Internet Fuels Growth of DIY Sukkahs

c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Decades ago, preparation for the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot typically involved struggling several hours with plywood or metal to build a sukkah _ the temporary huts Jews are supposed to erect for the eight-day holiday that began Wednesday (Sept. 26) night. Now, Jews are increasingly able to buy […]

c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Decades ago, preparation for the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot typically involved struggling several hours with plywood or metal to build a sukkah _ the temporary huts Jews are supposed to erect for the eight-day holiday that began Wednesday (Sept. 26) night.

Now, Jews are increasingly able to buy pre-fab sukkahs that go up in as little as 20 or 30 minutes, and, as a result, the holiday is more widely celebrated, some say.


`There’s definitely a resurgence, because families realize holiday supplies have become more available and the idea of building (a sukkah) isn’t so difficult,” said Rabbi Randi Musnitsky of Temple Har Shalom, a Reform synagogue in Warren, N.J., with its own pre-fabricated sukkah. “Some temples will build a sukkah as a project, and Home Depot will come in to help.”

Credit the Internet, which has given entrepreneurs an avenue to sell the easy-to-assemble tents and helped less observant Jews learn about Sukkot. Online sellers include the Sukkot Project, the Sukkah Center, Sukkah Depot and Sukkahs.com.

“They put sukkah into Google, and our site comes up,” said Judith Herman of the Sukkot Project, explaining the success of her company, which, run with her husband, has sold 1,500 sukkahs nationwide this year.

Over the last decade, the Sukkot Project has become profitable enough for the Hermans to quit their jobs as clinical therapists at Duke University. They also sell “lulavs” and “etrogs,” the willowy branches and citrons that Jews are supposed to wave in Sukkot rituals.

Among their 1,500 sukkah buyers this year: Gabrielle and Jon Clissold of Manalapan, N.J.

“Even though my husband is really handy, we decided we’d go easy on ourselves and get an easy-to-put-up sukkah,” Clissold said. “It was up in 20 minutes. My kids love it.”

In the past, Jon Clissold said, building a sukkah meant fumbling with wood.

“You had to figure out what piece went there. It was fun, because it was a family thing, but it was frustrating,” he said. “But this new one this year was so easy to set up. It’s got tubular steel and wraparound walls that are so easy to put together.”

Sukkot is viewed as a joyous holiday, especially given the solemnity of the preceding Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur holidays. Its rituals stem from passages in the Book of Leviticus that command Jews to live in booths for seven days as a reminder of the temporary shelters they lived in after leaving slavery in Egypt.


Sukkahs can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand, depending on the material and size. An inexpensive one sold by the Sukkot Project, measuring 8 by 12 feet, costs $330, plus $45 for shipping and handling.

Most Sukkot observers do not sleep in sukkahs but eat in them each night of the holiday, inviting friends and family. Synagogues use larger ones for communal events.

Among Reform and Conservative Jews, families with young children are more likely to have sukkahs, Richard Skeen of Montclair observed as he picked up sukkah materials Wednesday at the Lubavitch Center of Essex County in West Orange, N.J.

“Everyone moves from the city because they have two kids,” he said, “and the kids go to Hebrew school and start asking about lulav and etrogs and sukkahs, and the next thing you know, you have a sukkah and you’re keeping kosher.”

The structures have been known to bewilder non-Jewish neighbors. Shari Halpern, who now attends Sukkot events at Temple Har Shalom, remembers when her husband tried to build one 15 years ago in their backyard.

“He tried to build one of PVC pipe. He put a tarp on it,” she said. “The neighbor asked, `Why are you building a shower out there?”’


(Jeff Diamant writes for The Star Ledger in Newark, N.J.)

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Photos of Jews celebrating Sukkot are available via https://religionnews.com.

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