Exclusive | Popular NYC Chabad congregation facing eviction in brutal fight with landlord over lease dispute

For six years, Chabad Loft has served as a hub for Jewish life in Greenwich Village, operating from the bottom of a quaint rowhouse at 10 E.Eighth St. Now, the space — aptly dressed with painted exposed brick, gold-tone light pendants and plush jewel-tone furniture for its trendy young congregants — is facing eviction.Rabbi Jerry Bankhalter is embroiled in an acrimonious fight with his landlord over ambiguous lease terms that involve the validity of a lease extension that was never signed.Bankhalter, known as Rabbi Yakov, claims he has two years remaining on the lease.

But the landlord claims the synagogue is a month-to-month tenant paying far below market rate. In June, the landlord sued for eviction in housing court in Manhattan. And now, a window sign even says the space is available for rent — a total of 2,800 square feet on two levels.“The whole street is filled with vacant storefronts,” the rabbi told The Post.“The space is weird.

There is not much interest in a seven-step walk down with 9-foot ceilings and pillars in the middle of the space.It is not handicapped accessible.

It is a very hard sell.We are perfect tenants to them.”The monthly rent for what is known as “the Kavanah Space” is $7,000.  “The landlord is trying to bully the rabbi out of there,” said Angelo Bisceglie, the rabbi’s lawyer, who in July sued the landlord in Manhattan Supreme Court for promissory estoppel, breach of contract, fraud, deceit and negligent misrepresentation. Not so, according to Gregory Bougopoulos, the lawyer for the landlord, then known as Lynch Family Associates. “This is a disagreement over the legal status and appropriate terms of a commercial tenancy,” Bougopoulos said in a statement to The Post. “The tenant has, for years, paid well below market rate and currently has no lease in effect,” he said.

“When the property owner sought to resolve the expired lease and negotiate new terms, the tenant repeatedly indicated that he ...