Build Your Own Sukkah!

More than 20 years ago, Murray Berkowitz -- a member of Beth Am Congregation in Cleveland, Ohio -- began building a sukkah for his family. It was quite an accomplishment, one that did not remain unrecognized by the religious leadership of the congregation. "Rabbi [Michael] Hecht and Cantor [Martin] Leubitz used to visit everyone's sukkah," Berkowitz recounts.

The bottle of wine that they offered as a gift was donated by the synagogue's Men's Club. An active Men's Club member, Berkowitz decided that since Men's Club was giving out the wine, they should be visiting the sukkot. Thus was born the Beth Am Men's Club Sukkah Awards Project.

"When our kids were little," Berkowitz explains, "we would all meet on the Sunday of hol hamo'ed after Sunday school and walk around with the kids to all of the sukkot built by congregants. We'd note something interesting, take pictures, then hold an awards ceremony for all of the sukkah builders and share the pictures and the joy that we had visiting everyone's sukkah."

Not too much has changed since those early days. "At a Friday night dinner," Berkowitz continues, "the awards are distributed by the event's chairman with help from the sukkah judges, especially of the younger variety. Each winner -- meaning everyone, of course -- receives a certificate and pictures of their sukkah. Every year we make a poster of pictures of all the participating sukkot, and the posters from all of the previous years are displayed at the awards dinner."

One congregant who remembers the origins of the Sukkah Awards Project is Dan Dobres. "We loved building the sukkah," he recalls. "We'd try different designs to make sure it didn't get blown down."

Twenty years later, the merger of Beth Am with B'nai Jeshurun Congregation offers Dobres and his children, together with other young families and veteran sukkah hoppers, the challenge of visiting all of the sukkot of a much larger congregation. This year, the Sukkah Awards Project volunteers visited 35 sukkot built by the members of B'nai Jeshurun.

One of these visits was to the sukkah of Richard and Robin Douglass, their sons Ben (9) and Jacob (6) and their daughter Ariel (8). While Richard's sukkah-building experience is somewhat recent, Robin is a veteran sukkah builder from her junior high school days, when her youth group would gather at her family's sukkah.

"The first year we borrowed a small sukkah," Richard explains, "just big enough for a small table. Now we're up to a 12' x 16' structure, enough to handle all of our guests for our sukkah open house."

While everyone helps with the sukkah, the couple engages in a certain division of labor: Richard is in charge of building, while Robin handles the dTcor. Along with laminated paper apples, animals, shofarot and stars, Robin includes a retrospective of her children's artwork through the ages. "I love having the kids' history hanging on the walls," she beams.

This year the sukkah acquired an Ohio State University theme honoring the couple's alma mater.  For added charm and beauty, the family strings multi-colored sukkah lights, "which are cheapest to buy on December 26," Richard quips.

"On the outside it looks like a regular hut," 6-year-old Jacob adds, but on the inside it looks like a real sukkah."

For the children, the best part of Sukkot is the chance to fulfill the mitzvah of leisheiv ba-sukkah (dwelling in the sukkah) to its fullest extent. The family sleeps in the sukkah — "weather permitting, of course," Richard insists. Sleeping in the sukkah is the most appealing part for 8-year-old Ariel "because it's really nice to see the stars." For 9-year-old Ben, it's "another day for me to have a great time."

Build your own sukkah!

Order an easy-to-assemble pre-fab sukkah from the United Synagogue Book Service. Call 800-594-5617 or e-mail booksvc@uscj.org.