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“Greater Crown Heights Eruv” Reportedly Down for Weeks — Updated

The “Greater Crown Heights Eruv” has been down for nearly two weeks, says a CrownHeights.info reader who sent us photos of the break in the Eruv. The break, on Atlantic Ave between Schenectady and Utica Ave, was still there dispite repeated attempts by the reader to contact those managing the Eruv.

Congregation Kol Israel of Prospect Heights, under whose auspices the Eruv was established, send out weekly updates on the condition of the Eruv. Yet the past two publications say that the Eruv is still standing and Kosher.

CrownHeights.info went to the site of the break and confirmed that the report was accurate, and that the Eruv had not been fixed. Attempts by CrownHeights.info to contact Congregation Kol Israel of Prospect Heights were unsuccessful at the time of this articles publication.

Update 12:02pm: CrownHeights.info was contacted by Eli Uminer, one of the people in charge of upkeep of the Eruv, who clarified that the section of the Eruv down, has not been in use for a period of time. The strings that were seen down had been replaced by stretching the Eruv line to the elevated train tracks nearby. This connection is in use from Nostrand Ave, through Ralph Ave, and that the old Eruv string had not been removed due to the cost.

Update #2: In a formal statement by the Board of Trustees of Congregation Kol Israel where they clarified;

“The eruv is up, and has been up. The “break” that you see is not part of the eruv. The route changes, as needed, based on the needs of upkeep and construction. When the route changes in a way the effects the actual boundaries (which was not the case in this change), we update the map as needed. For the security of the eruv, we do not publicize every change like this. Also, based on past experience with sabotage and rumors, we are wary of responding to e-mails from people we do not know claiming the eruv is down.

“The eruv is inspected weekly by a highly trained individual, and maintained. The eruv has, in fact, been up every single week that your article states it was down.”

In preparing for this article CrownHeights.info attempted to reach out to a number of people that have been involved in establishing the original Eruv and were turned down saying they were no longer involved. In visiting the Eruv’s official website at crownheightseruv.org, there is no contact information posted, nor is there a current status of the Eruv posted either.

In reading the statement from the trustees they made it clear that they ignored communications regarding the Eruv’s integrity due to being wary of “responding to e-mails from people we do not know.”

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45 Comments

  • Crown Heights Eruv

    The eruv has been up, every week. The lines that a layperson sees may or may not be the actual boundaries of the eruv. Unfortunately, due to heinous attacks on the Crown Heights eruv over the years, we have had to take precautions against sabatoge, false reports, etc.

    • Chaim

      What kind of precautions? Did the Eruv go underground? Or perhaps you use wireless technology?

    • huh

      How are people suppposed to know if the eruv is kosher if their is no way to easily reach out and we don’t even know where the parameters of the eruv are?! Isnt it superbly clear in halacha, one of the main conditions for using an eruv is to be able to verify its kosher Every. Single. Week. Who is taking responsibilty for all the Yidden who are being mechalel shabbos!
      I think this is the best proof there can be that the eruv is just not enough.
      If one would want an excuse to carry on Shabbos, please do so without fitting halach to suit ones own needs.
      Here is a classic example where the eruv is creating more problems than solutions.

    • Milhouse

      What are you talking about? The eruv’s status is announced every erev shabbos, it’s very easy to find this information, and every single person who cares about it knows before Shabbos whether they can carry. The only people who don’t get the announcement are those who don’t care, either because they don’t carry even when it’s up, or because they would carry even if it were down.

      Meanwhile so long as it’s up every week nobody is being mechalel shabbos by carrying within its boundaries, even the majority who unfortunately are mechalel shabbos in other ways. And since it was erected it’s been up almost every week; the last time it was down was before Pesach.

      So what problem exactly is the eruv creating?

  • Crown Heights Eruv

    You would also hope that a “news source” would make an actual effort to verify such a serious statement as this, rather than just relying on an anonymous “reader” with no actual knowledge of the eruv.

  • Anonymous

    “Attempts by CrownHeights.info to contact Congregation Kol Israel of Prospect Heights were unsuccessful.”

    Did you not read this in the article?
    Seems like the attempts were made, and the people in charge of the Eruv should be responsive to the concerns of a community that they are officially trying to help and accommodate.

    • Congregation Kol Israel

      They did not try very hard, our contact information is on the website, and they have contacted those in the shul involved in the Eruv in the past.

  • Eruv responsibility

    The responsibility to establish an Eruv is upon the מרא דאתרא.

    The validity of an Eruv established by an outsider is questionable.

