Seventeen years ago, Rabbi Eli Goodman, and his wife Beila, founded Chabad Lubavitch of the Beaches to serve the Jewish population of Long Beach Barrier Island, a 10-mile-wide island off the southern coast of Long Island comprising the communities of Atlantic Beach, Long Beach, and Lido Beach. Chabad currently operates a center for Jewish life in Long Beach, consisting of a synagogue as well as a broad range of educational, social, and religious programming for children, teenagers, young professionals, and other adults.
In November 2021, Chabad purchased property in Atlantic Beach to open a Chabad House—a center offering religious services, education, and programming to the broader Jewish community. At the time of this purchase, the property had been for sale for nearly two years and vacant for at least three years, during which time the Village of Atlantic Beach never once attempted to buy the property.
Yet within less than a month of Chabad’s arrival—and less than two weeks after Chabad first used the property to publicly celebrate a Jewish holiday—Atlantic Beach decided to seize the property through eminent domain, purportedly to build a community center and lifeguard operations facility. Atlantic Beach has never publicly explained its sudden interest in the property. In fact, its attorney admitted the Village considered no alternative sites, even though the Village already already owns at least two undeveloped properties better suited for its purported plans to build a lifeguard station.
At a town meeting earlier this year, several residents raised concerns that the Village has no way to pay for the property and that it’s not suited for the project it envisions. The Village, however, moved forward with seizing the property.
That’s when the Chabad reached out to First Liberty Institute.
In July 2022, First Liberty, along with the law firm Sidley Austin LLP and the Harvard Law School Religious Freedom Clinic filed a complaint and motion for preliminary injunction against the Village, seeking to halt its effort to seize the property. The next day, the United States District Court for the District of New York issued a temporary restraining order (“TRO”) preventing the Village from moving further and set a hearing date.
Then, in September 2022, United States District Court Judge Joanna Seybert issued a preliminary injunction against the Village, halting its effort to seize the Chabad’s property.
In Spring 2023, attorneys announced what they believed to be a favorable settlement with the Village. The settlement was subject to several conditions, including the approval of basic building permits. Unfortunately, the Village’s top officials refused virtually all the permits previously agreed upon, including the use of the building for religious purposes.
As a result, in December 2024 we terminated the agreement with the Village and filed an amended complaint, reopening this lawsuit.
Not only did the Village fail to uphold their end of the deal, but they also revealed their deeply antisemitic attitude towards Hasidic and Orthodox Jews.
In a newly filed complaint, attorneys say, “In private communications produced in this case, Village officials freely and frequently engaged in open anti-Chabad and anti-Orthodox sentiment and trafficked in vile antisemitic tropes, including that Jews are ‘buying the world,’ ‘procreate’ too much, and ‘don’t tip.’ These messages reveal that the Village’s proffered reason for seizing Chabad’s property is and always has been pretextual. In truth, the Village seized Chabad’s property because, in the words of the Village’s Associate Justice in a text message to Village Mayor George Pappas, ‘most people don’t want the Chabad and just don’t want to say it. Any secular Jew doesn’t want them’—to which Mayor Pappas responded, ‘Very true.’”
Senior Counsel for First Liberty Institute Jeremy Dys stated, “What we once suspected is now confirmed: Village leadership has been driven by blatant, openly expressed religious animus against their Jewish neighbors. Rather than a neutral act by an unbiased city council, what we now know is that the decision to try to take Chabad’s property by eminent domain was driven by a religious hostility to Hasidic and Orthodox Jews that has no place in our country.”
We are now seeking punitive damages against the Village, Board of Zoning Appeals, and village officials.
News Release
For Immediate Release: 12.9.24
Contact: John Manning, media@firstliberty.org
Direct: 972-941-4453
Amended Complaint Confirms Antisemitism Drove Long Island Village Officials Effort to Seize Synagogue
Amended lawsuit filed against the Village of Atlantic Beach after city refuses to approve zoning permits despite Judge’s ruling, settlement.
New York, NY— An amended complaint challenging an effort by the Village of Atlantic Beach to exclude Chabad of the Beaches, a Hasidic Jewish organization, from opening a religious center in the Village reveals that in private messages, the Village’s top officials acknowledged—often in crudely antisemitic language—that their actions were motivated by animus towards Hasidic and Orthodox Jews. First Liberty Institute, Sidley Austin LLP, and the Harvard Law School Religious Freedom Clinic filed the amended complaint against the Village of Atlantic Beach, the Zoning Board of Appeals of Atlantic Beach, and various Village officials after the Village, having first tried to seize Chabad’s property through eminent domain, recently refused to grant Chabad zoning permits to use its property for a religious center.
You can read the amended complaint here.
“What we once suspected is now confirmed: Village leadership has been driven by blatant, openly expressed religious animus against their Jewish neighbors,” said Jeremy Dys, Senior Counsel at First Liberty Institute. “Rather than a neutral act by an unbiased city council, what we now know is that the decision to try to take Chabad’s property by eminent domain was driven by a religious hostility to Hasidic and Orthodox Jews that has no place in our country.”
Chabad of the Beaches purchased a property in Atlantic Beach, on Long Island, to build a Jewish community and outreach center. Prior to Chabad’s purchase, the property sat vacant and for sale for several years, but within weeks of Chabad’s buying the property, Village officials announced plans to take the property through eminent domain purportedly to build a community center. In the two years since Chabad first challenged the attempted taking of its property, the Village has not had a single meeting, presented a single plan, or lifted a single shovel to build the community center it claimed was central to the future of the village. Those claims appear to have been pretext shielding the Village’s religious animus.
According to the newly filed complaint: “In private communications produced in this case, Village officials freely and frequently engaged in open anti-Chabad and anti-Orthodox sentiment and trafficked in vile antisemitic tropes, including that Jews are ‘buying the world,’ ‘procreate’ too much, and ‘don’t tip.’ These messages reveal that the Village’s proffered reason for seizing Chabad’s property is and always has been pretextual. In truth, the Village seized Chabad’s property because, in the words of the Village’s Associate Justice in a text message to Village Mayor George Pappas, ‘most people don’t want the Chabad and just don’t want to say it. Any secular Jew doesn’t want them’—to which Mayor Pappas responded, ‘Very true.’”
The parties reached a settlement in 2023, subject to several conditions, including the approval of basic building permits. Because the Village refused virtually all of those permits—including the use of the building for religious purposes—the agreement has been terminated and the lawsuit re-opened with an amended complaint. In 2022, without the benefit of the evidence added in the amended complaint, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York issued a preliminary injunction preventing the Village from seizing property owned by the Chabad through eminent domain. The renewed lawsuit seeks punitive damages against the Village, Board of Zoning Appeals, and village officials.
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About First Liberty Institute
First Liberty Institute is a non-profit public interest law firm and the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans.
To arrange an interview, contact John Manning at media@firstliberty.org or by calling 972-941-4453.
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