To our esteemed Gevirim and Community Leaders of Brooklyn,
I write to you with great admiration and respect, aware of the many ways in which you have supported and sustained our kehilla with generosity, leadership, and vision. Your dedication to Klal Yisroel — in Torah, chesed, and communal growth — has built institutions, supported families, and shaped the future of generations.
Recently, a remarkable initiative was launched in Lakewood: two new wedding halls, Ateres Blima and Ateres Esther, were established to directly address the crushing financial burden so many families face when marrying off children. These halls offer an elegant, all-inclusive simcha package — hall, catering, music, photography, flowers, and more — for just $13,000. The vision is not simply affordability, but a shift in expectations, a reset that prioritizes simcha, dignity, and achrayus over pressure and excess.
The results speak for themselves. Seventy-five weddings have already been booked. The halls are beautiful, efficient, and designed with the community in mind. More than that — they represent hope. They say to a struggling family: “You can make a chasunah without debt. You can celebrate without shame.”
And here is the question we must now ask:
If such a project is possible in Lakewood — and if it is being led, funded, and driven by gevirim from Brooklyn — why can’t we build the same in Brooklyn itself?
Why should Brooklyn families continue to face overwhelming simcha costs, while the very solution being praised in Lakewood remains out of reach for us here? The need is no less urgent in Brooklyn. The numbers are no less staggering. The impact would be just as powerful — and perhaps even more so, given the size and diversity of our neighborhoods.
The community respectfully urges our community leaders and donors to come together and bring this vision to life in Brooklyn. We already have the model. We already have the people. What we need now is the will.
Let us be the generation that changed the trajectory — that made weddings manageable, beautiful, and filled with real simcha. Let us act with foresight, with compassion, and with responsibility.
With heartfelt hope,
Y.R.B
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Last I heard Vizhnitz Hall in Boro park is $12,000 only
But the Chuppa is 3 flights up with no working elevator. Small, cramped, and no AC.
Food.not the package
Isn’t there such an ateres Mattel Leah near Flatbush?
It’s in Manhattan Beach
we cannot question what the askanim do as they are guided by Daas Torah so we cannot question them as that in turn attacks Daas Torah
This project being led, funded, and driven by gevirim from Lakewood and Brooklyn
Brooklyn has Ateres Matel Leah under the same organization as the 2 Lakewood Halls
Williamsburg is getting 2 Takan Halls in Ateres Avraham (funded by a Williamsburg gvir)
Why the clickbait uninformed posts?
Manhatten beach hall is 23k. They don’t own the hall. They leased it so costs are way harder. It’s mighty expensive to build halls from scratch and property is hard to get in brooklyn.
The schrons actually tried to do it in Brooklyn, making something extremely wonderful. They were putting together aplan to purchase and build. However the zoning boards rejected them outright. Sothey didn’t buy the properrty.
This clown wrote the same letter on a different forum and got the feedback that it already exists in Brooklyn.
Instead of appreciating the people who are going out of the way to make our lives easier this person then goes and runs the same rant over here on matzav.com attacking them.
This tells me that it is not a genuine critique, but rather cry for help.
Please reach out to the organizations that are available to help you. There’s no need to feel shame and asking for help (if you need it), but attacking a few wealthy people in our community who selflessly go above and beyond is a foolhardy way to go about things.
Available land in Lakewood make it much cheaper to build and NYC regulations and permitting are onerous. There is more room to build. You can have large parking lots. Labor is cheaper.
You really can’t compare the costs of NYC with Lakewood.
This is a very good idea!!!!!!!
One Rosh Hayeshiva is doing this in Brooklyn and he has done over 70 such weddings. Why not make this an acceptable option with NO shame????
Why was my comment not posted?
Because Matzav excels in illegal censorship.
Lets be honest
The hall is just a fraction of the cost
So many things that can be cut out, from expensive jewlery, wigs, streimels, designer bags
That is where the real gashmious is
100%!
Depending on the size of the family, it can cost $35,000 to marry off a boy and $50,000 to marry off a girl.
And this is using the Takanah Package at the hall!
I’m not talking about any obscene niceties either, new furniture for the apartment, clothes for the family, catering and a hall for a vort and Shabbos Sheva Brachos, basic gifts etc.
And then there is obscene spending: $30,000+ worth of flowers, $1,200 portions at a wedding, down payment on a home (which is a beautiful thing to do if you can afford it).
We need to learn to not just live within our means, but celebrate when our friends and neighbors live beneath their means. This would help reduce the peer pressure…
The same family that very generously spearheaded this project in Lakewood has already done a similar project in Brooklyn: the Ateres Mattel Leah hall in Manhattan Beach. (Obviously, due to the differences in costs of real estate, construction, and vendor pricing in Brooklyn, the final price is not identical, but it is still very reasonable.) I have heard very positive reviews from both baalei simcha that have made weddings there and guests. I myself have been there numerous times and have been very happy. There are BH various other takana halls available in Boro Park and Williamsburg. Nohr simchos by yidden bez’h!
Brooklyn already has a place….
Mattel Leah Hall.
That cost $21,000 for a bare bones chassuna.That’s not considered reasonable IMHO. No soup. A few mini baguette’s in the middle of each table with a plate of couple of pickles and sliced olives with a side of bread sticks. Small tray of coleslaw, and we’re off to the main course. Many people coming to weddings are coming straight from work and haven’t eaten in a few hours. It would be nice and bikovadik to eat something nice and fulfilling upon arrival. This applies to ALL wedding halls.
There does exist such a hall in Brooklyn, opened several years ago-Ateres Mattel Leah in Manhatten Beach funded by the same Brooklyn gvirim who funded the Lakewood halls.
For $21,000.00?
The average price of a house in BP is about 500k
People can afford a chasanua.
Please please tell me where exactly I can buy a house for 500k. Ill buy one yesterday.
11th and 12th aves. Between 39&44. Some need repairs.
What about the kloister hall on 16th Ave?
a friend of mine got married in an open field
you dont need a hall you want a hall
I do not understand why Chasina halls need to charge anywhere near 12,000 dollars for a wedding.
Why are “geverim” responsible to subsidize weddings?
First of all, a wedding is about the Chosson and Kallah, and not about everyone and anyone that the parents, grandparents, etc…… ever met, or moreover anyone that the parents need to impress.
Wedding halls have lots of volume, sometimes making multiple weddings per night, and can charge much less.
If the focus of the wedding was on the needs of the young couple, all of costs would automatically be reduced, as there would be so many fewer people eating at these mega events.
But, of course this reveals the actual core issue here. Don’t get me wrong, Im NOT against parents helping out their children here and there, but the onus of the financial responsibilty for the young couple is to rest on THEIR shoulders. The Chosson gives his Kallah a Kesuba in which he promises to support her financially throughout their marriage, and to support her partially in the event of a divorce.
Nowhere in that legal document does it state or imply that the Chosson can shirk his financial responsibilities by sitting in Kollel and begging for parental (as well as communal) support.
If we think in the way that is guided by the Torah, as well as codified by our Reshonim and Achronim, all expenses related to marriage will be drastically reduced.