ongregants of a historic Manhattan synagogue are suing the rabbi for $21million because he allegedly turned the house of worship into a disco and told worshipers to ‘go to hell’ when they complained.
The lawsuit was filed in Manhattan Supreme Court by five members of Congregation Emunath Isreal in Chelsea, according to the New York Post.
The suit alleges that Rabbi Yechezekel Wolff reneged on an agreement whereby he would lease the building housing the synagogue on West 23rd Street in exchange for paying operating expenses and covering repairs.
Instead, Wolff ripped out old pews from the 100-year-old building and turned off the heat in the winter time in order to ‘kill off the congregation,’ the lawsuit alleges.
The rabbi is also accused of letting secular film crews and art exhibits use the synagogue.
Wolff is alleged to have torn down memorial plaques to Holocaust survivors because he didn’t want them to ruin fundraisers he held at the synagogueThe suit alleges that Wolff would rent out the synagogue to people who threw dance parties and turned up the music so loud that neighbors called the police to complain.
‘I guess having memorial plaques to dead people is not consistent to renting out the sanctuary for discotheques,’ Ira Glauber, one of the plaintiffs, told the Post.
The Post obtained a recording in which Wolff is heard calling the congregants ‘crazy people’.
‘I cannot think about these people,’ he is heard saying.
‘I don’t wanna know of them. I don’t want to think of them.
‘They should all go to hell.’
In another recording, he is reportedly heard saying that he wishes the synagogue’s board would ‘get the f*** outta here.’
Glauber said: ‘A rabbi using four letter words? I’ve never heard of that in my entire life.’
Wolff declined to comment on the lawsuit.
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