A dispute between home owners, most of them Jewish, and a synagogue in nearby Syosset, which has been charged with conducting a “Bar Mitzvah factory,” erupted into further bitterness when the congregation filed a counter-suit in the State Supreme Court here today, seeking an injunction against its alleged detractors.
Originally, the Birchwood Homeowners Association, most of whose members are Jewish, sought an injunction in the same court last week, to halt the activities of the Noam Temple Caterers. The latter has its headquarters in the temple of the East Nassau Hebr ew Congregation, of which Rabbi Martin Appleman is the spiritual leader. The homeowners alleged that the social activities in the temple violate local zoning ordinances and create a traffic hazzard, charging that the activities represented a business equivalent to a “Bar Mitzvah factory.”
In its counter-suit today, the congregation insisted that its, catering service is a proper activity serving only synagogue members. Rabbi Appleman denied that the catering service extended beyond congregation members, and charged harassment by the home owners’ group.” The temple houses, in addition to a house of worship, a Jewish school for 600 children as well as the offices of the catering service.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
