The Ha­sidic Jewish or­ga­ni­za­tion Friends of Lubav­itch, which op­er­ates the Jewish out­reach pro­gram Chabad that serves stu­dents at Tow­son Uni- ver­sity and Goucher Col­lege, built a large ad­di­tion to a res­i­dence in the Aig­burth Manor area of Tow­son in 2014 and has been locked in a le­gal bat­tle ever since with neigh­bors and the county over zon­ing and land covenants.

The Ha­sidic Jewish or­ga­ni­za­tion Friends of Lubav­itch, which op­er­ates the Jewish out­reach pro­gram Chabad that serves stu­dents at Tow­son Uni- ver­sity and Goucher Col­lege, built a large ad­di­tion to a res­i­dence in the Aig­burth Manor area of Tow­son in 2014 and has been locked in a le­gal bat­tle ever since with neigh­bors and the county over zon­ing and land covenants.

This month a county cir­cuit judge af­firmed ear­lier rul­ings that the cen­ter vi­o­lated zon­ing rules and must be de­mol­ished, at the own­ers’ ex­pense.

Since then a group called Friends of Tow­son Chabad — which in­cludes the

rabbi and his wife who live at the cen­ter and op­er­ate it — has taken the case pub­lic with a crowd­fund­ing page on the web­site Charidy. In ad­di­tion, a Change.org pe­ti­tion sup­port­ing the cen­ter had gath­ered more than 8,000 sig­na­tures as of Wed­nes­day.

rabbi and his wife who live at the cen­ter and op­er­ate it — has taken the case pub­lic with a crowd­fund­ing page on the web­site Charidy. In ad­di­tion, a Change.org pe­ti­tion sup­port­ing the cen­ter had gath­ered more than 8,000 sig­na­tures as of Wed­nes­day.

The court’s or­der to de­mol­ish a “re­li­gious hospitality cen­ter” is un­prece­dented, or­ga­niz­ers claim on the crowd­fund­ing site: “We can­not let this heart­less in­jus­tice oc­cur. Not now. Not ever.”

In other doc­u­ments, or­ga­niz­ers liken the op­po­si­tion to the cen­ter and the court rul­ings to Kristall­nacht, the his­tor­i­cal event in 1938 in which Ger­man Nazis torched syn­a­gogues and van­dal­ized Jewish homes. Nearly 100 Jews were killed.

In other doc­u­ments, or­ga­niz­ers liken the op­po­si­tion to the cen­ter and the court rul­ings to Kristall­nacht, the his­tor­i­cal event in 1938 in which Ger­man Nazis torched syn­a­gogues and van­dal­ized Jewish homes. Nearly 100 Jews were killed.

“Eighty years af­ter Kristall­nacht, a rabbi’s home and a home for thou­sands of Jewish stu­dents is slated for de­struc­tion,” the or­ga­niz­ers state. “For a clearly dis­crim­i­na­tory rul­ing like this to be ad­min­is­tered in the 21st cen­tury is chill­ing.”

Neigh­bors in­clud­ing Robin Zoll, who lives next door to the cen­ter, ve­he­mently deny that the case has any­thing to do with re­li­gious dis­crim­i­na­tion. She called it strictly a “land use is­sue,” and said the com­par­i­son to Kristall­nacht is es­pe­cially up­set­ting.

“I’ve lived in this com­mu­nity for more than 50 years, and I have a very good rep­u­ta­tion, and I am not an anti-Semite or an anti-any­thing,” Zoll said.

“I’ve lived in this com­mu­nity for more than 50 years, and I have a very good rep­u­ta­tion, and I am not an anti-Semite or an anti-any­thing,” Zoll said.

Paul Hart­man, who is part of the neigh­bor­hood um­brella group Tow­son Com­mu­ni­ties Al­liance, also de­nied that the op­po­si­tion has any­thing to do with re­li­gion. He said when he and other neigh­bors be­gan meet­ing about the case, he asked them: “Imag­ine, what­ever faith you are, imag­ine if it were your faith in­volved in this. What would your opin­ion be?’

“As far as I’m con­cerned, I would have the same opin­ion,” he said.

The Chabad is the lat­est re­li­gious in­sti­tu­tion to tan­gle with Bal­ti­more County over zon­ing reg­u­la­tions.

Four other in­sti­tu­tions — Hunt Val­ley Bap­tist Church, Hunt Val­ley Pres­by­te­rian Church, Je­sus Christ is the An­swer Min­istries and ARIEL Rus­sian Com­mu­nity Sy­n­a­gogue — are in­volved in sep­a­rate fed­eral law­suits al­leg­ing that county of­fi­cials dis­crim­i­nated against them in vi­o­la­tion of the fed­eral Re­li­gious Land Use and In­sti­tu­tion­al­ized Per­sons Act. The­ac­tis de­signed to pro­tect houses of wor­ship and re­li­gious in­sti­tu­tions from dis­crim­i­na­tion in zon­ing.

