Goshen, NY - New Religious Entity Casues Stir

Goshen, NY - Rabbi Meir Borenstein attend a public hearing for his plans to convert a downtown office building into a home and a synagogue for Chabad of Orange County.

The rabbi, who moved to Goshen two years ago with his wife, Rivka, and believed, that his religion comes before all else, has been operating a religious school and prayer center out of 32 N. Church St., where he rented space for a retail store, defying a Village of Goshen law preventing the use of downtown buildings for religious purposes. He conducted classes and prayer services in the retail shop before closing it down last year.

Borenstein at the hearing admitted he had held religious activities at the retail store, last year. But he said he did so only after his attorney informed the village that the restriction on religious activities in downtown buildings violated federal law.
Planning Board attorney Michael Donnelly said Borenstein had a valid legal argument, which is why village attorneys told him that Goshen would likely amend the zoning law. But that acknowledgement did not give the rabbi permission to operate a religious school and prayer center, he said. Borenstein was unrepentant about his actions. His devotion to his religion did not allow him to wait around until the village changed the law, he said.

But Borenstein said, "you can't tell a Jewish person not to pray for a year, because we need to deliberate on a legal issue," he said. "A Jew without Torah, a Jew without prayer, is like a person without food."