Union of Orthodox Rabbis Building Bought and Emptied –– Artifacts Remain

      Wednesday afternoon, a childhood friend of mine –– whose family has been at their apartment on East Broadway since 1956 –– got in touch with me about what sounded like people clearing out the buildings next to his at 237 and 235 East Broadway (Sharis Adath Israel and the former home of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis respectively). When I arrived on the scene that same afternoon, the doors to 235 East Broadway were being shut and two Junklugger trucks were just pulling away from the curb, stacked with what looked like large amounts of furniture. East Broadway was littered with papers that had blown off the back of these trucks, and as I started to pick them up I saw that many of these documents represented records of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis, correspondence in Hebrew and Yiddish, newspaper clippings, pages from religious books, all of which dating back decades. I called Junkluggers and asked if they would be able to intercept any of these documents before they were inevitably trashed, and was told nothing could be done, despite having the license plates of the trucks and calling only minutes after they had left.
      After standing on East Broadway for a few moments, two Orthodox Jewish men walked up the block and began trying to peer into the now clearly vacant building, its windows thrown wide open. I asked if they knew anything about what was going on and was told that the building had sold, "at a good price too." While hailing from Brooklyn, they had heard the news through friends and turned up looking for salvageable books. I pointed them in the direction of the scraps of paper which lined the block and showed them the items I had found.
      Yesterday, I decided to go back to 235 East Broadway after finding myself in the neighborhood with some time to kill. When I turned the corner, I saw three people letting themselves into the building. One of them stood outside the open door while the other two walked to the second floor –– I chatted him up and asked if they were the ones who had purchased the building. While initially hesitant to confirm that the building had sold, he said that they worked for the new owners and were a part of its "public management". I started talking about the history of the building, how Agudath Harabonim (the Hebrew name for the Union of Orthodox Rabbis) is the oldest organization of Orthodox rabbis in the country, and had been established at this site in 1902. (I found out later that it had been led by renowned Orthodox rabbis Moshe Feinstein as well as Eliezer Silver –– a relative of Sheldon Silver?) I asked if I could be let in to take a few pictures, and after saying no a few times, he said if I could take them in two minutes I could do it.

      I rushed inside and took as many photos as I could before being led out by the other two  –– they asked me a few questions about my interest in the building, while I tried to assure them I was only invested in saving what items of cultural significance had been left behind. Notably, I saw what could possibly be a yahrtzeit wall towards the back of the building (a memorial plaque which marks the day in the Jewish calendar that others have passed); however, I cannot confirm that as I do not read Hebrew. I left my contact information with the individuals who let me into 235 East Broadway, and urged them repeatedly to allow me to coordinate the retrieval of items from the space.

      I have reached out to a few people who know better than me how one would go about saving any of these artifacts, and am being pointed in the right direction. However, I have no way of knowing where any of these efforts will lead. If you have any information or ideas, please reach out!