The Fire Island Minyan is a seasonal congregation. Services are held summer-only (approximately mid-May through mid-October) and weekend-only (Friday evening through Sunday morning) due to the availability of a Minyan on the island. There are generally no services following Sunday morning Shacharit until Friday evening Mincha, year-round. We do hold services for Shavuot, Rosh Hashana, and Sukkot. Yom Kippur and Simchat Torah are also possibilities depending on when they fall out in any given year. A donation schedule that will be published as we get closer to Rosh Hashana. Further, we conduct Rosh Hashana services outside of our regular shul building due to the increased number of attendees, and should be no concern of insufficient seating. Service times will be posted on the front page of the website usually 24-72 hours prior to Shabbat or the respective holiday. To stay fully up to date, please subscribe to the Fire Island Minyan newsletter.

Ferry! Ferries depart from 99 Maple Ave, Bay Shore, NY. Ferries to Ocean Beach leave from one side of the street and to Seaview and Ocean Bay Park from the other side of the street, so watch out for the signs. Check the schedules on FireIslandFerries.com. If you are not driving, you can take a van from Manhattan to the ferry, or you can take the Long Island Railroad to Bay Shore. Once you arrive in Bay Shore, there are vans that will drive you to the ferry. Otherwise it’s a 1 mile walk. Be sure to check LIRR’s package deals which include train, van, and ferry.

Sign up for the Fire Island Minyan weekly newsletter. The end of the newsletter includes ads for house rentals and/or shares (by the room) for midweek and/or weekends, including homes with a kosher kitchen. Houses for rent can additionally be found on many websites, including: - Fire Island Homes - Fire Island Beach Rentals - Vacation Rentals by Owner - VacationRentals.com - HomeAway.com and of course, Googling other sites. Hotels on Fire Island include: - The Palms Hotel in Ocean Beach - Properties of Fire Island Vacations around Ocean Beach - Fire Island Hotel and Resort in Ocean Bay Park - Seashore Condo Motel in Ocean Bay Park and of course, Googling other hotels.

There are no kosher restaurants and limited kosher food is available for sale on Fire Island (no kosher meat and a limited amount of kosher cheese). Most other products including wine, grape juice, Shabbat candles, challah and other kosher food can be bought at the Seaview Market. However, any items you purchase on Fire Island will be priced at the cost of their convenience (approximately 150% of Manhattan prices). Grocery delivery can also be coordinated through the Fire Island Ferries freight. Refer here for more information: https://fireislandferries.com/info/freight. Rumor has it that KosherKart.com, which provides weekly deliveries to Long Island, can be delivered to the freight as well.

What follows below is one man’s interpretation of various texts on the subject and is not intended to rule halachically or “pasken” on the matter. If you have further questions, please consult your local Rabbi. Oceans & rivers (and bays, for that matter) are considered “walls” with respect to an “Eruv Chatzerot”. The Divrei Malkiel, Rabbi of Lomza, Poland, wrote in a letter to the rabbinate of Odessa, Russia in 1900 discussing their Eruv and supporting this view. It was common custom to rule the “ocean-as-a-wall” for many generations. His letter was published in Sefer Tikun Shabbos, and republished in his work, Divrei Malkiel. In 1907, Rabbi Yehoshua Siegel (a renowned posek who emigrated from Poland to the Lower East Side) published “Eruv V’Hotza’ah”, an analysis which also considered the water surrounding Manhattan to be more than sufficient as a border. Subsequent rabbanim found issues with the boundaries around Manhattan (evidently without addressing previous rulings from ~100 years before), and then created an explicit Eruv on part of the island. How does this apply to us on Fire Island? Well, we obviously are completely surrounded by water (bridges aren’t an issue, as the water is still a boundary), so we fit the definition set by the sages so many years ago. On top of that, Fire island is (in its entirety) a “National Seashore”, and is essentially a National Park administered by the US Parks Service, making it (from the government’s standpoint) an overall “Reshut Ha’Yachid” (so carrying items on FI doesn’t include crossing a [macro] boundary, as one remains in the Park at all times). For the details on this, read here: http://www.nps.gov/fiis/parkmgmt/upload/LegislativeHistory.PDF. Also of note, Rabbi Samuel Teitelbaum zt”l, grandfather of Fire Island Minyan founder Yitz Pastreich, came to visit Fire Island. Upon examining the island he noted that a man-made Eruv was not necessary.

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- FireIsland.com – Fire Island Travel Guide - Fire Island Getaways – Getaway ideas from Newsday.com - Fire Island Finder – Guide to Fire Island Towns and Villages - Fire Island Travel Guide – Wikitravel’s guide to Fire Island - National Parks Service – Fire Island National Seashore - Village of Ocean Beach – Official Village Website - The Fire Island News – Seasonal Newspaper - Weather Forecast – Fire Island Weather