Eruv - Disagreements Between Orthodox Groups

Disagreements Between Orthodox Groups

There are instances where various Orthodox rabbis dispute both the validity of an eruv or whether an eruv can in fact be built in a certain neighborhood.

One of the oldest halakhic disputes in the United States revolves around the issue of an eruv in Manhattan (which is an island bordering an estuary that is connected to the Atlantic Ocean), in New York City. Some halakhic opinions refer to an island's reinforced walls against an ocean as contributing to and forming a 'natural' eruv, and this view had been relied upon by rabbis in the early part of the twentieth century to permit their followers to carry on shabbat in Manhattan. In the 1950s, a proposal by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Kasher to establish an eruv in Manhattan gained the support of many prominent rabbis, including Rabbis Yosef Eliyahu Henkin, Dovid Lifshitz, and Ephraim Oshry, and the Kopishnitzer, Novominsker and Radziner Rebbes. Other authorities, such as Rabbis Aharon Kotler and Moshe Feinstein, raised objections, and a major controversy ensued. In the end, the opponents Agudas Horabonim issued a declaration opposing it.

In June 2007, the East Side portion of the internal Manhattan Eruv was completed, offering an eruv within Manhattan to Orthodox Jews living on the East, Upper East, and Upper West Sides. There are also two eruvin in Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood, one covering the Yeshiva University area and another that is part of Mount Sinai Jewish Center and covers the Fort Washington area.

Another ongoing dispute is the status of two inter-connected eruvin in Brooklyn: The Flatbush eruv and the Boro Park eruv. The Boro Park eruv, from its initial construction, was not accepted by some of the Hasidic community and was rejected by most of the non-Hasidic "Lithuanian yeshiva" communities. The Flatbush eruv was originally built with the support of the Modern Orthodox community and was later enhanced with the support of some local non-Modern Orthodox yeshiva families. It was totally rejected by the many "Lithuanian yeshiva" communities led by the rosh yeshivas ("deans") of the large yeshivas Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, Mir yeshiva, and Yeshiva Torah Vodaas that are based in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. In the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, there is some dispute over the making of an eruv, with Rabbi Zalman Leib Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rebbe of Williamsburg leading the opposition to an eruv.