mentalblog.com comments:
what IS the halocha in regard to church converted to shul? i don't know the details, but it seems to me that generally it could be done.
Morristown is an old Monastery, complete with stained windows in the Beis Medrash.
There might be literally hundreds of precedents.
May be Schneur was refereeing to the "ambiance of the altar" referenced by the original commentator. (i am surprised Schneur didn't protest nursing in the Ezras Noshim).
Here I can't really help you as we all know Shule architecture sucks. It can't compare to anything episcopalian or not.
Why not look into Igros Moshe and see what the Halacha is regarding various types of churches being converted into synagogues .
I won't argue with the late Lubavitcher rebbe about halacha, but you won't find very many yeshivoth or shuls housed in monastaries.
Indeed stained glass windows were very unusual in East Europe shuls . The Rav once mentioned that in one of his drashas, the windows were clear and not stained. Although in the uS this hakpoda has been lessened to a great extent.
"Why not look into Igros Moshe and see what the Halacha is regarding various types of churches being converted into synagogues."
exactly!
Permit me to add a few "more serious" words about Orthodox Judaism in NH.
The future of Orthodoxy in NH rests not with BHSA or with a defunct Young Israel or even with a vigorous Chabad.
Chabad has about 40-50 families in the city, and various outreach "workers" , but they have little impact on the lifestyle of 98% of NH Jewry.(Not for their lack of trying)
Their Chabad centers in the "burbs" have Shabbat services once a month and most of their clients are far from being even traditional.
Their own religious leadership is fairly challenged went it comes to deal with a highly educated jewish public which defines most of NH Jewry. Their rosh yeshiva and de facto rav is a real lamdan but can not speak English.
Chabad of course will have its followers and in NH it has has some hard core followers employed there, but as I said their impact on greater NH Jewry is limited by the very nature of the "beast".
Our commentator (who I suspect belongs to a Chasidic sect) writes off Westville Synagogue, I would not be that fast in doing so. Their new rabbi is bright, well educated and aggressive and I suspect has not reached his peak effectiveness yet.
The Slifka Center at Yale is the Jewish center there. It includes a 365 daily minyon and a kosher dining hall. Rabbi Jason Rappoport acts as the Orthodox rabbi for the traditional guys there. I was very impressed by the Slifka Center its a real shtetel in a building.It includes a dining hall, library social center etc. I suspect as downtown NH becomes gentrified that locals will also end up davening there.
Finally the coming of age of Waterbury Jewry with the new Yeshiva community can only adversely affect NH in the short run as any frum newcomers will chose to live there nad drive 20 minutes to NH. In the long run they may yet find a diplomatic way to create a sattelite community in NH.
The Conservative Cong. BEKI is very traditional yet egalitarian. In fact it includes numerous Shomre Shabbat people and families and its rabbi is commited to kashrus and Shabbes.In fact BEKI is probably responsible for the remaining ksosher meat market as most of the Orthodox community (especially Lubavitch) is in total orbit around Brooklyn.
Although I have never davened in BEKI< what I hear about its membership reminds me not of a Conservative Congregation, but of Young Israel in the 1970's prior to some strange rightward drift that contributed to its untimely demise.
I think it is better to see a former church becoming a shul, than a shul becoming a church ... the latter is all the more common.
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