Borough Park

One person dead in Borough Park building collapse

The two-story residential building also operated as a synagogue serving members of the Stitshin Hasidic sect

The building that collapsed, in a screenshot from Google Street View

By 

Naftuli Moster & Lauren Hakimi

Feb 2, 2024 4:00 PM

One person has died in a building collapse in Borough Park, Brooklyn, on Friday, police told multiple news outlets.

The 33-year-old construction worker died when the first floor of a building collapsed onto the basement at 1266 50th Street, near 13th Avenue.

The two-story residential building also operated as a synagogue called Congregation Minchas Yehuda, which serves members of Stitshin, a small Hasidic sect, according to multiple sources. The owner of the building, Juda Horowitz, shares the name of the Stitshin rebbe, Yehudah Horowitz, who died in 1981.

First responders arrived at the building just after noon, according to the New York Post — less than five hours before the beginning of Shabbos.

Construction had been ongoing on the site, and there was a partial stop work order for all construction not geared toward making the site safe. On Jan. 4, the owner incurred a $2,500 penalty for working without a permit, according to the New York City Department of Buildings.

Conspiracy theorists online have already seized on the incident, atempting to connect the death in Borough Park to the Crown Heights tunnels recently discovered four miles away. “Chabad Tunnel Jews Strike Again!” wrote alt-right internet personality Stew Peters, who is also a Holocaust denier. Borough Park and Crown Heights are two entirely separate Hasidic communities, and the Crown Heights tunnels were dug by Chabad Meshichists in an unauthorized attempt to expand the main Chabad synagogue.

No other injuries were reported, the FDNY said.