It’s a Thin Line: The Eruv and Jewish Community in New York and Beyond

THE JEWISH PRESS
By Richard McBee

Tightrope (2012) by Yona Verwer. Courtesy Artslant

NEW YORK---What a wonderful exhibition Yeshiva University Museum has mounted. Sensitively curated by Zachary Paul Levine under the watchful and expert halachic supervision of Rabbi Adam Mintz (see his “The Brooklyn Eruv” in the Winter 2012 Hakirah Journal), the show traces the origins and development of the rabbinic construct known as the eruv based on the Oral Law. A topic first found in the Mishna and then elaborated in its own tractate in Gemara, the show follows its historic development with fascinating historic texts, urban maps, illustrated guidelines and over 130 artifacts spanning 500 years. Courageously one artist, Yona Verwer, protests. Her “Tightrope” (2012) prominently raises another aspect of the overall concern for the broader Jewish community. The lack of an eruv “excludes women, children and sick people from fully participating in Jewish life and synagogue community.” [link]