Chief Rabbi of the Syrian Jewish community
Rabbi Yaakov Kassin and the Rabbinic Proclamation Concerning Eruvin in New York
Rabbi Yaakov S. Kassin appears in the large New York eruv proclamations of 5739 with a separate statement of his own. The surviving notices identify him as the chief rabbi of the Syrian Jewish community in New York and place his position within a broader rabbinic ruling concerning eruvin in New York and Brooklyn.
Rabbi Kassin's separate statement
The Hebrew proclamation dated Kislev 5739 is headed Azharah Chamurah Neged Tikkun Eruvin B'New York, a severe warning against establishing eruvin in New York. Beneath the main text and the printed list of Rabbonim is a boxed statement attributed separately to Rabbi Kassin.
It begins:
אני משתתף עם הרה״ג בכל הנ״ל
I join the distinguished Rabbonim in all of the above.
Rabbi Kassin then recalls that many years earlier there had been a joint meeting of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Rabbonim at which, according to his statement, they agreed to prohibit establishing an eruv in New York and Brooklyn for a number of reasons. The notice presents this recollection as Rabbi Kassin's own explanation for joining the current ruling.
That makes his place in the document different from a Rav whose name appears only in the printed list. At the same time, the surviving reproduction is a printed notice. It does not show a handwritten autograph by Rabbi Kassin, and it should not be described as though the reproduced page itself were a sheet of original signatures.
The seventy-three-name notice
An English newspaper reproduction from the same period prints Rabbi Kassin's name among seventy-three Rabbonim, with the identification "Chief Rabbi of Syrian Comm." The notice states that an eruv was not to be established in any neighborhood of New York or Brooklyn and that carrying would remain forbidden even if such an eruv were set up.
The Hebrew proclamation carries the corresponding broad warning and gives Rabbi Kassin the separate endorsement quoted above. Together, the two reproduced notices establish his public association with the collective position. They do not establish a surviving handwritten signature on the copies now available.
The broader Brooklyn and New York discussion, including the rulings associated with Rav Moshe Feinstein and the Union of Orthodox Rabbis, is treated on the Rabbinic Proclamations concerning Brooklyn and other large cities page and on the page devoted to Rav Moshe Feinstein.