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Harvard Chabad’s long-running legal dispute with the Cambridge Board of Zoning Appeals has finally come to an end after the two groups reached a settlement agreement earlier this month — paving the way for a massive expansion of Chabad’s space.
Under the terms of the agreement, the campus Jewish group will be allowed to proceed with plans to expand its three historic Banks Street properties into one larger space, a plan they originally launched in March 2024.
Along with being given the green light for their expansion, Chabad is set to receive $540,000 from the city’s surplus fund as part of the settlement. While the full settlement has not yet been made public, the city unanimously passed a policy order to pay out the settlement sum at a council meeting on Monday, the first public indication that the settlement had a financial element.
The building now authorized by the city is much larger than what Chabad had originally proposed before being struck down in 2024. Instead, the city approved a plan submitted in May for a five-floor building with more than 40,000 square feet of floor area — more than double the size of the original three floor plan with about 17,000 square feet of floor area.
Before the authorized exemption, the maximum floor area permitted to the Chabad building under Cambridge zoning ordinances was about 9,000 square feet.
The plan for expansion would merge two of the congregation’s historic properties on Banks Street into one larger building, which they argue would allow them to better meet the needs of their growing membership.
But the plans were initially blocked by the BZA in June 2024 following concerns about the size of the expansion and potentially disruptive traffic and noise. In response, Chabad filed a lawsuit accusing the BZA of religious discrimination, resulting in the start of mediations earlier this year.
After the conclusion of a month-long mediation process in June, the City of Cambridge determined that the laws involved require them to approve Chabad’s plans.
“We have concluded that the laws involved mandate the authorization of a new building for the use by the Chabad,” representatives of the city wrote in an online statement.
Chabad announced the news of the settlement in an email to affiliates that included a link to the city’s statement.
“Mazel Tov, and looking forward to hearing and sharing more good news!” the email read.
Jeremy C. Warnick, a city spokesperson, clarified in an emailed statement that there are still a few steps to go before the expansion can actually move forward.
“The case is technically still pending until a building permit is requested and issued and, as of today, neither has occurred,” he wrote.
But the settlement at least brings to an end not just the lawsuit, but other efforts by Chabad to move their plans forward — including an attempt to change city laws.
Chabad petitioned the city in March to amend its zoning ordinances to exempt religious-use buildings from several pre-existing requirements — including ones on height and size — arguing that those requirements did not apply to buildings used for religious purposes.
The settlement seems to indicate that the city would allow a religious group to bypass those requirements even without a change to its ordinances.
Throughout the dispute with the city, Chabad and its members have argued that limits on its construction are evidence of antisemitism or indifference to the Jewish center’s needs.
“It is not uncommon for antisemitic groups to form and try to impede zoning applications by Jewish groups,” Chabad wrote in its lawsuit against Cambridge, alleging that opponents of the project “wanted to exile Chabad from the neighborhood altogether, not reach some sort of mutually beneficial settlement.”
Harvard Chabad is a hub of religious and social life for many Jewish students — and one that has become more important for some following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, when campus protests over the war in Gaza led many Jews to fear they faced rising antisemitism.
But its leaders’ response to protests they see as hateful, as well as the group’s stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict, have also made it a polarizing presence on campus. Harvard Chabad’s founder and president, Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, has called for the discipline of pro-Palestine student protesters, suggested that faculty whom he accused of “hijack[ing] their classrooms to demonize Israel, the Jewish people, and legitimize terrorism” should be fired, and met with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu last summer.
Opposition to the expansion, however, has largely centered on the proposed changes to the building, not on anger over Chabad’s politics. Though Chabad has long argued for exemptions for religious groups, some Cambridge locals have expressed uncertainty, arguing that religious groups should still be subject to some limitations.
In public hearings, residents repeatedly raised their concerns about both the size of the proposed expansion and its potential for crowding parking spaces and leading to disruptive lighting and noise.
The Kerry Corner Neighborhood Association, a resident group that has consistently organized against the proposed expansion, expressed their disapproval in a formal rebuttal submitted to the BZA in June.
“This is not a matter of aesthetics, bulk, or anti-Semitism, but one of unlimited ‘intensity of use’ by religious and educational institutions within residential neighborhoods,” they wrote in the rebuttal.
Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, Chabad founder and president, reiterated his belief in the benefits of the plan in a joint statement with Yehudah Buchweitz, a lawyer representing Chabad.
“Although this has been a complicated chapter, we are looking forward to the future with excitement and anticipation,” he wrote in an email. “The Harvard Chabad Center for Jewish Life will be a great benefit to all in the Cambridge community.”
Corrections: June 29, 2025
A previous version of this piece misspelled the surname of Yehudah Buchweitz.
A previous version of this piece misstated the middle initial of Cambridge spokesperson Jeremy C. Warnick.
— Staff writer Shawn A. Boehmer can be reached at shawn.boehmer@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @ShawnBoehmer.
— Staff Writer Sebastian B. Connolly can be reached at sebastian.connolly@thecrimson.com and on X @SebastianC4784.
