Maryland Chabad's expansion leads to battle over belief, beauty

“At a certain point it became very clear to us, that the roadblocks and rulings by the county and the ever mounting list of changing concerns from the neighbors, were because of our the religious use of the property and they would never be satisfied, so with no choice, we had to sue for protection in federal court,” said one Chabad supporter, David Firestone.

One other Jewish congregation in the county – ARIEL Russian Community Synagogue – and three Christian congregations – Hunt Valley Baptist Church, Hunt Valley Presbyterian Church and Jesus Christ is the Answer Ministries – also have filed federal lawsuits alleging Baltimore County officials discriminated against them in denying requests to build new worship facilities in violation of the federal act.

Lewin, who is representing FOL, said the suit calls out a pattern of unlawful actions it took against the Rivkins and the Jewish students at Towson and Goucher in violation of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), and that Baltimore County defamed the rabbi when it ruled he built in a residential area with a “dishonestly procured permit.”

“The county’s actions egregiously violated federal law and the rights of the Rivkins and Jewish students who were able to observe Jewish practices only because of the availability of a nearby Chabad House,” Lewin told the Post. “Baltimore County has sought to defame the rabbi by various legal means, to burden, obstruct and suppress Jewish religious observance in Towson by delaying and now demolishing the premises where such religious exercise is made possible.”

Lewin said Chabad’s activity in the residence “is a ‘religious exercise’ within the scope of RLUIPA.”

The Chabad claims the judges made their decisions out of insensitivity to the needs of Jewish students and obvious misunderstanding of the function of a Chabad House at a university campus.

Ellen Kobler, a Baltimore County spokeswoman, told the Post, “We are declining to comment on ongoing litigation.”

To help prevent the demolition of the home, Chabad supporters launched a worldwide publicity campaign, with a video, portraying neighbors and judges who decided the case as antisemites, and compared the destruction of the expansion to Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, which took place in November 1938 and resulted in the death of nearly 100 Jews.

Neighbors say they take offense to such claims, arguing that the battle is over neighborhood aesthetics and not faith, and that FOL and the Rivkins are challenged by a “self-induced wound,” according to neighbor Robin Zoll.

“The Chabad is now slated for demolition, not because of discrimination by country officials or antisemitism on the part of neighbors and judges, but rather because of FOL’s own dishonesty and failure to follow the law,” Zoll said. “With legal options now foreclosed, FOL resorts to intimidation, alleging religious discrimination and antisemitism by the court and neighbors, who are acting only to enforce the laws.”

Hartman explained that there are a small number of nearby homes that are slightly over 3,000 square feet, but most are significantly smaller than that.

“The Chabad building is totally out of scale with the residential nature of the community,” Hartman said.

“No doubt, Rabbi Rivkin is sincere in his mission to promote Judaism, especially among college students, and help them find their Jewish identifies,” Zoll told the Post. “Unfortunately, he overreached with the Chabad house on Aigburth Road. He should own his own mistakes. He should tell the truth to his student followers.”

She said if Rivkin would own up, then his students would learn invaluable lessons such as “honesty is the best policy, respect the rights of others, and do not invoke the Holocaust and claim to be victims to avoid responsibility for your own failures.”

“It’s offensive to allege antisemitism when there is not a shred of evidence,” Hartman said. “The issue is not about religion, it’s about a community trying to maintain its residential nature.”

Lewin said the federal case does not claim antisemitism.

However, during the trial in Baltimore County Circuit Court last year, Rivkin testified that a leader of the local neighborhood association suggested that the Chabad House relocate. He recalled the leader saying, “Why don’t you move to the neighborhood where the Jews live and then you will be able to have other Jews?” according to a transcript.

Firestone said the Rivkin’s tried accommodating the "growing and ever changing list of demands by the neighbors," such as adjusting the height or the look of the building, "but the neighbors always found another issue. After multiple attempts to satisfy them over a span of 18 months, we realized the effort was futile."

He noted that Zoll turned down several offers at a compromise, including compensating her significantly for the $17,075 of court assessed damage the placement of the Chabad House expansion caused her, or moving the building back to abide by the restrictive set back covenant, but Zoll has refused them all.

“I think they ought to shutter it," Zoll told the Baltimore Sun of the Chabad House in 2017. 

“The neighbors claim to be offended by the notion that they are antisemitic,” Lewin told the Post. “I have not said they are antisemitic, but other people have.”

For his part, Rivkin said he just wanted to expand to accommodate a growing contingency of young Jews who want to attend his programs. He said on some weekends his family can host as many as 100 students, although typically there are closer to 30.

Rivkin said that Towson has been a pleasant place to live and the university has been accepting. He works closely with the Hillel on campus, he said.

The university, however, has not been without incident.

In May 2018, two members of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity at Towson University were walking near the campus, almost directly in front of the Chabad House, when two assailants began shouting “F**k the Jews” and called them by an ethnic slur. The assailants then began punching one of the fraternity members in the face.

“Every once in a while we have minor incidents, but it is not more antisemitic than other college campuses,” Rivkin said.

He did note how he said he believes the Chabad House is a safe area for Jewish students.

“The Chabad House is the only Jewish organization with a physical plant on this side of town. Nothing else really exists,” according to Rivkin.

Towson is about 10 miles from Baltimore City.

“If the Chabad House is torn down, it will likely be the first time in American history that a  structure devoted to Jewish religious observance is destroyed by court order,” FOL said in a statement. “The destruction of a Jewish home away from home because it was allegedly built too close to the street and its owners were mistakenly accused of ‘exceed[ing] the use compatible with that of a residential property’ would be an outrageous act of religious hostility.”

“Towson is a neighborhood with no synagogue of any denomination and many of the Jewish students at Towson University and Goucher College rely on it as their Jewish home,” the statement continued. “This is not justice.”