Greater Boston Eruv Corporation
Celebrating 28 years of community service (1993-2021)
|
Greater Boston Eruv Corporation
|
|
|
Celebrating 28 years of community service (1993-2021)
|
|
|
|
|
| Wednesday, April 21, 2021 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Our Mission: We operate and maintain the Greater Boston Eruv, one of the largest Eruvim in the United States. The Eruv allows people within its borders to carry on the Shabbat, an activity that would otherwise be proscribed by Jewish law.
Our Scope: The Greater Boston Eruv covers major parts of Brookline, Newton, and Brighton. An initial extension of the Eruv to include Nonantum (See the map!) was followed by expansion into most of South Newton. During Sukkot 5766, we completed a third extension to the Eruv that includes a significant portion of Boston University. In 5771, we added another small section in the Newton area. We also manage the Malden, MA (extended in December 2014) and the Brandeis University Eruv (which was extended into Waltham during the Fall of 2015). Beginning in 2014, we began two simultaneous projects, one to extend the Eruv into more of South Brookline and, for the first time, into West Roxbury, and a new Eruv on the North Shore (Marblehead, Salem, Swampscott). Our new South Brookline/West Roxbury extension was ready for service as of Erev Yom Kippur 5777. Our Swampscott Eruv (Phase 1) went online in the Fall of 2016.
March 21, 2021 - Dr. Jesse Hefter and Rabbi Meilich Horowitz, following COVID-19 protocols, perform Eruv Chatzayros on behalf of the Community Eruv.
Rabbi Moshe Heinemann (r) and Dr. Jesse Hefter surveying a portion of the proposed Eruv in the late 1980s
If you have not heard from us recently, please contact us as soon as possible.
We need everyone's participation! And remember... the Eruv is not a free service.
Our 2021 fund raising letter is available. (Requires Adobe Reader, do you need it?: Get it here).
Need our physical street mailing address? Use the Contact Link to the left...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Check Eruv Status history...
Eruv News!
Eruv Images!
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright, GBEC, 1999-2021
Hosted by: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
To subscribe to our Weekly Eruv Status mail list, please send us 
March, 2021 - Times of Israel Blog Posting
