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Putting up a succah is Suburban Temple’s class act
BY: ARLENE FINE Senior Staff Reporter
If people can get together and build a barn in a day, why not a succah?
That was the thinking of Lisa Kollins, family educator at Suburban Temple-Kol Ami.
“I was aware that very few of our congregants built their own succot,” she says. “Instead, families came to the synagogue to celebrate the harvest holiday in our two large, beautifully decorated succot. But the best way to actually dwell in the succah is to have one in your own home.”
To spark interest in homegrown succot, Kollins asked one family in each religious school grade, from K-8, to volunteer to have a succah on their property. She also asked members from synagogue’s neighborhoods (social groups) to do the same.
“The response has been great,” says Kollins. “Each year we recycle the four original succot the synagogue bought for this activity and have the use of other succot that our members have purchased for themselves.” Constructing a class succah is not a solitary activity, Kollins points out. Fellow congregants come over to help.
Once their succot are up, each host family invites their child’s class or neighborhood group to the succah for a meal or snack. Religious school children bring pumpkins, corn stalks, gourds, dried corn, cranberry and popcorn strings and decorations they have created in class. Synagogue educators bring the lulav (palm) and etrog (citron) and have everyone join in the blessing.
Last Sunday, on an ideal Indian summer day, Valerie and Dave Cooper and several other Suburban Temple members spent an hour constructing an easy-to-assemble succah loaned to them by the congregation. The succah will be visited and decorated by their son’s sixth-grade class.
As Valerie Cooper stands back and proudly scans the newly built temporary dwelling in her spacious backyard, she muses, “This could be the start of a new family tradition. This is a great way to bring the holiday home.”
afine@cjn.org
That was the thinking of Lisa Kollins, family educator at Suburban Temple-Kol Ami.
“I was aware that very few of our congregants built their own succot,” she says. “Instead, families came to the synagogue to celebrate the harvest holiday in our two large, beautifully decorated succot. But the best way to actually dwell in the succah is to have one in your own home.”
To spark interest in homegrown succot, Kollins asked one family in each religious school grade, from K-8, to volunteer to have a succah on their property. She also asked members from synagogue’s neighborhoods (social groups) to do the same.
“The response has been great,” says Kollins. “Each year we recycle the four original succot the synagogue bought for this activity and have the use of other succot that our members have purchased for themselves.” Constructing a class succah is not a solitary activity, Kollins points out. Fellow congregants come over to help.
Once their succot are up, each host family invites their child’s class or neighborhood group to the succah for a meal or snack. Religious school children bring pumpkins, corn stalks, gourds, dried corn, cranberry and popcorn strings and decorations they have created in class. Synagogue educators bring the lulav (palm) and etrog (citron) and have everyone join in the blessing.
Last Sunday, on an ideal Indian summer day, Valerie and Dave Cooper and several other Suburban Temple members spent an hour constructing an easy-to-assemble succah loaned to them by the congregation. The succah will be visited and decorated by their son’s sixth-grade class.
As Valerie Cooper stands back and proudly scans the newly built temporary dwelling in her spacious backyard, she muses, “This could be the start of a new family tradition. This is a great way to bring the holiday home.”
afine@cjn.org
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