Edifice complex

Palace of Soviets (Dom Sovetov). B.Iofan, V.Gelfreikh, Ya.?elopolsky, V.Pelevin, Sculptor S.Merkulov. A version of the approved project. 1946 The Palace of Soviets was planned to be the largest building in the world. Its height was to reach 415 metres - higher than the tallest buildings of the time, the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building, The building-postament was to be topped by a 100 metre statue of Lenin.

Schenur Zalman of NY commenting to the A geshmake pickle posts:

I recall years ago Lubavitchers among other Orthodox Jews would laugh at non-Religious Jews as "Kishke or Boich "Jews who liked a good piece of Corn beef or bagels and lox. Now they themselves "feed" this stuff to their potential recruits. Other Jews were mocked as Cardiac Jews that is they had a Jewish heart, i.e. they gave charity to Jewish causes. Of course now Chabad loves nothing more than a BIG cardiac Jew, who can unload a few million. Finally the frum world and Lubavitch laughed at the Reform and Conservative movement as suffering from an edifice complex i.e. building huge buildings for their Shuls. Of course Chabad is into that too and in a big way.

In my Shul in New Heaven 40 years ago the "boys" of Chabad were worried that there was no Shomer Shabbaes Minyon as to them the old Jews in the Shul were suspect. Of course that has changed now too, most Chabad houses (read shuls) clearly have no shomer shabbes minyon and many probably don't have a minyon all together most of the time. Times have changed.