Workers were spotted in the hamlet last week fastening long pieces of what appeared to be PVC pipe to the telephone poles around the lake. When they followed the utility lines up into Presidential Estates, a private home community with its main entrance overlooking the lake, residents got concerned.  Bill Liblick, president of the homeowner’s association, said he saw “something sneaky” going on. He jumped online.

He discovered they’re building an “eruv,” a symbolic fence used by observant Jews to move items from place to place on Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath) without violating Jewish law. The rabbinical consultant brought in to help the Sullivan County Eruv Corporation directed them to use the telephone wires already in place, adding the white pipes that run from the ground to the wire to serve as “door frames,” delineating a continuous boundary.

Application was made to pole owner Verizon by the corporation, and payment for the construction and maintenance is being provided by the families who have contributed.

Ratner said he doesn’t see how the fence has any effect on the non-observant community.
Town of Liberty Supervisor Frank DeMayo admitted he wasn’t informed, Portions of Brooklyn are surrounded by eruvs. Kiryas Joel is enclosed by an eruv.

The laws of the faith call for an agreement with the community before erecting an eruv. “They didn’t do that,” DeMayo said. “And their law is higher than our law in their minds.”

What he’d like to see is a presentation or some sort of explanation of an eruv made at the a town board meeting to better inform the public.

“In the interest of keeping the peace,” he explained. “We all have a right to be here, we all have to get along.

Liblick was frank about his own mission. “We don’t care what you do on Swan Lake; that we’ll take up as Swan Lake residents,” he said. “But we do not permit eruvs [at Presidential].”He wants the structure taken down.

(Article appeared in the Sullivan County Democrat)