We’re Moving May 1st! | Women’s League for Conservative Judaism

March 27, 2025

By Rabbi Ellen S. Wolintz-Fields, WLCJ Executive Director

We’re Moving May 1st!

Many of us are familiar with the Yiddish saying, Der Mensth trakht un Got lakht – Woman (Man) Plans and God Laughs. I signed our lease for our WLCJ space on 8th Avenue in New York in mid December 2024, which started anew on January 1, 2025. Then, on January 9, 2025, while working from home, recovering from a fall in late December that resulted in two broken ribs, I received an email that the organization from which WLCJ was subletting, was moving their offices at the end of June 2025, and they would no longer have subletters. Women’s League needed to find a new physical home by the end of June 2025 – not something we were planning on doing. But once my ribs felt good enough to travel on New Jersey Transit, I saw this new challenge as a great opportunity, and I embarked on the task of finding Women’s League a new office space.

My search found me walking around with a real estate agent in midtown Manhattan on a cold day in January, feeling like I was on an episode of House Hunters. However, we did not have any camera crews, it was just me and the real estate agent, and I Facetimed Julia Loeb at each location. As we walked from rental space to rental space, the real estate agent I was working with, would review what we had just seen, and we would discuss the pros and cons. And just like House Hunters, the recap was often repeated a number of times. It passed the time as we navigated the many pedestrians on the midtown Manhattan streets, the frigid cold, and I figured out how to best walk with my broken ribs.

We looked at a location in the building where we currently are, but it was too small. We looked at a co-working space, where we would have offices, and other companies were across the hall from us. It was not ideal for WLCJ. We would not have offices right next to each other; the art on the walls reflected some of the other offices – and not really ideal for our Jewish Women’s Organization. There was no guarantee who would be in the other offices, because they were often monthly rentals. Next! Some buildings did not have the security we would need – people just walked into the building. There were shared bathrooms in the hallway, and I did not feel secure. Some spaces were just large loft spaces that had to be built out, and would be much too big. I felt like I was Goldilocks – this one was too small; that one was not big enough. We needed to find a space that would be just right for our Women’s League offices.

Women’s Leagues offices have been in different locations throughout our history. A great resource to learn about our office locations can be found on our website www.wlcj.org/archives/ and then go to Women’s League Timeline 1918-Present. From 1918 until 1969, our offices were located at the Jewish Theological Seminary, 3080 Broadway in New York City. In 1969, we purchased a brownstone located at 48 East 74th Street, in New York City, where our offices remained until 2001 when we sold the East 74th brownstone and moved to The Interchurch Center, also known as the “God Box,” located at 475 Riverside Drive Suite 820, in New York City, where we remained until 2022. This was a great location, and referred to as the God Box because most of the organizations housed there had some sort of religious affiliation. Post COVID, we downsized our staff, and realized that Suite 820 was more space than we needed, and we moved to our current location, as sub-tenants on the 4th floor of 520 8th Ave., well located in midtown Manhattan, midway between Penn Station and Port Authority Bus Station. Sadly, last January 9, we learned we would need to move.

So, where are we moving? We looked at many spaces near where we currently are, in midtown Manhattan, well situated near transportation, and looked at a space in the building where we are now. Then we went back to where we started in 1918, 3080 Broadway, corner of Broadway and West 122nd Street in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. What is 3080 Broadway? The Jewish Theological Seminary, JTS. We are now coming full circle. We saw two spaces at JTS, one in the Brush Building, an older building in the JTS complex, and one in the Kripke Building. The entrance tower of the Jewish Theological Seminary served as the library stack until a fire destroyed the inner core in 1966. The structure remained unused until 2001, when it was renamed the Kripke Tower, in honor of the generous donation made by Rabbi Myer Kripke, who met his wife Dorothy while they both studied at JTS with Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan.

We can proudly say, our new location for our Women’s League for Conservative Judaism offices will be on the 9th floor of the Kripke Tower at JTS. WLCJ will occupy the entire 9th floor. Our move will take place the last week of April, 2025.

Like TV’s The Jeffersons, We’re moving on up… to the West Side… with a deluxe space in the tow-ow-er… It is a beautiful space on the 9th floor of the Kripke Tower.