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Adele Northrup
is a member of Anshe S'fard and is so pleased her Bed & Breakfast
is within the Virginia Highland eruv for the benefit of
Orthodox guests who
want to attend services at Anshe or at Shearith Israel
or Chabad Intown which are also within the neighborhood
eruv.
Below
is a map of the Virginia Highland Eruv.
Virginia Highland
shul erects area's fourth "doorpost of wires" to attract
the observant
by Suzi Brozman
In an effort to attract young, observant families to a once
Jewish neighborhood that has become one of the city's most
popular residential
areas, Anshi SÍfard, a small, eclectic congregation of 40 families in the
Virginia Highland area, has constructed the metro areaÍs fourth eruv,
a "doorpost
of wires" strung along telephone poles to enclose a neighborhood.
An eruv
is a necessity for Orthodox Jews seeking to build a community
within walking distance of a synagogue. It allows them to push a stroller and carry items such as a jacket or house key to shul on the Sabbath without
breaking the prohibition of work, which includes carrying items from a private to public
space.
"My
hope is [the eruv] will spur people to look here, to move
to
this wonderful area," said Rabbi Chaim Lindenblatt, spiritual
leader of
the 90-year-old synagogue since 2001. "This was the old Jewish
neighborhood.
It would be a wonderful opportunity to build it up again as
an observant Jewish neighborhood."
Atlanta's
first eruv was erected in 1992 to accommodate observant
Jews in Toco Hills, the neighborhood north of Virginia
Highland
that is home to several Orthodox synagogues and schools.
The
Virginia Highland eruv encompasses not only Anshi S'fard,
a two-story
building at the corner of North Highland Avenue and Morningside
Drive, but also Chabad Intown, which is located along Ponce
de Leon Avenue. Conservative
Congregation Shearith Israel, which is located on University
Drive, is also within the eruv.
It was built
with the cooperation of Georgia Power, which routinely
allows Jewish groups to use its poles to construct eruvim,
with the help of an electrical contractor, and under
the supervision of Memphis, Tenn.,
Rabbi Nathan Greenblatt.
Despite the
proximity of the neighborhoods, the Virginia Highland eruv
does not intersect with the one in Toco Hills due
to geographical obstacles.
To be official,
eruv users must
seek permission to use it from the land owner, in
this case the City of Atlanta and DeKalb
County. With the help of Sherry Frank, regional director
of the American Jewish Committee, Anshi SÍfard will soon receive
permission in the form of a proclamation from the
local governments.
"I
was so pleased to be asked to help," said Frank,
who added
that she expects Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin
and DeKalb
CEO Vernon Jones to "respond favorably" to the request to
use the eruv.
The new eruv
also has a personal meaning for Frank.
"It's
the neighborhood
I grew up in," she said. "I walked to shul at Shearith Israel
on
holidays. It's
nice to see renewed Jewish life in my old home area."
Atlanta
is home to two other eruvs as well, in Dunwoody and in Sandy
Springs. The Dunwoody eruv extends about two miles around Congregation
Ariel's
Tilly Mill Road location.
Within a
month of its construction in the late 1990s, the Dunwoody
eruv was felled
by a devastating tornado that touched down just two days
before Passover. It took
the synagogue many weeks to gain access to the telephone
poles to rebuild it.
But the effort
was worth it, says Congregation Ariel's
Rabbi Binyomin Friedman. "The
impact of an eruv is great. It is an amenity offered by
an
Orthodox community that is essential. Without it, you are
not a community
in consideration.
It alters lifestyles, makes us a viable community for people
considering moving
to the
area."
Friedman
says his shul's next project will be a mikvah,
or ritual bath. "It's
on our agenda."
Congregation
Beth Tefillah erected an eruv in Sandy Springs because
its leaders believed that
it would
ensure the growth
of their
community.
"It
is extremely important because it allows congregants
to bring their children to synagogue, exposing them
to the synagogue
environment," said
Beth Tefillah's
Rabbi Yossi Lew. He said many people, including newcomers,
have committed to the shul "because of the eruv."
Reprinted
with permission from The Atlanta Jewish Times
Next time you're in the area, take a spin past the
Virginia Highland Bed & Breakfast
at 630 Orme Circle, N.E. You can't miss it - the cottage garden
beckons from the street.
Or you can check it out in cyberspace at www.virginiahighlandbb.com.
For
more information or reservations, call Adele at 404-892-2735.
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