It's been said, "If you build it, they will come."
Down the street, just around the corner, an old industrial warehouse sits on the corner of Bond and Union. It is little better than decrepit, except that this month it received a new paint job. The entire building is bright lime green.
It has two windows, both covered with dark black bars, and a garage door. It is the ugliest building in the neighborhood that I have any recollection of receiving media attention - in the last week, a lot of it.
I took a walk there this afternoon. From a block away, it becomes visible. Past the tree-lined brownstones of Cobble Hill, it welcomes you to the wastelands of Gowanas, Brooklyn's next "it" neighborhood. It has no signage, there is nothing advertising the building's purpose.
Except, if you get close, and look at the corner of one little alcove in the front facade, you see a postcard. Just one little postcard. And on that little postcard there is a shofar. That is all. No writing. No signs. Not even a noticeable door. Just a postcard with a shofar on a bright lime green industrial building.
And this one little building, in but two weeks time, has revolutionized the face of Judaism in the area. A local Chabad offshoot, Iyyun, moved into town. With them came open High Holiday services, classes, food, the like.
OK. Fine. Chabad does there nice, paganistic, in-your-face thing all over the place, especially Brooklyn.
But this green warehouse brought with it a new flare.
Sitting in a Starbucks down the street today, meeting with locals about revolutionizing the future, a woman leans over to ask about the namesake of the postcards we're discussing: Brooklyn Jews. Oh, she says, are you guys connected with the new stuff happening in the Green Building?
No. We're not. We're just a wee bit different. But now we're similarly run groups in the same 'hood. It's a turf war, and someone's going to go home with their tale in between their legs.
That said, it's time to go. I'm off to reach RamBam at the Tea Lounge. Here goes nothing...
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