A Brooklyn synagogue is giving panhandlers the bum’s rush, banning them inside and outside its building.
“No loitering, soliciting, panhandling. Violators will be prosecuted,” reads a sign outside Congregation Veretzky on East Ninth Street in Midwood.
Panhandlers were shocked.
“This is the first synagogue that I know of to ever do that,” said one beggar, who claimed to rake in up to $100 a day in front of the Orthodox synagogue.
Another beggar said synagogue staff have kicked panhandlers’ chairs, misted some with a mystery aerosol spray and even threatened bodily harm.
“I was told if I come in and take food, they were going to cut my beitzim off,” he said, using a Hebrew euphemism for male genitals.
“It’s disgusting. They treat you like animals, like you’re beneath a human being,” he said. “They just want to keep the money for themselves!”
The beggars, who appear to be predominantly Jewish, said Jewish law sanctions panhandling in synagogues and at events, including weddings, where food is often left for the needy.
Other synagogues around the city at least allow begging in the lobby, or at appointed times in the day, another beggar noted.
“Here they’re going against Jewish law, treating poor people badly,” the beggar said.
Veretzky’s rabbi, Yitzchok Landau, would not comment.