Court Overturns Rehovot's Allocation of Building to Chabad for Third Time

A district court judge has once again canceled the Rehovot municipality's allocation of a building to the Chabad Hasidic movement, marking the third such ruling. Judge Shmuel Bornstein of the Central District Court found that the municipality had improperly altered its urban planning map to legitimize the building's assignment to Chabad for use as a synagogue. The Chabad center in the Rehovot HaHolonit neighborhood has occupied the building on Har Zion Street since 2012, with the municipality's consent but without a proper allocation process.

Bornstein had previously ordered the property vacated in September 2022 due to the lack of legal allocation. In 2023, the city council voted to allocate the building to Chabad for five years, but Bornstein overturned this decision in January 2025. He ruled that the allocation violated the land's designated use as a preschool and ignored an excess of synagogues in the area, which includes Rehovot HaHolonit and Kfar Gvirol.

Despite his ruling, Bornstein did not order the synagogue's immediate eviction, instead directing the municipality to conduct a proper and comprehensive allocation process. However, in June 2025, the city council again allocated the building to Chabad for five years. This followed a change in the urban program, separating Kfar Gvirol into a new zone (Zone 15) and leaving Rehovot HaHolonit as the sole area in Zone 12. A new program prepared by Aviv Engineering Management stated a shortage of synagogues in Rehovot HaHolonit.

Bornstein determined that this program change was specifically designed to enable the allocation, circumventing his previous ruling. He emphasized that such changes must be based on genuine need and broad considerations, not merely to legitimize a predetermined outcome. The judge noted the municipality's failure to adhere to his prior judgment, including not fully reconstituting the allocation committee, and stated that the allocation was also unlawful because the municipality had not collected usage fees for the years the building was occupied.

Bornstein ordered the building vacated within 60 days and directed the municipality to decide within 30 days on collecting usage fees and property taxes for the period of occupation. The municipality was ordered to pay NIS 40,000 in expenses, and the Chabad center was ordered to pay NIS 20,000.