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Deity: A Yeshiva Is Reborn As A Bar
By Stacey Kalish / January 27, 2008
It’s Friday night in Brooklyn and I’m on a reconnaissance mission to finally check out a venue that has local brownstone residents buzzing. Tucked away on busy Atlantic Avenue between a string of antique showrooms and overpriced boutique stores, there's a new high-end cocktail lounge that's been four years in the making. Unlike many nightspots with arbitrary names, this bar's moniker references the life of the building whose birth date and previous name are still engraved on the original façade. Welcome to Talmud Torah Beth Jacob Joseph est. 1917, now known as Deity.
Deity is the vision of financial consultant Caio Dunson (pron: Kuy-yu) and his fashion-designer wife Kristine. They bought the dilapidated building, which had not seen shulgoers for over 30 years, in 2003. The space had been an antique warehouse in the interim. The couple, with the help of family, friends and talented Brooklyn artists, tirelessly transformed the interior while consciously preserving the integrity of the building. They turned the top two levels into their residence. The bar below, as they see it, is like an extension of their living room.
The exterior hasn't changed much since the early 1900’s when Yeshiva students entered the hallowed building to study Gemorah and daven in its synagogue. Hebrew letters are inscribed into the limestone while decorative Magen Davids encircle the entrance. Tonight, a guy in a fedora hat smokes outside the wrought iron gates and a stylish brunette hostess in a red trench coat invites partygoers into the new sanctuary.
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Really nice article, Stacey. I thought that it would be interesting to note that the Mishna actually discusses the fate of synagogues after they are no longer in use.
In Megillah 3[2] the question is raised as to what can be done with a synagogue once it is sold – R. Meir says that one can sell a synagogue only under the condition that it will be returned on demand. The sages reject this by stating that once a synagogue is sold, it is sold for all time: except for the use of four purposes: a bathhouse, a tannery, an immersion pool, or a urinal. R. Judah rejects all of the opinions above and claims that the purchaser can do whatever he wants with the building (including turning it into a bathroom).
What this suggests is that in Judaism the sanctity of the synagogue is not inherit in the building itself. Rather, the Mishna explains, what makes something sacred is its physical or conceptual proximity to the Torah. Once that loci of sanctity is removed, all is permitted.
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