The History of Eruvin and Carrying in Crown Heights
Crown Heights observed Shabbos for decades without a neighborhood eruv. During the Rebbe's leadership, carrying in the streets was not the accepted practice, and no eruv approved by the Crown Heights Beis Din was established. The boundary publicized in 2016 met a series of direct rulings from the local Rabbonim, followed by further rulings as the proposal was renewed and altered.
Crown Heights during the Rebbe's leadership
The public practice of Crown Heights was to walk to shul, farbrengens, meals, and simchos without carrying through the streets. A stroller, sefer, key, or bag was arranged before Shabbos rather than taken outside on the strength of a neighborhood eruv.
Rabbi Zalman Shimon Dworkin, the mara d'asra, appears among the Rabbonim on the Kislev 5739 large-city proclamation of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis. The Crown Heights psak of Sivan 5776 later cites his explicit position together with the American and Canadian poskim led by Rav Moshe Feinstein.
Rabbi Yehuda Leib Groner, one of the Rebbe's longtime mazkirim, wrote that the Rebbe strongly opposed making an eruv in Crown Heights and that no one had permission to do so. Rabbi Avrohom Osdoba included the words conveyed to him by Rabbi Groner in his signed clarification: “I will not permit an eruv to be made here in the neighborhood.”
The Chitrik family's account
Rabbi Mendy Chitrik later related what he had heard repeatedly from his grandfather, Rabbi Hirshel Chitrik. Rabbi Hirshel wanted an eruv so that his wife could bring their children to shul, and asked the Rebbe about building one in Crown Heights. According to the family account, the Rebbe said it was not to be built as a public eruv and could be considered only if it remained hidden.
Rabbi Chitrik also recounted a separate conversation with his grandmother, who said that she had been present and that the Rebbe had told them not to build a public eruv. The account is a later family recollection rather than a recording of the original yechidus, but it supplies a named account of the question that arose during those years.
The practical instruction before the 2016 proposal
The Crown Heights Beis Din's Tishrei guides of 5776 were published in September 2015. One states that here in the neighborhood there is no eruv and that carrying is forbidden on Shabbos. A second gives the same instruction for Yom Kippur.
The passages appear in practical guides covering the halachos of the season. They show that the absence of an eruv was already part of the neighborhood's ordinary halachic guidance before the new boundary was publicized.
The eruv publicized in the spring of 5776
When an eruv was announced for Crown Heights in Iyar 5776, the first Beis Din response came from Rabbi Aharon Yaakov Schwei and Rabbi Yosef Yeshaya Braun. They wrote that an eruv arranged without the agreement of the local Rabbonim could not be accepted and told the public that carrying in the streets was absolutely forbidden.
An earlier private letter from Rabbi Avrohom Osdoba was then circulated as though it supported the proposal. Rabbi Osdoba answered with a signed clarification denying any agreement to build an eruv. In Sivan, he and Rabbi Shlomo Yehuda Halevi Segal issued a joint psak that no valid eruv existed anywhere within Crown Heights.
Further letters from Rabbi Schwei and Rabbi Braun dealt with the authority of the established Beis Din and with outside involvement in a decision governing the entire neighborhood. Their lasting halachic point is that the Rabbonim who know the local conditions must decide the question.
Renewed publicity and the exterior-wall proposal
The eruv continued to be advertised in later years. Before Sukkos 5782, Rabbi Osdoba and Rabbi Braun restated the positions of the successive Crown Heights Rabbonim and described them as categorical rejection. They repeated that carrying was forbidden and that the eruv was treated as nonexistent.
A larger outer boundary was then presented, relying on claimed walls outside Crown Heights and on omed merube. The public description eventually included an 80 percent wall figure and a map extending through Crown Heights, Brownsville, and East Flatbush. The Beis Din addressed the new proposal in Teves 5783 and ruled that it made no change whatsoever to the earlier psak.
Construction and promotional material continued to appear, including work at street lights and an underpass, weekly status notices, and statements praising particular aspects of the route. None changed the ruling of the Crown Heights Beis Din.
The current position
Before Yom Kippur 5786, after advertisements again announced that the eruv was up and kosher, the Beis Din issued another notice to residents and guests. It prohibited carrying in a public domain and transferring from one domain to another throughout Crown Heights and its vicinity on Shabbos and Yom Kippur.
The route continued to be promoted in 2026 through weekly status notices and renewed public arguments. The practical direction of the local Rabbonim remains the practice Crown Heights followed before the route was announced: prepare for Shabbos without relying on a neighborhood eruv.