Rabbi Dr. Stephen Galiley oversees Beit Shalom in Utica.

He said he and his congregation see themselves as a bridge community between the Jewish and Christian worlds.

“Being a rabbi, we obviously do services, but the other part that is not as obvious is we also are involved with prayer, involved in teaching, involved with encouragement, involved with helping people,” he said.

Galiley said Beit Shalom has been in Utica’s Franklin Square for more than 20 years. But a couple of issues popped up recently.

In 2019, Galiley’s attorney, Mark Wolber, said they had to take the city of Utica to court to recognize Beit Shalom’s tax exempt status. He said the city claimed Beit Shalom lost its tax exemption for not filing an application on time.

“I understand that things sometimes don’t go the way you would like them to go, and I really didn’t think about it with the first issue with the city,” Galiley said.

Wolber and Galiley said the judge ruled in Beit Shalom’s favor.

Another problem arose last year. According to Wolber and Galiley, a decorative piece of the building fell onto the sidewalk. No one was injured. A few others had the potential to fall, so Wolber said the fire marshal closed the building for occupancy.

Wolber said those pieces were removed in November and Beit Shalom hired an engineer to check the building.

“We generated an engineer’s report that there was no longer any imminent danger to the building, and the city refused to let the synagogue reopen,” Wolber said.

He also claims an assessment by the city’s own structural engineer didn’t find any imminent danger. That’s when Wolber said the closure became illegal. He said despite the report, the city would only allow Beit Shalom to reopen if they got a contract for more, unspecified, work to be done and either pay for it or put money in escrow to cover the cost.

“To me, that meant they were requiring the synagogue to come up with a sum of money in order to reopen,” said Wolber.

Wolber said the city also charged the temple with a code violation and charged Rabbi Galiley with a misdemeanor.

Beit Shalom was closed through the end of February. The congregation was able to meet at a church a few miles away, but Galiley said fewer people attended and it affected their traditions, including Hanukkah.

Even though we’re able to do weekly services at another location, there’s a great deal of the life of the community that simply was not able to be pursued,” Galiley said.

Wolber said the code violation and misdemeanor charge were withdrawn when the New York state Supreme Court ruled on Feb. 28 in Beit Shalom’s favor, also allowing the synagogue to reopen.

Now, Wolber and his client have filed a notice of claim against the city for allegedly depriving Beit Shalom members of their right to worship between the end of November and end of February.

“We understand that what has happened all along has not been, it’s not been unnecessary, and there are long-term benefits to taking care of the downtown Utica infrastructure, but it has stacked up a few different things so it’s been an interesting season for us as a community,” said Galiley.

Beit Shalom is holding its first service in their Franklin Square location for the first time since last summer this Friday at 7 p.m.

The city of Utica responded in a statement saying:

"Protecting the health and safety of the public is a top priority of the City. When debris fell off the Beit Shalom building in Franklin Square, the Codes Department cited the property owners as the city believed the condition of the building posed a hazard to the public. Repairs were made to the building and a City Judge ruled the repairs were sufficient for the building to reopen. While the Codes violations are now settled, the city has no further comment as there is pending civil litigation.”