Rabbi Yehuda Leib Groner's Testimony Concerning the Rebbe and a Crown Heights Eruv

Rabbi Yehuda Leib Groner served for decades as one of the Rebbe's mazkirim. When he was asked about the Rebbe's position on constructing an eruv in Crown Heights, he answered in a written statement devoted specifically to the neighborhood.

The surviving page contains a Hebrew statement followed by an English translation. It is undated, and the name at the foot is typeset rather than handwritten. Its subject, author, and wording are nevertheless explicit: Rabbi Groner is recording the position he heard from the Rebbe concerning an eruv in Crown Heights.

“No one has permission to make an Eiruv here”

Rabbi Groner wrote:

I was asked about the Rebbe's stance regarding constructing an Eiruv in our community of Crown Heights.

Reply:

The Rebbe strongly opposed making an Eiruv in our community, and he reiterated on several occasions that no one has permission to make an Eiruv here.

It should be explained to all those who, Rachmana Litzlan, are considering making an Eiruv here that anyone who does so, Rachmana Litzlan, is starting up with the Rebbe, and he should recognize the effect it may have, G-d forbid, on himself and his family etc.

When the rabbonim in Melbourne wanted to construct an Eiruv, my brother A"H and R. Chaim Gutnick A"H asked the Rebbe how they should respond, and the Rebbe's reply was that they should oppose it fiercely.

All Anash and Temimim should discard this idea.

To conclude on a positive note,

Yehuda Leib Groner

Rabbi Groner's complete bilingual statement can be read on its own page.

A statement about Crown Heights itself

The statement names Crown Heights twice in its opening line and answer. Rabbi Groner was not applying a letter about Manhattan, Melbourne, or another city to the neighborhood by analogy. He was answering the direct question of building an eruv “in our community of Crown Heights.”

His central sentence is equally direct: the Rebbe “reiterated on several occasions that no one has permission to make an Eiruv here.” Rabbi Avrohom Osdoba later quoted the Rebbe's words from a detailed letter he had received from Rabbi Groner:

איך וועל ניט דערלאזן אז דא אין שכונה זאל זיין א ערוב

I will not permit an eruv to be made here in the neighborhood.

Rabbi Osdoba's signed clarification then ruled that no one may assist or support the construction of an eruv in Crown Heights in any manner. The full 8 Iyar 5776 clarification preserves Rabbi Osdoba's own wording and signature.

The Melbourne episode

Rabbi Groner also recalls a question from Melbourne. He writes that his late brother and Rabbi Chaim Gutnick asked the Rebbe how the Melbourne Rabbonim should respond when an eruv was proposed there, and that the answer was to oppose it strongly.

The Rebbe's surviving handwritten Melbourne response was addressed to Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner. In it, the Rebbe warns that a publicly known eruv will inevitably be invalid on some Shabbos, while people who have become accustomed to carrying may continue despite announcements. He concludes that an eruv should be made only in secrecy.

That response and Rabbi Groner's later statement are separate documents. The Melbourne material gives the handwritten response, translation, and publication history in its own setting.

Rabbi Groner's statement and the local psak

Rabbi Groner records the Rebbe's position. The halachic instruction for Crown Heights was issued by the neighborhood Rabbonim. Rabbi Osdoba cited Rabbi Groner's detailed letter in his 5776 clarification, while the Beis Din and other local Rabbonim issued their own rulings prohibiting carrying.

Those rulings state that there is no eruv in Crown Heights that may be relied upon, that carrying in the neighborhood streets remains prohibited on Shabbos and Yom Kippur, and that the advertised structure is treated as nonexistent for practical halacha. They appear together under Rabbinic Rulings on Carrying in Crown Heights, 2015–2026.