The Brownstone, a recently launched Jewish educational effort based in a six-story building in the East Village, was closed temporarily last week because of an unexpected building code violation, but is expected to reopen by the start of the Sukkot holiday on Sept. 18.
Rabbi Mordechai Suchard, founding director of Gateways, an Orthodox outreach organization under whose auspices the unaffiliated Brownstone operates, said a city fire safety inspection of the site last week detected a fault in the top floors of the building’s carbon dioxide detection system.
The Brownstone was closed immediately while repairs began on the building’s two top floors, and several classes and daily programming, many geared to High Holy Days themes, were cancelled, Rabbi Suchard said. No visiting groups of college students or other young Jews had been scheduled to stay in the dormitory rooms on The Brownstone during the time the building is closed, and Rosh HaShanah services had not been planned there, he said, meaning minimal disruption in Brownstone programming.
Yoni Greenwald, the live-in program director of the Brownstone who has continued to live there with his family on a lower floor of the building during the past week, was to serve at a Gateways Rosh HaShanah retreat this week in Stamford, Conn.
Pending a recertification of The Brownstone, which opened six months ago, it will probably resume programs for residents of the area by Sukkot, Rabbi Suchard said. “Please God, for Sukkot for sure,” the rabbi said, “as soon as they give us permission to open it.”
The Brownstone will resume its housing of visiting groups a week or two after Sukkot, which ends on Sept. 27, Rabbi Suchard said.
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