The Rabbinical Council for Eruvin Matters in Eretz Hakodesh
is warning against further eruvin budget cutbacks in
the preliminary 2006 budget and the existential threat they
pose to building and maintaining eruvin around the
country. If eruvin are not properly funded, the
Rabbinical Council warns, hundreds of thousands of shomrei
Shabbos will not be able to carry outside their homes.
The national eruvin budget, which included funds for
building, improving and repairing eruvin, has been cut
substantially in recent years. Due to insufficient budgeting
in recent years eruvin have not been repaired at all
in most parts of the country.
Inspections and inquiries conducted last year by leading
eruvin experts revealed many eruvin remain
posul due to lack of funds for repair work. A special
report was then prepared and gedolei haposkim,
including Maran HaRav Eliashiv and HaRav Shmuel Halevi Wosner
urged the Rabbinical Council for Eruvin Matters to continue
taking action until the situation is rectified.
The Rabbinical Council learned of plans to reduce the budget
by another NIS 400,000 in 2006, bringing the total funding to
a mere NIS 800,000, which is just 8 percent of the amount of
funding needed for a full year of operations.
The rabbonim say until four years ago the eruvin
budget came to NIS 3.5 million and even then was not
sufficient to cover all of the regular maintenance needs,
especially since the areas surrounded by eruvin grew
from year to year.
