language employed by Ms. Agate, expressing concern for a ‘change’ in the ‘character’ or ‘nature’ of a neighborhood, is typical coded language for ‘your kind are not wanted here.’”

The suit also asserted that the zoning board chair, Jim Monteverde, and associate member Agate “rigged the administrative process to ensure that [Lubavitch’s] application would never be granted.” The two allegedly made sure that Agate, who opposed the expansion, would hear and vote on Lubavitch’s request, by substituting her for another member who attended the meeting, the suit said. Monteverde, the chair, also opposed the petition, and it would fail with two members voting no, the suit said.

The board has five members and six associate members, the lawsuit said; currently there are four members and five associate members. The associate members can fill in if needed. The suit said Monteverde didn’t say why the member Agate replaced – only for the Lubavitch case – couldn’t hear the case, despite an explanation being required.

Neighborhood character cited

The two zoning board hearings on the request were tense. Supporters spoke of finding a needed community at the Banks Street center, called Chabad House. Some said it was a place of comfort in a world of heightened hatred of Jews. One person who said some in her family were secular Jews said it was a place that welcomed all.

“In a segmented city where much is either individual residences or student housing and commercial, a religious and community gathering space, rather than changing the feel of the neighborhood, is vital to the character of the community. Further, right now it especially feels important to support Jewish places of gathering and community,” said Molly Rothenberg, a nearby resident for 30 years. “I feel I should qualify this by saying that my family is an interfaith family and mostly secular, and we have always felt welcomed by Chabad despite that.”

Opponents said the quiet neighborhood already contended with increased trash, noise, deliveries and light from Chabad’s operations. They said they worried that Chabad would keep growing. On one occasion there were 1,000 people in the street, which was closed by Cambridge police, one neighbor said. “This is a very large expansion, that will have a very large negative impact on life in the neighborhood,” the neighborhood association said in an April 5 letter to the zoning board.

Zarchi said the gathering occurred after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, when invading fighters killed about 1,200 people and took approximately 240 hostages. Israel’s retaliation has destroyed much of Gaza and killed about 48,000 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilian and military fatalities.

As for problems with trash, noise, deliveries and light, Lubavitch’s attorney Sarah Rhatigan said that “the impacts that the neighbors experience now will be better, will be improved by this project, not to the contrary.”

The lawsuit said the board had granted a similar expansion request from a mosque less than a month after rejecting Lubavitch’s application. The Al-Amin mosque had asked to increase its space at 378-380 Rindge Ave. by adding a third story; it also wanted to add minarets to its roof to look more like a mosque. Yet in contrast to the Lubavitch application, there was no neighborhood opposition in the Al-Amin case, according to a transcript of the zoning board hearing July 11.

Another lawsuit over exit

The federal case isn’t the only lawsuit that the Lubavitch application has spawned. A real estate trust that owns 20 apartments along Green Street Extension, a short street that leads from Putnam Avenue to a fence at the rear of the Lubavitch property, claims that the zoning board improperly granted Lubavitch permission to locate two “tandem” parking spots at the back of its property and create an opening in the fence that allows cars to exit the site onto Green Street Extension.

The parking spots were part of Lubavitch’s expansion application to the zoning board. Although John Toulopoulos, one of the trustees of the trust, argued against Lubovitch’s plan to let cars drive from its property onto Green Street Extension, the zoning board granted the request with no discussion.

The trustees’ suit, filed Sept. 9 in Land Court, said Green Street Extension is private. It’s so narrow that cars exiting the Lubavitch site would create a traffic and pedestrian hazard because there isn’t enough room to turn around, and cars would have to back down Green Street Extension onto Putnam Avenue, the suit said.

The plan for the site also located a “trash area” near the opening in the fence, which “implies an intention” to use Green Street Extension for “truck delivery and refuse hauling,” not only as an exit for parked cars, the suit said.

It said the board gave no reason for approving the plan and didn’t say what authority it had to let Lubavitch use “a private way.” The trustees want the court to issue a declaratory judgement saying Lubavitch has no right to use Green St. Extension for vehicular travel.

Lubavitch and the zoning board have denied the claims. The case has been stayed while mediation continues in the federal lawsuit, according to Land Court records. A status report is due on March 31.

University connections

Lubavitch, also known as Chabad or Chabad Lubavitch, is the name of the Russian town where it was based in the 1800s. The sect is an arm of the Hassidic Jewish movement; it’s based in Brooklyn and has established centers worldwide, often called Chabad houses, similar to the center on Banks Street. Although Orthodox, it focuses on outreach to all Jews, including secular Jews, particularly college students. It has a significant presence at Harvard University, where it holds gatherings, though it’s not a Harvard program. Zarchi is a Harvard chaplain.

Harvard Hillel on Mount Auburn Street is owned by the university and describes itself as a “Jewish home on campus” that provides four types of “prayer communities,” including Conservative, Orthodox and Reform. It also offers meals, Sabbath ceremonies and “celebrations that we all share together,” its website says.

Lubavitch of Cambridge has bought six other properties in Cambridge and one in Somerville since 2011. Five in Cambridge and the Somerville site are being operated as preschools, called the Cambridge Preschool of the Arts.

The Cambridgeport preschool site at 118 Magazine St., Cambridgeport, also serves as a Chabad house for students at the Massachusetts Institution of Technology.

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