Shedding New Light on Jewish Traditions

Our Sukkah

The Or Hadash Sukkah - click here to see pictures of our Sukkah!

Or Hadash has been special to our family since we joined this warm and welcoming community 25 years ago.  When the congregation moved from the RRC to our magnificent space on Camp Hill road in the summer of 1995, our daughter Lauren’s bat mitzvah was one of the first life cycle events celebrated in our new home.  One of Or Hadash’s early needs for the new building was a sukkah of our own.  As our gift to the synagogue in honor of Lauren’s simcha, Tobi worked with David Campbell, a then-congregant who had been a carpenter, to design a modular framework and panels to create a sukkah.  The panels were constructed by many congregants pitching-in on an Or Hadash workday.  Twenty years later our community still uses this same sukkah to celebrate the season. 

            Nothing at Or Hadash happens without volunteer efforts, most of which goes unnoticed.  The sukkah has weathered the years with the annual efforts of Rob Klotz (whose daughter Lily was a b’nai mitzvah and confirmation classmate of Lauren’s), who sees to it that the sukkah is assembled, disassembled and stored every year, and the efforts of Jeff Alper (whose son Adam was also a classmate of Lauren’s and Lily’s), who has helped assemble, maintain and refurbish the sukkah.

Tobi Mackler and Steve Fischer