Four other in­sti­tu­tions — Hunt Val­ley Bap­tist Church, Hunt Val­ley Pres­by­te­rian Church, Je­sus Christ is the An­swer Min­istries and ARIEL Rus­sian Com­mu­nity Sy­n­a­gogue — are in­volved in sep­a­rate fed­eral law­suits al­leg­ing that county of­fi­cials dis­crim­i­nated against them in vi­o­la­tion of the fed­eral Re­li­gious Land Use and In­sti­tu­tion­al­ized Per­sons Act. The­ac­tis de­signed to pro­tect houses of wor­ship and re­li­gious in­sti­tu­tions from dis­crim­i­na­tion in zon­ing.

In the Tow­son Chabad case, prop­erty records in­di­cate that Friends of Lubav­itch bought the Aig­burth Road house in 2008.

In 2014, Rabbi Me­nachem Rivkin and his wife, Sheiny Rivkin, who live there, an­nounced plans to ex­pand the Chabad cen­ter, and in 2015 they ap­plied for a per­mit to build a par­son­age on the prop­erty. Af­ter that was de­nied, they ap­plied to ex­pand the house, and re­ceived a per­mit to con­struct a 6,614-square-foot ad­di­tion to the orig­i­nal 2,200-square-foot home. It was built in 2016.

In 2014, Rabbi Me­nachem Rivkin and his wife, Sheiny Rivkin, who live there, an­nounced plans to ex­pand the Chabad cen­ter, and in 2015 they ap­plied for a per­mit to build a par­son­age on the prop­erty. Af­ter that was de­nied, they ap­plied to ex­pand the house, and re­ceived a per­mit to con­struct a 6,614-square-foot ad­di­tion to the orig­i­nal 2,200-square-foot home. It was built in 2016.

Neigh­bors filed le­gal chal­lenges to the cen­ter, say­ing that while the county ap­proved the ad­di­tion as a pri­vate res­i­dence, it was also be­ing used as Chabad of Tow­son and Goucher, an out­reach cen­ter pro­vid­ing sup­port and ac­tiv­i­ties for the col­lege cam­puses’ Jewish com­mu­nity.

The Bal­ti­more County Board of Ap­peals agreed, and said op­er­at­ing a com­mu­nity cen­ter in a res­i­den­tial zone vi­o­lated county reg­u­la­tions. In its writ­ten de­ci­sion, the board ac­cused Friends of Lubavich of be­ing “in­sin­cere” in call­ing the cen­ter a res­i­dence.

Zoll and other neigh­bors also cited 1950 covenants in the Aig­burth com­mu­nity re­quir­ing build­ings to be 115 feet from the street — the ad­di­tion is less than 60 feet off Aig­burth Road. In a Cir­cuit Court hear­ing in 2017, Rivkin tes­ti­fied he had no knowl­edge of the set­back re­stric­tion un­til af­ter con­struc­tion of the build­ing had be­gun, and Friends of Lubav­itch called the covenant “un­en­force­able.”

Judge Su­san Souder dis­agreed, say­ing it was “undis­puted” that the 1950 covenants were still in ef­fect.

Af­ter a num­ber of ap­peals, other court de­ci­sions reaf­firmed not only the Chabad’s sta­tus as a com­mu­nity cen­ter, but also the vi­o­la­tion of the set­backs.

In the lat­est de­ci­sion Nov. 2, Judge Kath­leen Cox also ruled out the pos­si­bil­ity that the cen­ter could be moved farther back on the prop­erty, say­ing that would “au­tho­rize the con­tin­u­a­tion of a com­mer­cial use that has been found to be non-com­pli­ant with re­stric­tions on the prop­erty.”

In the lat­est de­ci­sion Nov. 2, Judge Kath­leen Cox also ruled out the pos­si­bil­ity that the cen­ter could be moved farther back on the prop­erty, say­ing that would “au­tho­rize the con­tin­u­a­tion of a com­mer­cial use that has been found to be non-com­pli­ant with re­stric­tions on the prop­erty.”

Cox or­dered Chabad to de­posit funds to raze the build­ing within 45 days of re­ceiv­ing a fi­nal es­ti­mate for de­mo­li­tion costs.

The fundrais­ing page calls the build­ing a “re­li­gious hospitality cen­ter,” and prop­erty records show the land is listed as a tax-ex­empt re­li­gious in­sti­tu­tion. The Rivkins have main­tained that the ad­di­tion’s pri­mary pur­pose was to pro­vide space for their grow­ing fam­ily.

A video on the web­site de­scribes the fa­cil­ity as a home away from home for Jewish stu­dents — one stu­dent says it has a “cozy, warm, homey feel,” and oth­ers say the Rivkins make them feel wel­come and help them main­tain their con­nec­tion to the Jewish faith while at­tend­ing col­lege.

A video on the web­site de­scribes the fa­cil­ity as a home away from home for Jewish stu­dents — one stu­dent says it has a “cozy, warm, homey feel,” and oth­ers say the Rivkins make them feel wel­come and help them main­tain their con­nec­tion to the Jewish faith while at­tend­ing col­lege.

This week the Rivkins re­ferred in­quiries from The Bal­ti­more Sun to spokesman Levi Rabi­nowitz, who de­clined to com­ment. Read more at Baltimore Sun