Traveling Sukkah Gets Noticed

A sukkah? On Wheels? Many people don’t know what a Sukkah is, let alone one that comes to them.

For the first time, Jewish people in Folsom, El Dorado Hills and the surrounding region in California had the opportunity to make a bracha in a Sukkah Mobile and bentch the Lulav and Esrog.

The travelling Sukkah was a welcome sight, albeit surprising, to so many Jews and brought more than one person to tears.

Jewish people living in New York or Los Angeles and other cities with large, high profile Jewish communities have it easier. When asked which church they belong to they can easily respond, “I don’t belong to a church – I’m Jewish.” The questioner will invariably nod and apologize for assuming that they were Christian. But for Jews living in areas with a much smaller Jewish population, where the Jewish community is “beneath the radar”, the response is usually a long silence followed by, “Oh, really? There is a Jewish community here? I had no idea.” It becomes uncomfortable for many Jews to share their identity with their neighbors and friends and many choose to actively hide it.

This is one of the many challenges faced by Rabbi Yossi and Goldie Grossbaum and their family, shluchim in Folsom, CA.

“Many Jews lack pride in their heritage, a pride that is so natural to Jews living in larger communities,” says Grossbaum. “This is especially true among the local children,” he says.

This is perhaps the reason that local Jews respond so well to the programs that the shluchim offer, Grossbaum explains. “It helps raise the profile of the local Jewish community and makes everyone feel that they have a place they can belong.”

It’s no surprise then that the sight of the Sukkah Mobile made such an impact on local Jewish residents.

“This year was the first that a Sukkah Mobile was made in Folsom but it definitely will not be the last!”