Eruv to be installed at Princeton
Princeton University will install an eruv — a virtual boundary that defines an area within which observant Jews can carry essential items, push baby strollers, and carry out other actions outdoors that are otherwise prohibited on Shabbat and major holidays.
Rabbi Julie Roth, campus chaplain and executive director of Princeton University’s Center for Jewish Life/Hillel, said the project was initiated by the university. The research phase was supervised by Rabbis David Wolkenfeld and Elie Bercuson, who served as CJL’s Orthodox Jewish educators through the Orthodox Union’s Heshe and Harriet Seif Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus. They worked on the plan together with many partners at the university — from Design and Construction to Community and Regional Affairs.
“After five years of dedicated effort, we are excited to see the construction of the eruv coming to fruition,” said Roth. “It demonstrates Princeton University’s incredible ongoing commitment to diversity in the broadest sense and its outstanding support of Jewish life on campus. The eruv will have a significant positive impact on our students and the broader community for years to come.”
Supervising the construction of the eruv, which is due to be completed by mid-September, is Rabbi Ariel Fisher of the CJL and current OU-JLIC educator at Princeton University.
“I am very excited and honored to be taking over this project after the years of hard work contributed by my predecessors, Rabbis Wolkenfeld and Bercuson,” said Fisher. “This eruv will allow our strong and vibrant community to continue to grow and develop.
“We are all very grateful to the university for the considerable resources that they have invested and the wonderful partnership they brought to this initiative,” said Fisher. “It truly demonstrates their dedication to religious pluralism in general and to the Jewish community specifically.”
A map of the eruv boundaries can be viewed here.
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