I Spirituality

Crafting A Fun Time

Kids create decorations at Akiva's pre-Sukkot family program.

Amalia Smith, 5, of Southfield and Sarah Mizrahi, of Oak Park, along with her sons George, 3, and

Dalya Apap, 5, of Southfield works on a sukkah decoration with her

Ezra, 4, make wind chimes.

mom, Deb Kovsky-Apap.

Shelli Liebman Dorfman

ing party, they started with bagels, cream

Senior Writer

cheese and scrambled eggs and then
moved on to graham cracker walls and
green coconut roofs.
Building a sukkah suitable for eating
was just one of the activities planned for
kids who attended the family program.
Edible decorations for their projects
included pretzels and Fruit Loop-chains to

A

group of youngsters at Akiva
Hebrew Day School in Southfield
got ready for the holiday of
Sukkot by first having breakfast and then
eating a sukkah!
At a Sunday morning sukkah decorat-

string across the ceilings.
To take home for their own sukkot, the
kids made "welcome" signs and wind
chimes of beads and bells hung from CDs.
The Sept. 19 program was highlighted
with a sing-along with Rabbi Jeffrey Ney,
the school's new rabbinic dean, who
played guitar and led the group in Sukkot
tunes.

"What made it really fun was that the
projects were kid-friendly; there was a
good variety and most kids could work
independently:' said Lisa Parshan, director
of Akiva's Early Childhood Center.
"The room has gross motor activities so
kids of all ages were engaged in a variety
of activities, including climbing, riding,
jumping and crawling as well as crafts"

Have Sukkah, Will Travel

Chabad students share Sukkot traditions
throughout the community.

Shelli Liebman Dorfman

Senior Writer

S

eeing sukkot roll through town this past week
was not in the viewer's imagination.
The wheeled structures are part of an
annual program organized through Chabad-Lubavitch
Foundation of Michigan and nearly four-dozen
Chabad rabbinical students who volunteered while
home from school for Sukkot.
The four sukkot — three on the back of pickup trucks
and one on a U-Haul trailer — were built by the students.
"They traveled around quite a bit:' said Berl
Kesselman, 17, of Oak Park, who organized the project

along with his twin brother, Levi, Mendel Steinmetz,
19, of Southfield and Mendel Shemtov, 16, of West
Bloomfield. Their visits, which took place this past
Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, took them through the
streets of Flint, Novi, West Bloomfield, Bloomfield Hills,
Lansing, Oak Park and Franklin.
"We visited nursing homes, university campuses,
shopping centers, events and other places where people
gather:' said Berl Kesselman.
He added that the purpose of the project "is to raise
awareness about the sukkot and give people the oppor-
tunity to take part in the holiday by making a blessing
on the lulav and etrog and eating something inside the
sukkah:' ❑

Refoel Polter, 16, helps Lawrence Kohlenberg say the prayer

over the lulav and etrog during a stop at Kohlenberg's office.

34 September 30 • 2010

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