Mayor Adams Completes Brooklyn Eruv Project by Signing 99-Year Lease for $1
By Yehudit Garmaise
A new eruv surrounds all of Boro Park, and most of Brooklyn, thanks to the work of the Brookyn Eruv Board and Vaad, and the oversight of Rabbi Yaakov Zeide and 10 additional rabbis: notably HaRav Asher Eckstein and HaRav Gavriel Tzinner, shlita, the dayan of Vishnitz and the author of Boi Toshiv.
“We built an eruv around most of Brooklyn that has been functional since Yom Kippur,” Rabbi Eli Uminer, a board member of the Brooklyn Eruv, told BoroPark 24.
While many smaller kosher eruvin have long served many Jewish communities in Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Eruv, which has extended the boundaries of most of the eruvim, covers many areas that were not previously included in any eruvin, and can serve as a backup when other eruvin go down.
Jews who want to walk to other communities for simchas on Shabbos should first carefully check the eruv’s boundaries on the map on brooklyneruv.com to remain 100% clear on where they can legally carry, Rabbi Uminer pointed out.
The new eruv, for instance, does not encircle Williamsburg, which has an eruv of its own.
Jews who wish to can walk from the Brooklyn eruv into the Williamsburg eruv.
The Brooklyn Eruv’s board said that it undertook the project, “in order to enhance the oneg Shabbos for all: those with babies at home can go for walks, to visit Bubbie and Zeidie, go to the park, and walk to simchas in other neighborhoods.
“Additionally, the eruv will cover those who carry inadvertently.”
While the first part of completing an eruv is building and repairing the eruv’s tzuras hapesochim, or “doors” and “virtual walls,” the second part is that the city’s mayor or police commissioner must rent the eruv to the Jewish community, Rabbi Uminer explained.
“Additionally, we had to ensure the zikui hapas, which is the matzah for the eruv chatzeiros,” Rabbi Uminer added.
While in the past, the city had given the Jewish community a verbal agreement, today at City Hall, Mayor Eric Adams completed the project by signing a 99-year lease for $1,” to allow carrying in the boundaries of the eruv in accordance with Jewish law,” the mayor’s signed proclamation said.
“It was very nice that the mayor took the time to host us and to make the eruv for us,” said Rabbi Uminer, who was at City Hall today along with other Brooklyn Eruv Vaad members Rabbi Tuvia Greisman, Rabbi Shmuel Poltman, and Rabbi Yossel Greenwald.
The many rabbis who support the eruv said that a vaad of mashgichim will check the eruv weeky, and that they will “ensure that the Brooklyn Eruv will be maintained in the best possible way.”
Photos by: Achim Lenchevsky