DESIGNS HIDALGO AMY LEVINE DESIGNS ULLA DARNI LANCASTER MOSER

Precious Coverin

West Bloomfield family embraces heirloom schach.

ROBERT A. SKLAR

Editor

T

alk about Jewish continuity.
The centerpiece of the
Lachover family sukkah is a sec-
tion of schach, or roof covering, that is
100 years old. The heirloom dates to
Lenny Lachover's great-grandfather,
Moses Kaufman, who brought his wife,
Bertha, and seven kids to Detroit from
Krakow, Poland. (Son Ira later founded
the Ira Kaufman Chapel.)
Together with Lachover's grandfather
Isaac Rosenthal, the KaUfmans went to
the Clinton River near Port Huron and
gathered reeds from the riverbank.
From these bundles, they wove six large
pieces of schach, each section about
four feet square.
"The reeds were intricately interwov-
en and the corners were reinforced with
twine to secure the interlaced reeds,"
Lachover said.
Lachover remembers grandparents
Minnie and Isaac Rosenthal building a
sukkah at their home in Detroit on
Blaine, between LaSalle and Linwood,
using the six precious sections of schach.
He remembers decorating the sukkah

with birds made from eggshells and col-
ored paper.
"From the dining room windows," he
said, "we could look out into the beauti-
fully decorated sukkah, its walls decorat-
ed by pictures, lulays and multicolored
rings — and covered by the family
schach."
What remained of the schach found
its way to Zelda Selman, an aunt of
Lachover. She used it in her Oak Park
sukkah, which was warmed by the
aroma of hot soup and cholent.
Today, just one of the schach's original
sections remains. But Lachover, his wife,
Cookie, and daughter Rachel, 17, a
freshman at the University of Michigan
in Ann Arbor, continue the tradition at
their house in West Bloomfield.
"It's placed proudly in the center of
the sukkah and we decorate it with
fresh evergreens," said Lachover, keeper
of the schach since 1989.
Mindful of his childhood, eggshell
birds hang from the top of the sukkah;
the walls boast traditional decorations.
"We recall the story of the schach and
I pray that one day Rachel will continue
to enjoy this beautiful Sukkot tradition
with her family," Lachover said. ❑

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Right:
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Below:
Lenny and
Cookie Lachover
in their sukkah.

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Photos by Bill Hansen

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