Rabbinic Proclamations Concerning Eruvin in Brooklyn and Other Large Cities
The Brooklyn eruv discussion of the late 5730s produced more than individual responsa. Several public notices brought together the positions of Rabbonim from New York and other communities and warned against establishing or relying on eruvin in Brooklyn and other large cities under comparable conditions.
These notices are related, but they are not one document. Their dates, wording, lists of names, and surviving forms differ. Keeping them separate makes the historical record clearer and avoids turning a printed name into a handwritten signature or a later reproduction into an original sheet.
The Union of Orthodox Rabbis proclamation of Kislev 5739
A Hebrew proclamation dated Kislev 5739 appears on the letterhead of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada. It says that because attempts to establish eruvin had arisen again, the earlier prohibition concerning New York was being restated publicly.
The proclamation refers back to a gathering of the Union on 18 Sivan 5722 and names leading Rabbonim associated with that position, including Rav Aharon Kotler, Rav Chaim Bick, Rav Yosef Eliyahu Henkin, Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky, and Rav Moshe Feinstein. It also notes that Rav Moshe had already addressed the issue at length in Igros Moshe and in letters.
Its scope is expressed in a short sentence that is particularly important for Brooklyn:
It is understood that the above prohibition includes every large city, and there is no distinction between Manhattan and another city.
The proclamation then warns that in any city where an eruv cannot be properly established, one may not rely on an eruv erected contrary to the ruling.
The names printed on the proclamation
The surviving reproduction contains sixteen printed names arranged beneath the text. Among them are Rav Moshe Feinstein and Rav Zalman Shimon Dworkin, identified as the Rav of Lubavitch. Rav Dworkin's presence is therefore not based only on a later recollection. His name is visibly printed on the surviving Kislev 5739 text.
At the same time, the available copy does not show sixteen separate handwritten signatures. It is a reproduced public proclamation with typeset names. The evidence supports saying that the names are printed on the proclamation. It does not support describing this particular copy as a sheet bearing each Rav's visible autograph.
Rav Moshe's separate letter of 17 Teves 5739
The 17 Teves letter is a different artifact. It appears on Union of Orthodox Rabbis stationery and is directed to the Boro Park situation. The later facsimile reproduced in the 2006 Community Eruvin booklet shows Rav Moshe's handwritten signature.
Rav Moshe writes that he joined the leading Rabbonim of the Union and other Rabbonim in holding that an eruv cannot be established in Brooklyn because it is a reshus harabim min haTorah. He then addresses publicity that had appeared concerning reliance on the Boro Park eruv and concludes:
Therefore I warn that no eruv should be established in any neighborhood of Brooklyn, and it is forbidden to carry on the eruv that was made in Boro Park.
This letter is useful precisely because its status differs from the collective printed proclamation. The collective document gives the public position and printed roster. The Boro Park letter gives Rav Moshe's own text with a visible handwritten signature in the surviving reproduction.
The letter refers to a prior responsum as dated 4 Shevat 5738. The printed Orach Chaim IV:88 bears 4 Shevat 5739. The discrepancy remains in the surviving sources.
The large Hebrew notice with approximately seventy-three names
Another Kislev 5739 Hebrew notice responds to the attempt to establish an eruv in Flatbush. Its heading is a severe warning against establishing an eruv in New York. The body says that leading Rabbonim had already prohibited making an eruv in New York and that the warning was being publicized again because the Flatbush issue had arisen.
The notice states broadly that an eruv should not be set up in the neighborhoods of New York and Brooklyn and that an eruv established there should not be relied upon for carrying. Beneath the text is a large roster of approximately seventy-three typeset rabbinic names, along with additional boxed statements.
Rav Moshe Feinstein appears in the roster. Rav Zalman Shimon Dworkin also appears, identified with Lubavitch. As with the sixteen-name proclamation, the available reproduction shows printed names rather than a sheet of individual handwritten autographs.
The copy available here comes from a later reproduction in the 2006 Community Eruvin booklet and a corresponding image file. The original first-publication sheet has not been independently located in the present source set.
The surviving English newspaper notice
A separate English-language newspaper notice survives as a scanned crop. It begins by addressing the residents of Flatbush and declares the proposed Flatbush eruv invalid. It then prints what it describes as a translation of essential excerpts from a letter of Rav Moshe Feinstein to the Flatbush Rabbinical Board:
I had previously explained orally why it is forbidden to establish an Eruv in Brooklyn, even in a part of it such as Flatbush. Therefore it is "public domain" by Torah definition and it is strictly forbidden to make an Eruv.
That wording closely tracks the opening of Orach Chaim IV:88. The notice then declares publicly that an eruv may not be set up "in any neighborhood of New York or Brooklyn without exception," and that even if one is established, carrying within it remains forbidden.
Below this statement is another roster of seventy-three printed names, including Rav Moshe Feinstein and Rav Zalman Shimon Dworkin. An inset adds the names of out-of-town Rabbonim said to have joined an injunction against an eruv in New York and other American cities where similar halachic conditions exist.
The surviving image does not contain a newspaper masthead, publication date, issue number, or page number. It has been reproduced online with an attribution to a particular newspaper, but that attribution has not yet been matched to a complete issue. It is therefore safer to describe it simply as the surviving English newspaper notice unless and until the original issue is identified.
How the documents fit together
| Record | Date | Principal scope | Form visible in the surviving copy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Union of Orthodox Rabbis large-city proclamation | Kislev 5739 | New York and other large cities | Later reproduction with sixteen printed names |
| Large Hebrew Flatbush notice | Kislev 5739 | New York and Brooklyn neighborhoods | Later reproduction with approximately seventy-three printed names |
| Rav Moshe Boro Park letter | 17 Teves 5739 | Brooklyn generally and the Boro Park eruv specifically | Later facsimile of letter with Rav Moshe's handwritten signature visible |
| English newspaper notice | Exact issue date not yet verified | Flatbush, New York and Brooklyn neighborhoods, plus comparable cities in inset | Cropped newspaper reproduction with seventy-three printed names; full issue provenance unresolved |
The documents reinforce one another without becoming interchangeable. The sixteen-name proclamation supplies broad large-city language. The seventy-three-name notice shows a much wider printed rabbinic roster in the Flatbush setting. Rav Moshe's 17 Teves letter independently gives his personal Brooklyn ruling. The English newspaper notice shows how the warning was presented to an English-reading public, but its exact publication details remain less secure.
Rav Dworkin's printed inclusion and Crown Heights
For Crown Heights, Rav Zalman Shimon Dworkin's appearance on the Kislev 5739 materials is especially significant. His name is printed on the Union proclamation and on the larger notice. The available contemporary reproductions do not provide a separate handwritten Dworkin letter.
In Sivan 5776, the Crown Heights Rabbonim Rav Avraham Osdoba and Rav Shlomo Yehuda Halevi Segal explicitly referred to a clear Kislev 5739 ruling by Rav Dworkin, together with other American and Canadian poskim headed by Rav Moshe Feinstein, against establishing a halachically valid eruv in the city. That later local ruling identifies how the Crown Heights Beis Din understood Rav Dworkin's position.
The historical record can therefore be stated precisely. Rav Dworkin is visibly included by printed name in the surviving Kislev 5739 collective materials. Later Crown Heights Rabbonim expressly attribute to him a clear ruling from that period. A separate first-generation document bearing his individual autograph has not been established from the materials presently available.