Testimony Concerning the Rebbe's Position on an Eruv in Crown Heights
Rabbi Yehuda Leib Groner gives the Rebbe's Crown Heights wording directly. Rabbi Yoel Kahn explains the published correspondence as opposing a public eruv in a large city, and the Chitrik family recounts an earlier Crown Heights proposal brought to the Rebbe in yechidus.
“I will not permit an eruv to be made here”
Rabbi Groner states that the Rebbe strongly opposed making an eruv in Crown Heights and that no one had permission to do so. He preserves the words: “I will not permit an eruv to be made here in the neighborhood.”
His statement was published when an eruv was being promoted in Crown Heights in 5776. It addresses the neighborhood by name and leaves no need to infer Crown Heights from a letter about another city.
A proposal intended to help families
The Chitrik account begins with the very benefit an eruv might offer. Rabbi Hirshel Chitrik wanted his wife and other mothers to be able to bring their children to shul, and he asked the Rebbe about making an eruv in Crown Heights.
Rabbi Mendy Chitrik recounts that his grandfather was told not to make a public eruv. He heard the story many times from his grandfather and later verified the essential account with his grandmother, who said she had been present.
Rabbi Yoel Kahn on the published correspondence
Rabbi Yoel Kahn understood the Rebbe's published letters as a clear policy against creating and publicizing an eruv in a large city. He emphasizes the likelihood that people will hear the original permission while a later failure or restriction reaches far fewer.
His signed letter was written during Bein Hametzarim 5776, while the Crown Heights eruv was being promoted. It is Rabbi Kahn's informed reading of the Rebbe's correspondence, not a substitute for Rabbi Groner's direct Crown Heights wording.
The local psak does not rest on testimony alone
The Crown Heights Rabbonim cite the Rebbe's opposition, but they also rule directly that the neighborhood has no valid eruv. Rabbi Osdoba, Rabbi Schwei, Rabbi Braun, and Rabbi Segal addressed the proposal in their own authority.
For carrying on Shabbos and Yom Kippur, the Beis Din's instruction is sufficient: the publicized eruv is treated as nonexistent.