Rabbanut Meeting Regarding The Eiruv

On Monday March 12, Bukharian Chief Rabbi Harav Yitzchak Yisraeli met with Rabbi Ashie Schreier of Young Israel of Forest Hills, Rabbi Micah Shotkin, and Rabbi Duvie Zomick. The meeting was about a very important matter affecting the sizeable Jewish communities of Forest Hills and Rego Park. For the past few weeks, these communities have had to deal with no functional Eruv. Due to a series of winter snowstorms and winds, the Eruv fell into disrepair. Though it is common for Queens’s communities to be held hostage to the whims of the weather, it is no longer necessary.

We are proud to announce the cooperation between the Chief Bukharian Rabbanut and the Ashkenazi communities to finance, manage, and maintain an updated and sturdier Eruv for the Forest Hills and Rego Park area. The parties present at the meeting also agreed to create a joint committee to ensure that all responsibilities regarding the Eruv be dealt with in unison. The actual Eruv will be a new structure and will have a fencing base as opposed to the more common but far less sturdy pole base. After the Eruv is up, it will undergo inspection by the Chief Bukharian Rabbanut so that it can be relied upon by the Sefardic communities in the covered areas.

The opportunity to renew the Eruv allows it to be designed according to the Rambam’s shitah (viewpoint), which satisfies all Sephardi Halachic concerns. In addition, since the two Torah giants of the generation, Harav Ben Tzion Abba Shaul and Maran Harav Ovadia Yosef, agreed that Sephardim can rely on the Eruv even in large cities such as Queens, the new Eruv should suit the needs of all community members. The Eruv’s northern border will reach the LIE, and its southern border will be Union Turnpike. Its western border will be Woodhaven Boulevard, while its eastern border will reach the Grand Central. The Rabbanut will update the Community with further developments.