Center City Eruv

Center City Eruv Corporation 501(c)3

The Center City Eruv is maintained by the Center City Eruv Corporation, a 501(c)3 not for profit corporation for the sole purpose of maintaining the Eruv in Center City and South Philadelphia. The Center City Eruv is run on an entirely volunteer basis by individuals from the city's different shuls. The Center City Eruv Corporation is an independent organization without an official affiliation with any other organization.

We Check Every Week

 

Each week, the Eruv is checked by community volunteers who have been trained by rabbanim to recognize structural problems with the Eruv that may have come about during the course of the week.

If the Eruv is found to kosher, we inform the community through this website, our email list, and social media that the Eruv is up, and that carrying is acceptable within its boundaries on the Shabbos or Yom Tov of that week. If the Eruv is found to be in an unacceptable state, and repairs cannot be finished before the beginning of Shabbos, then we inform the community that the Eruv is down and that carrying must be avoided that week on Shabbos.

Rabbinical Supervision

 

The Center City Eruv was built and continues to be maintained according to the halachic standards and guidance set forth by Rabbi Dov Aaron Brisman, zt"l, who served as Rav HaMachshir until his passing in 2022. Rabbi Brisman was the Av Beis Din of Philadelphia and an associate Av Beis Din of the Rabbinical Alliance of America. He was also the rabbi emeritus of Congregation Young Israel of Elkins Park in suburban Philadelphia. His halachic rulings and oversight remain the foundation for all eruv maintenance and improvement projects.

History

 

The Center City Eruv was first up on Friday, June 1, 2007. Center City's Jewish community and Shomer Shabbos community had begun to grow in the late 1990s and early 2000s. When first built, the Eruv extended from Poplar St in Fairmount and Northern Liberties, south to Washington Ave. Rabbi Albert Gabbai, Mr Justin Miller, and Rabbi Shamir Caplan were instrumental in the original surveying, organization, and construction of the Eruv.

The Jewish community continued to grow in the 2000s and 2010s, and an increasing number of Jews moved south of Washington Ave. In 2021, the Eruv Corporation was able to extend the Eruv south to Oregon Ave to include nearly the entirety of South Philadelphia's residential neighborhoods.