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Our 2021 fund raising letter is available. (Requires Adobe Reader, do you need it?: Get it here).

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  May 20, 2021 - Eruv tour for KI students

We were thrilled to host a group of 6th and 7th grade students from our local Congregation Kehillath Israel Hebrew School. They have been learning a unit about Shabbat and permissible carrying and the concepts of private and public domains. Their teacher reached out to us and asked if the students could meet us in the field, ask questions about what an Eruv is and how it is built and maintained. We agreed that this was a wonderful idea. We chose an area on the Eruv where the students could see how different construction elements can become part of the Eruv. This includes fencing, over-the-street strings attached to existing poles, over-the-street strings attached to Eruv poles, and the standard pole attachment/lechi on utility poles. An informative 90 minute session was enjoyed by all and the kids (and their teacher) had a great time seeing the Halachot of Eruv and Shabbat practically applied.

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  March 3, 2021 - Carlton Street Footbridge Project

The Brookline Muddy River Flood Risk Management Construction Project: Phase 2 Carlton Street Footbridge was updated on January 26, 2021 to provide the following update: "In addition, the Carlton Street Footbridge Rehabilitation project was re-advertised by MassDOT Highway this fall. Five bids were received and the successful low bid of $3,955,053.50 was submitted by Aetna Bridge Company out of Rhode Island. MassDOT, the primary funding and contract administrative agent for the project, held a Pre-construction COnference on Friday, December 18, 2020. A proposed construction schedule and approach to dismantling and removing the existing footbridge is being developed by the Contractor, in close coordination with the MBTA, Boston Parks, Charter Contracting, and Brookline DPW. It is anticipated that the site preparation and mobilization, including tree removals, will commence in the winter 2021, with the project reaching substantial completion in spring 2022." Full Article

The Boston Eruv has been in discussions with the Town about the project since 2017 when it was first proposed. We met on-site with MassDOT, Brookline Town engineers, Aetna Bridge contractors, and the Brookline Tree Arborist on March 3, 2021 to review the impact that this project will have on the Eruv border. The tzurat ha-pesach at the south side of the footbridge has been in-place and relatively untouched since 1992.

We have agreements in-place with the contractors and the Town to handle maintaining our Eruv mechitza at this location both during the construction and the erection of the new footbridge.

  October, 2020 - MDR Construction Helps Us Out!

The MDR Construction team, working on part of the Gateway East project in Brookline Village, reached out to us about impending changes to our aerial attachments as old light fixtures are removed and new poles are installed. They offered to make the necessary changes for us at a very busy intersection (Brookline Ave and Washington St). We met on site and reviewed the requirements. We also loaned them a spool of our Eruv twine. Within two days, they had modifed the pole finials to accept the necessary Eruv hardware attachments and removed the old aerial spans and installed the new spans. They really came through for us! You can find out more about MDR at their website.

  July, 2020 - Educational tour for high-schoolers

Rabbi Eliezer Bercuson, Judaic Studies teacher at Maimonides School, reached out to us about a field trip for a "Summer Halacha Program" the first topic of which is Eruv. We met with a group of middle and high-school students at a point in the Eruv where we could see a Tzuras HaPesach made of poles and twine. We then walked along the border where a chain link fence serves as the Mechitzah, then to a short Tzuras HaPesach bridging over a sidewalk, then to typical Lechi construction along a street. Finally, we looked at an installation where the lechi is a length of black electrical tape as our Town was not ready to allow us full-size plastic Lechi strips on expensive, decorative light poles.
The students and Rabbi Bercuson had several questions about design, maintenance, and support that we discussed. It was a great, field meeting.

  April, 2020 - Engineering planning update

A new walking/bike pathway is in the planning stages between Miner St and Overland St in the Fenway area. We met on site today to review the placement of our Tzuras HaPesach at the Miner St cross-over when the project goes into the construction stage.

  November 2019 - Portugal Eruv - 1st in 500 years

The Jerusalem Post reports that an Eruv has been constructed and put into service in the Portugese town of Belmonte. This is the first Eruv built in Portugal in over 500 years. See the Links page to retrieve the JPost article.