NEW YORK — A congregation in Brooklyn, founded nearly a century ago to serve a Jewish hospital, is fighting for its survival in a New York court, as a medical center seeks to sell off the premises for real estate development, according to a lawsuit.

Congregation Chaim Albert said the development plan runs counter to assurances from New York State that it would be allowed to continue operating at the site, and goes against agreements between the synagogue and the medical center that owns the property, One Brooklyn Health.

The lawsuit, filed in June in New York State Supreme Court, said the development plan threatens to “wash away almost a century of Jewish religious life” at the site.

The Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center was founded in the late 1920s, in the Flatbush area of Brooklyn, due to antisemitism at other hospitals in the area, especially discrimination against Jews with special needs. Jewish community members bought the lots on which the hospital was built and Jewish donations contributed to the center’s operations.

Amenities for Jews were incorporated into the medical complex, such as a kosher kitchen and space for prayer services.

The Jewish congregation was active on the hospital’s grounds since at least 1928. The original synagogue building was demolished to build X-ray rooms in 1950, and the current structure, with marble floors and stained-glass windows, was built as a replacement and named Congregation Joseph Chaim Albert, after the father of the hospital’s president at the time, Isaac Albert.

The synagogue was used by both worshipers affiliated with the hospital and other Jews from the surrounding area, including from the Hasidic area of Crown Heights.

Kingsbrook ran into financial trouble in the early 2000s and merged with two other medical centers to form the nonprofit One Brooklyn Health, the defendant in the lawsuit.

Under the direction of state officials, Kingsbrook opted to partially close and sell the property to real estate developers in 2019. At the time, the state told the congregation it was not part of the redevelopment plan and that the building would be preserved.

“Access to the synagogue will be preserved throughout and after development is complete,” a state office said in 2019.

The lawsuit said the hospital and state government have announced plans to sell the property to a residential developer, without making any provisions for the synagogue, meaning the building will be dismantled. The plan is counter to previous agreements between the congregation and the hospital and state government, the lawsuit said.

The synagogue is owned by the hospital, but longstanding agreements between the congregation and property owners said the synagogue would remain dedicated to religious use. The congregation members funded the building’s operations and maintenance due to those understandings, and Kinsbrook had agreed in the past that it would not sell the synagogue premises to any third party, the lawsuit said.

The dispute with One Brooklyn Health, began in 2020, when the synagogue was shuttered due to virus restrictions during the COVID pandemic, the lawsuit said. Hospital officials told congregants they would be allowed back in when the restrictions lifted, but the medical center has continued to block access since then.

Before the pandemic, the building held services every Shabbat and holiday, drawing around 40 worshipers each Shabbat. Around 60 people still consider themselves members and would return to the synagogue if they could.

Congregation members have protested the closure, including by holding a Hanukkah ceremony outside the hospital earlier this year.

The hospital halted inpatient services in 2023, sold a portion of the property for development, and is seeking to sell the rest of the property, including the synagogue, the lawsuit said.

The medical center has not maintained the synagogue, allowing the structure to fall into disrepair. The neglect has given the property owners an additional reason to bar the congregation, telling worshipers they cannot resume services because the building has deteriorated, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit argued the hospital had taken advantage of the COVID closures to empty the building and facilitate the sale to the property developer, since it would be easier, from a public relations and legal perspective, to sell an empty building than to displace an active congregation.

The lawsuit is making its way through the courts. One Brooklyn Health declined a Times of Israel request for comment.