    • Milhouse

      The eruv was established by an expert chosen and invited by the מרא דאתרא of Kol Israel, Rabbi Elkono Schwartz. He knows this expert’s identity and declares that the person is indeed what he is purported to be.

    • Eruv responsibility

      A Rov of a Shul (that doesn’t even live in the community) doesn’t make him מרא דאתרא of a community.

  • Eiruv

    Do the research before writing an article…The ERUV is BH UP!!!!As the string you see they havent been using in months

  • Jimbo

    This is simply fakenews. That is an old boundary of the eiruv which has since been expanded as frum people have moved farther north. Get your facts straight and stop with the hate mongering

  • kr1

    those who use the erev must care about it. then it will be checked and this would not happen. also, we must exercise tolerance. If we don’t use the eruv, we must still treat our neighbors with respect.
    \

  • pro eruv

    We must continue to carry even if the eruv is down. this way people will stop cutting the eruv as they will accomplish nothing.

    • Avrumy Wein

      That’ll teach them. Go get ‘em tiger.

      Be michallel shabbos bfarhesya, you don’t actually care about shmiras shabbos, just that it’s socially awkward to carry on shabbos when there isn’t a Eruv.

      And if you do care go live in a community out of CH where there’s actually a Kosher eruv if it means so much to your life, obviously keeping shabbos isn’t as important to as the backwards looking simpleton Jews…

  • My Name is Sara

    This article and the pictures should be removed. It accomplishes no good purpose.

  • Eli uminer

    Re eruv responsibility.
    Although most halachic matters do fall under local rabbonim, in eruvin specifically they do not fall under local rabbonim jurisdiction, as detailed by the rosh, who put a mora dosra in cherem for refusing to put up eruv, and then proceeded to tell the community to masser this rov to the king. Historically even the greatest opponent to eruv the mishknos yaakov obm had eruv put up in their place, and didn’t protest. As was the case in manhattan after local rov reb moshe assered making a eruv in manhattan, and reb tzvi eisenstat obm wrote in to the rebbe with a kuntreis to make a eruv in manhattan the rebbe supported him in the strongest possible terms, and himself quoted the rosh, where its explicit that its not up to the local rabbonim, wether to make eruv or not. And since one of the reasons against manhattan eruv by reb moshe, was that this will lead to a much shul, as people will forget you’re not allowed to carry and carry elsewhere. And aron kutler said it will lead to people carrying muktza etc, the rebbe quoted the tashbatz who was asked this specific question, wether making a eruv can lead to aveira, and the tashbatz responded chas vesholom to say something like that, and aderaba whoever feels uncomfortable with this is either a fool or a apikores. And we also see in the rebbe letter to rabbi tzinner shita regarding making a eruv, where the rebbe discusses how you need to make a eruv, ie do you need to make a shiur, or not. Can you encircle the entire city, or must you leave one house of the city out of the eruv, as a reminder that people shouldn’t forget the laws of carrying, the rebbe said its up to rabbonim hayodim tnai hamokom, the rabbonim who know the condition of that place. If you search thru the rebbe sichos and igros he says its up to rabbonei hamokom over two and a half thousand times, the only time he said it’s up to rabbonei hayodim tnai hamokom, was by eruv, which is because of the rosh I listed above.

    • Anonymous

      And our rabonim (from 30 yeas ago) clearly stated we cannot make an eruv in our neighborhood.

    • Milhouse

      So what? Why should Rabbi Schwartz, or any member of Kol Israel, care what our rabbonim said, now or 30 years ago? They are not their rabbonim, and have no business telling them what to do. The מרא דאתרא of Kol Israel is Rabbi Schwartz, and his is the only halachically relevant opinon.

    • Milhouse

      Yes. You can sign up here for Kol Israel’s weekly newsletter, and every Erev Shabbos you will receive notice whether the eruv is up or down.

      Note that if you think of yourself as a Lubavitcher chossid, the Alter Rebbe wrote that although the halocho is not like the Rambam in eruvin a chossid should be machmir like him. In that case you should know that the Greater Crown Heights Eruv, which is maintained by Congregation for the benefit of its non-chassidic members, does not claim to be kosher according to the Rambam. Therefore to us chassidim the status of this eruv is only relevant in an emergency, or if we find something in our pockets while walking, but we cannot rely on it to carry lechatchila.

  • TRUTH

    There is no ch eruv this is all fake news
    There never was and never never will be an eruv in ch

  • The Eruv is up BH!

    Don’t believe fake news. This headline casts false aspersions on those who maintain and use the eruv. There was no due diligence done, no verification, just a baseless uncorroborated accusation that has since been discredited.

