Anyone who lives in the north part of Village of Great Neck knows very well how congested traffic is on the main street – Middle Neck Road. It is particularly busy in the area of Allenwood Road where Congregation Beth Eliyahu plans to build a religious school.
Anyone who doesn’t see the traffic dangers posed by such a plan is either blind or stupid.
First of all, that synagogue does not have 350 youngsters who will study there. They maybe have 50.
Why are there so many Sephardic houses of worship in Great Neck?
Can’t Sephardic Jews get along with each other and pray together. It seems that they build a synagogue for every town and village or city they came from.
There is a Meshadi synagogue, an Isfahan one, a Tehran one, three Syrian ones and a Babylonian (Iraqi) one as well as a dozen more small synagogues.
Why can’t they pray together in one large synagogue like Young Israel where I worship, or the Great Neck Synagogue?
Those orthodox synagogues accommodate Jews from Iran, Syria, Iraq, and all the countries of Europe. Ashkenazic Jews and Sephardic Jews pray together.
Why do we need a separate synagogue for every nationality?
To build a religious school on the corner of Allenwood and Middle Neck Road is dangerous. Children can run across the streets in busy traffic and God forbid there could be unwanted accidents.
Since my synagogue is across the street from Beth Eliyahu I am a witness to the dangers of building a religious school there.
I hope the legal authorities will take a survey of traffic at the hours between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. when children are likely to attend religious school.
Such a survey will prove that Beth Eliyahu’s plan is dangerous and should be denied.
W. Mittleman
Great Neck Village
