It is a case of crossed wires.
A spat between the Modern Orthodox and Hasidic Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish communities in Crown Heights over a new eruv — a sacred string wrapped around the neighborhood that the former group believes relaxes some rules on the Sabbath, and the latter does not — has now spilled over into Park Slope and Prospect Heights, claim members of a Ninth Street synagogue.
Vandals have twice pulled down the long-standing eruv around the neighborhoods in recent weeks, and the congregants say the unprecedented attack can only be an extension of the battle over the holy string erected in the adjacent ’hood a month ago, and they don’t want to be roped in.
“We don’t want the unrest of a neighboring community to spill over into ours,” the members of Congregation B’Nai Jacob wrote in a public letter first reported by COL Live. “Please don’t touch our eruv.”
The Brownstone Brooklyn eruv — a fishing wire strung up along utility poles around the Slope and the Heights to create one big symbolic building to bypass rules forbidding Jews from carrying things outdoors during the Sabbath — has existed as a communal amenity in the neighborhoods for more than 20 years with no drama, they say.
But the new Greater Crown Heights eruv has not been so welcome in its neighborhood, which is home to some 10,000 members of the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic community.
Several Chabad rabbis issued edicts shortly after St. Johns Place Modern Orthodox synagogue Congregation Kol Israel erected it in mid-June, condemning the consecrated cord and instructing followers that carrying within its boundaries on the Sabbath was still not kosher, and the line has already been torn down and tampered with multiple times since then, police told DNA Info.
The leader of B’Nai Jacob says he doesn’t think the vandals deliberately targeted the Park Slope string — they just confused it for the Crown Heights one, as the two run side by side.
“They’re not out get us,” said Rabbi Shimon Hecht. “Not at all.”
Members of the synagogue say they respect the Chabad community’s objection to the eruv around Crown Heights, and hope they will extend the same courtesy to their neighborhoods.
“We recognize that there are voices in the Chabad community that protest the eruv encircling Crown Heights,” they wrote. “As good neighbors, we expect our neighboring community to respect ours and not infringe on our community institutions and decisions.”
But the organizer of the Crown Heights eruv is less understanding. He claimed critical Chabad leaders are just angry that their followers are availing themselves of the new amenity, but said the growing Modern Orthodox cohort in the area shouldn’t suffer as a result.
“The problem isn’t that people are using the eruv — the problem is they’re not listening to their rabbi,” said Naftali Hanau. “The fact that the Lubavitch community is not listening to its leadership is not a reason why my community shouldn’t be able to grow.”
Fortunately, none of the vandalism against either eruv occurred on or directly before the Sabbath, according to Hanau. But even it had, the system is backed up by redundancies that prevent Jews from inadvertently sinning due to a downed eruv line — though he would not reveal what they are.
“Just because the string is cut, doesn’t mean the eruv is down,” he said. “There are backups, we’re not dumb.”
