Monsey Eruv Announces Expansion Connecting to Good Samaritan Hospital

By M.C. Millman

After working since Pesach to complete the newest project, the Monsey Eruv was pleased to share that the eruv has been expanded along two fronts.

In a ribbon-cutting ceremony that took place this afternoon, Rabbi Chaim M. Steinmetz, Rav for the Monsey Eruv, shared that Route 59 is now completely inside the eruv, all the way to Good Samaritan Hospital, and Montebello is now connected with the hospital as well.

“Many years ago, there was only a separate eruv at the Suffern hospital,” Rabbi Steinmetz shares with Rockland Daily. “The eruv gave access from the Bikur Cholim house to the hospital.

“In 2016, we started expanding the eruv for the Airmont area, figuring we would connect to the hospital eruv so people could walk over on Shabbos and be able to have water with them and whatever else they needed for the walk.

“At the time, the eruv running on Route 59 was still a problem as there were many spots that weren’t covered by the eruv, which made it hard for people to use on Shabbos.

“In 2018, we got permission from the Thruway Authority to put up what we needed along with the present thruway fencing and other connections.”

After that project was accomplished, Airmont was connected to Monsey and also to the hospital, but there were still problems with Route 59 once you got near the hospital. At that point, and until now, if one needed to carry, one had to walk on the right-hand side of Route 59, and the original eruv, which included the Bikur Cholim house and the hospital parking lot, was still not covering Route 59 unless you were careful to turn into the hospital parking lot to stay inside the eruv.”

But that problem is now a thing of the past as the Monsey Eruv was successful with a new solution. After getting permission from property owners, the missing parts of the eruv were completed, so all of Route 59 is now part of the eruv until Woodland Drive after the hospital.

As an added bonus, Montebello residents can also now walk to Good Samaritan Hospital inside the eruv as Hemion Road was added to the eruv.

These two improvements are major for making the lives of so many that much easier through the connections the Monsey Eruv has worked tenaciously to create for the sake of the klal.