This vintage house of worship doesn’t have a prayer.
The site of a former century-old synagogue for Ukrainian immigrants in the East Village is set to be torn down to make room for six trendy condos — prompting activists to complain that a piece of history will be lost to make way for a generic new apartment for hipsters.
“Pieces of the building will survive, but none of the facade,” Village Preservation executive director Andrew Berman told The Post.
“There is this memory of, and connection to, this very rich history – but instead, here they just want to destroy it and start over again, which is a shame.”
The structure at 256 East 4th St. was erected in 1925 as a synagogue for the Lemberger Congregation – named for its native city of what is now Lviv, Ukraine, according to Village Preservation records.
The site was converted into the Spanish-language church Iglesia Bautista Emmanuel in the 1970s, when a Christian cross replaced the rondel’s Star of David.
The church sold the property in November to developer Ariel Sholomov for $2.95 million.
While it’s unclear how much the new units will go for, new one-bedroom condos in the neighborhood retail between $1.2 and $2.1 million, per StreetEasy.
Despite he preservationist’s complaints, project architect Stephen Conte said there was no way to save the original façade, as decades of water damage rendered the already-thin front walls unsafe.
“We’re going to see if there are any interior design elements we can keep that don’t have any toxic materials or mold,” such as stained glass windows and wooden doors, Conte told The Post, adding that the red brick exterior was chosen to keep the building “contextual” within the block.
Conte further contends building preservation “is getting trickier” over time, citing the city’s zero-emission electricity goals.
“When you have older facades that have a lot of air leakage, it makes it difficult to insulate them,” he said.
Berman, however, argues that “it’s virtually never impossible to reuse and preserve a facade.”
“Even if there was damage, nothing like that is unfixable,” he said. “Clearly respecting that history was not a priority for them.”
The former synagogue was once part of a new East Village Historic District proposal Village Preservation submitted to the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2019, which sought to de facto landmark hundreds of buildings on Avenues B and C.
But while neighborhoods like the Upper East Side and Greenwich Village have touted historic district status since the 20th century, the LPC bizarrely never brought his proposal to a hearing, Berman said.
“They basically sat on it and ignored it,” he told The Post, adding that Village Preservation is now “waging a campaign to try to get them to refocus their attention on this area.”
A representative from the LPC told The Post that, while the public can suggest a landmark, it’s the agency which ultimately identifies and prioritizes structures and neighborhoods to designate.
However, Berman attributes the radio silence to rapid development and real estate interests in Manhattan, especially in the East Village, taking precedence over historical preservation.
“This is a part of town that real estate interests have a great desire to have as free a hand as possible,” Berman noted.
“There’s really hundreds of buildings that we would argue are of some historic significance in the East Village that don’t enjoy some that don’t enjoy landmark protection at all,” Berman added, pointing to buildings such as the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary and Theatre 80 at St. Mark’s Place as prime examples.
Despite the failed historic district pitch, there are still examples of striking facades being preserved while structures are converted for new uses, Berman said, including 242 East 7th St. and 638 East 6th St. — two former houses of worship converted into apartments and a community center, respectively.
The Congregation Mezritch Synagogue at 415 East 6th St. was also able to keep its basement-level space after the building was converted into multi-million dollar condos due to its preservation protections, Berman said.
“Life in our city sometimes is complicated, but sometimes it takes complex solutions to get the best results,” Berman added.
“There’s many, many other places in the East Village connected to immigrant history, cultural history, labor history and musical history that, without landmark designation, could disappear tomorrow.”
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