Community
New Golders Green Eruv gets council approval
The Shabbat boundary is intended to help those who do not use the existing North-West London Eruv
July 20, 2023 11:06
The Shabbat boundary is intended to help those who do not use the existing North-West London Eruv
July 20, 2023 11:06Barnet Council has given the go-ahead for a new eruv to serve the Strictly Orthodox communities of Golders Green.
Members of the borough’s strategic planning committee voted for the proposal, submitted by the Federation of Synagogues, after a short discussion on Tuesday.
“It is a life-changing way top make life easier for so many people,” said veteran councillor Eva Greenspan.
Although the area covered by the new eruv is already inside the 20-year old North-West London Eruv, which is overseen by the London Beth Din, many synagogues to the right of the United Synagogue do not use it.
According to some, the North Circular Road that runs through the North-West London Eruv is used by too many people to make the area viable for an eruv according to more stringent applications of Jewish law.
At last night’s meeting, the Federation’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Shraga Feivel Zimmerman, who was described as its “Chief Rabbi”, said there was a “great communal need” for the new eruv, stressing in particular the benefit to mothers with young families and those in wheelchairs.
He explained to councillors that his support for the new facility did not mean he was giving any opinion on the validity of the existing North-West London Eruv.
Andrew Cohen, a member of the Golders Green Eruv Committee, said after the vote, “This is a significant scheme that will impact so many families across our neighbourhood who will now enjoy the benefit this brings to their Shabbos.”
The committee is now working on securing the necessary funding to support the project.
In a report recommending the proposal, a council planning officer explained: “An eruv is a continuous boundary designated in accordance with Jewish Laws. Whilst Jewish law prohibits Orthodox Jews from carrying on the Sabbath, carrying is permitted within the defined boundary of an eruv, as is the use of other items such as pushchairs and wheelchairs.”
The boundary would make use of local features, “such as fences or walls alongside roads, railways or terraced buildings,” the report said. However, where this continuity is not possible due to breaks in the boundary, for example roads, then this breach must be integrated by the erection of a notional 'gateway'. Such a gateway consists of poles linked on top by a wire or cross bar.”
The Golders Green eruv would consist of 31 pairs of poles linked by wire that “would not be readily visible to the naked eye”.
The proposal would “significantly and positively benefit disabled members of the Jewish community in that it would enable them to attend the synagogue for worship on the Sabbath as well as generally being able to leave their houses to socialise with friends and family on those days,” the report said.
The proposed eruv which excludes the A406, had “been designed to the most stringent levels of Jewish law”, the report said. The Federation believed that while 22 per cent of those in Golders Green used the existing eruv, this would rise to 88 per cent with the new eruv.