A controversial Crown Heights synagogue featured in a viral web video showing one of its young members being pummeled by cops is trying to turn the fracas into a mitzvah.
The Aliya Institute on East New York Ave. is trying to raise $1.8 million to buy a nearby five-story building which will house dorms for teens and men in their 20’s.
The store-front shul was moonlighting as a makeshift shelter for nearly a decade until drifter Ehud Halevy, 21, got into the Oct. 8 fight with officers who accused him of trespassing as he slept on the couch.
“We used to let them sleep here at night, but now we can’t. So now they roam the streets. We don’t have the proper security,” said Aliya director Rabbi Moishe Feiglin.
A month after Aliya banned the sleepovers, regular night guest Yossie Alexander, 20, was hit and killed by a car on Chambers Street in lower Manhattan.
“Aliya not being open was instrumental to him being out there,” said Alexander’s friend, Shneur Fomin, 20.
Arlexander’s death, combined with Halevy’s case, pushed Feiglin to create two websites soliciting the funds. a start asking for the money to expand.
So far, Aliya has raised around $1,000 towards the seven-figure goal.
“We want to help young adults, in the middle of despair, find temporary housing,” Feiglin said.
Few outside of the Crown Heights religious Jewish community had heard of the center - known for aiding drug addicts and high school dropouts who are estranged from their families - before pictures of the cop beat-down made national headlines.
Another member had called 911 reporting Halevy was trespassing sleeping in the nude. Halevy refused to leave. Surveillance video captured the rough arrest showing Officer Luis Vega hitting Halevy with boxer like precision.
Prosecutors later dropped charges against Halevy which included assault and resisting arrest.
Feiglin launched Ehudsroom.com and set up an account on Indiegogo.com, a fundraising site, hoping Halevy’s name would attract donations.
“Maybe everyone is afraid of the economy. You know, the fiscal cliff,” Feiglin said. “Everyone is waiting for the other guy to jump in first. We are hoping that it will pick up steam.”
By Andy Mai And Simone Weichselbaum / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
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