    If you don’t want to use the eruv that’s fine, live and let live, nobody is forcing you to use it. But if you have particularly hostile eruv views or deny the reality of its existence and cannot manage to behave in a civil fashion toward those who do use it, spare us the outrage, a person such as myself with a reliable posek who says it’s 100% kosher could care less.

    א גוט שבת

  • Anonymous

    Halachic matters according to Eli Uminert do not fall under the Jurisdicationof a local Bais Din? Really what kind of bull is that To him apparently The rebbe’s opinion & many other experts On Eiruvin & all matters are meaningles & to mill house an expert for real

    ? this joke of a person was & is not an expert his so called opinionor even Psak if yopu will was questioned by a true espert & a Rov in his own community much less rabbonim here The so called Eiruv is not & cannot be vaild under true halcha For starts as Much of Crown Heights is a Reshus Harabim. At the very least the Entire length of Eastern Parkway , Faltbush, Bedfortd < Nostrand Kingston, Utica & Ralph Abrmus are by & of themslevesa Rwshus Harabimm a public Domain & No Eiruv is valid ina Reshus Harabim Anyone who carries is in my opini0on in violation of Jalacha. Furtehrmore did they obtaain writtern permission to attach the Eiruvv to the Tran tracks. Those tarcks are the rpoperty of THe MTa a Gov't agency of NY State They would need a signed letter from the charman who would be considered the Baal Habatis!

    • Berel

      It’s ‘Shuchat’, the son of the gaon in Latin America.

      Not Shochet – Shomaim vo’aretz.

    • Facts Don’t Care About Your Feelings

      Your bad language demonstrates amhaaratzus. Maybe open a sefer on and get learnt on eruvin and nivel peh instead of spreading misinformation on a topic you are uninformed about.

    • Milhouse

      This is amhoratzus on a number of points, but I will point to just one example: Whether CKI got permission from the chairman of the MTA to connect to the subway line is completely irrelevant. I know exactly where the writer got the opposite idea. That person saw the term שכירת רשות and mistranslated רשות as “permission”. From this s/he built a false idea in his/her mind that led him/her to this false conclusion. This example should suffice to discredit the above writer’s halachic expertise, and thus his/her criticisms of the eruv, without going into his/her other errors.

  • CR

    So the “pashkevil” about the “trefine eiruv” is baseless and the eiruv itself is complete and kosher according to those actually involved. Good.

    Now, howzabout the CH eiruv company remove those unused enclosures? If it is not in use it is litter. Doubly so if it is in such visible disrepair.

  • Boosheh

    Sad that we haven’t learned anything about making false allegations so soon after the Kavanaugh hearings.

    This article unnecessarily damages people’s reputations and riles up the anti-eruv social justice warriors.

  • #14

    if its checked so carefully every week, then how did this happen
    also,
    all the arguments about this and other issues…..the issue is often not the challenge or test. the challenge/test is how we all deal with it. Can we resolve intelligently and decently etc?
    we must evaluate and act according to the ultimate goal

    • Milhouse

      It is checked carefully every week. You ask if so how did this happen? How did what happen? Nothing at all has happened. The eruv has been checked every week and every week it has either been found kosher, or has been repaired before Shabbos.

      Whenever it has been found down and could not be repaired on time an alert went out to those on the mailing lists. The last time this happened was before Pesach.

  • Eli uminer

    Re anonymous.

    I notice you didn’t put your name, but it’s apparent you never learned hilchos eruvin, as it’s impossible for any st in ch to be a rshush harabim, 1 it’s mukaf mechitzos 2 it’s not mefulash umehcuvan 3 you don’t have shishim ribui boikim there, and even if there was shishim ribui boikim shom, still wouldn’t be a rshush harabim, as it’s mukaf mechitzos and not mefulash. As far as the rebbe is concerned he made his opinion crystal clear in his letter to reb eisenstat, reb moshe Feinstein said manhattan was a rshush harabim, reb eisenstat said its not a rshush harabim but we have to admit that if not for the mechitzos around manhattan we would theoretically have a rshush harabim, and the rebbe responded tzorich iyun as even then it wouldn’t be a rshush harabim. So don’t blame your am haratzus on the rebbe blame it on rabbi berl levine if you so choose

  • crown heights .info why spread libels ???

    it was up and it should be clear in the headline.

  • Shmiras Shabbos

    Keep TWO SHABBOSIM and MOSHIACH will be here.
    FORGET THE ERUV!
    Be careful with the laws of Shabbos for 2 Shabbosim
    and we will have the GEULAH . Its well worth it!!!!

    • Milhouse

      An eruv is part of keeping Shabbos. There is no question that it prevents thousands of instances of chilul shabbos every week, and it does not cause even one instance.