Savannah, GA – Since the City closed part of Waters Avenue while working on a drainage project, it has changed people's daily routines in many ways, and it interfered with traditional Jewish laws.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Susan Broker with the Savannah's Citizen Office said, "We were moving the phone lines, you know you have backhoes and cranes and all that and we thought it was a dead line. We weren't really sure why it was there, but the rabbi came pretty soon after and let us know."
Twelve years ago, Rabbi Avigdor Slatus, an Orthodox Jew at Congregation Bnai Brith Jacob, asked the city if they could use existing telephone lines to represent a boundary around the Jewish community. It runs from Waters Avenue to Abercorn Street and from DeRenne Avenue to Stephenson Avenue. The boundary is called an eruv.
Rabbi Slatus explained, Orthodox Jews are not allowed to carry items outside of their houses on Sabbath days. But some items are necessary, like reading glasses and house keys. Since an eruv represents a home, those items are allowed inside that boundary.
But city workers have knocked down the utility lines a couple of times during construction. But as long as they are back up by sundown on Friday, Rabbi Slatus says everything is fine. [wtoctv]
