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No more stringing us along! Golders Green eruv is a yes
Campaign for the new Shabbat boundary wanted to raise £250,000 – and got it
November 24, 2024 12:46
Campaign for the new Shabbat boundary wanted to raise £250,000 – and got it
November 24, 2024 12:46v The new Golders Green eruv intended to cater for strictly Orthodox families is set to go live in January after it reached its £250,000 appeal target.
A 48-hour campaign has secured the necessary support to underwrite the rest of its construction.
An eruv converts a public area into private space under Jewish law, allowing observant Jews on Shabbat to carry, among other things, house keys, tissues, medication and babies, and to use buggies, wheelchairs or walking sticks.
The new Shabbat boundary is being overseen by Rabbi Shraga Feivel Zimmerman, who is the spiritual head of the Federation of Synagogues.
Although the area is covered by the existing North-West London Eruv, which is supervised by the London Beth Din, most Charedi families are thought not to have used it because their rabbis follow a more stringent application of Jewish law.
The Golders Green Eruv will be bounded mostly by existing main roads; however, where there is a gap, this will be marked by pairs of poles linked by thin wire representing symbolic gateways.
But one feature of this eruv is that it will also have a number of green “boxes” similar to cabinets housing electricity meters, which will be stationed at the side of the road; these will contain barriers that will be stretched across the road for a short time once a year to symbolically seal off the road.
Rabbi Zimmerman has told Barnet council, which gave planning permission, that the design should “satisfy the views of all of those who do wish to make use of an eruv facility in Golders Green”.
The initiative has attracted support of some rabbis associated with the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations. With the eruv due to be functional in a matter of weeks, it remains to be seen if any will now hold out against it.