How goodly are your tents

Local families design creative sukkahs

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Sometimes it rains, and in the midst of autumn, the temperatures are not too encouraging of outdoor living, but for a number of local families, the mitzvah of living in a tabernacle for a week includes comfort items and a personal touch.

“The proper way is to live in it like you would in your own home, so for us this means windows and hundreds of pictures from our lives,” said Cedarhurst resident Abe Zelmanowitz. A standard frame, the 18-person booth has walls are lined with painting by his daughter Michal, a fifth grader at Bnos Shulamith. Hanging from the schach are nearly a hundred laminated photographs of the family from recent years. “It’s unique and we look forward to sukkot because of it,” said the father of four.

In West Hempstead, Meryl and Jeremy Strauss decorated their sukkah with a Zionist theme, a poster of the Israeli anthem and flags sharing space on the wall with photos of the family’s visits to Israel. “The photographs show them doing sukkot activities in Jerusalem,” said Meryl Strauss.

For Lawrence resident David Stein, the sukkah is more about the building material, which he receives at no cost, by collecting Coca Cola plastic crates from local beverage distributors, constructing hem into his sukkah wall. “It’s like a huge Lego project, it takes longer than building a standard sukkah, but I’ve never had to pay for it,” Stein said. A popular stop on the local sukkah-hopping route, the Coke box sukkah has expanded over the past 15 years. “It fits up to 40 people this year,” Stein said.

A short distance away, Esti Rezorsky’s sukkah testifies to her family’s history, setting it apart from her neighbors. “The walls are made from Persian carpets and it fits up to 60 people,” Rezorsky said. A grandchild of Persian Jewish immigrants, Rezorsky recalls their emphasis on dwelling inside the tent. “The sukkah has a living room and a dining room to enjoy the evening,” Rezorsky said. The schach is a woven mat that slows the raindrops as they pour in, reducing moisture, while keeping in line with the mitzvah of exposure to the sky.

In Belle Harbor, home school parent Joyce Semel, a mother of three, recalled her eureka moment that led to a trampoline sukkah. “My two boys were in shul, and I was alone, jumping and laying down on the trampoline,” Semel said. “My home is a magnet for neighborhood kids and I thought of the Naomi Shemer song about a girl who built a sukkah.” Teaming up with her neighbors Mike Alacha, a Syrian-born engineer; and Robert Hyman, who grows bamboo stalks in his yard, the Semels topped the trampoline’s wall with stems and foliage. “We will be jumping for joy on this zman simchateinu,” Semel said. Although the family has a conventional sukkah on their porch for the main meals, the backyard sukkah will be used for meals that are traditionally eaten on the floor, including Japanese and a Bedouin theme.

Recalling the first sukkah that were used in the Exodus, Woodmere resident Harold Klein described his sukkah as a story of his own path towards observance. His first sukkah was erected two decades ago when Klein attended a Conservative congregation in Oyster Bay. “We started a sukkah patrol of 10 families, buying the wood at Home Depot, and most of us that group became frum. I kept the design and made it bigger.” Hanging from the schach were cornstalks with ears of corn, illuminated by holiday lights and Middle Eastern design lanterns. “Creativity is the greatest form of imitating G-d and it’s a reminder of my journey,” Klein said. “The sukkah is about what you put into it. It is so much sweeter when you’re the builder.”