NEW YORK — A congregation in Brooklyn, founded nearly a century ago to serve a Jewish hospital, is fighting for its survival in a New York court, as a medical center seeks to sell off the premises for real estate development, according to a lawsuit.

Congregation Chaim Albert said the development plan runs counter to assurances from New York State that it would be allowed to continue operating at the site, and goes against agreements between the synagogue and the medical center that owns the property, One Brooklyn Health.

The lawsuit, filed in June in New York State Supreme Court, said the development plan threatens to “wash away almost a century of Jewish religious life” at the site.

The Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center was founded in the late 1920s, in the Flatbush area of Brooklyn, due to antisemitism at other hospitals in the area, especially discrimination against Jews with special needs. Jewish community members bought the lots on which the hospital was built and Jewish donations contributed to the center’s operations.

Amenities for Jews were incorporated into the medical complex, such as a kosher kitchen and space for prayer services.

The Jewish congregation was active on the hospital’s grounds since at least 1928. The original synagogue building was demolished to build X-ray rooms in 1950, and the current structure, with marble floors and stained-glass windows, was built as a replacement and named Congregation Joseph Chaim Albert, after the father of the hospital’s president at the time,........

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