Thank you to those families who stood up this week and offered to take on
part of the responsibility of funding the Los Angeles Community Eruv.
The Eruv team would like to give the community a heads up. Two years ago
when we had an emergency need for major construction to adapt the eruv to
the new Expo train line and 405 freeway repairs, hundreds of families
responded and we raised enough to make the changes and establish a reserve
fund. We have been working to create a more stable financing platform
for the eruv by setting family dues to be collected for the eruv by
community shuls. That approach has been a failure. Not enough shuls have
collected dues for the eruv. For the past few months we have been burning
through our reserves, and will tap out next month. At that time the eruv
will switch to a week by week model. Any week that we have sufficient
funds to pay our crew, we will inspect and certify the eruv. When the
funds are not available the eruv will go unchecked and stay down for that
week.
We are now putting in place a new funding system to guarantee that funds
will always be in place to keep the eruv up each week. Over the next few
weeks we will be reaching out to the community through your shuls and
schools. We are going to supplement dues by asking individual families to
take personal responsibility for the upkeep of the eruv. We are seeking 30
families to commit $2000 per year to the eruv, 30 families to commit $1000
and 60 families to commit $500 each year. That will establish a base
level of support to keep the eruv functioning, insured and inspected. We
will also need to begin setting aside funds to replace our 45 year old
cherry picker/lift truck.
The rabbis who inspect the Jerusalem eruv told us that ours is the best
built and best maintained eruv in hutz l’aretz. We run the citywide eruv
for less than the cost of a single administrator at other institutions in
this city, we respect your money and are diligent not to waste it. If you
think that it is important for young families to attend shul, go to simchas
and share shabbos meals with the community then you understand how critical
an eruv is. The only question is who is willing to step up and take
responsibility. We would love to hear from you.
Send an email to info@laeruv.com. Donations can be made by credit card or
paypal at www.laeruv.com, or by check to la eruv 8950 W. Olympic Blvd,
Suite 179, Beverly Hills, CA 90211
Smaller donations are absolutely welcome. They have been the life blood of
the eruv, and we are grateful for them, (it just takes more of them to
cover the budget) Thank you all for helping us keep the Eruv UP for the
past 14 years. We appreciate it.