Sukkah Builders for Hire

OUR COMMUNITY

DANNY SCHWARTZ

STAFF WRITER

The senior class at Farber Hebrew Day School is taking part in a sukkah-building fundraiser with all proceeds funding their senior trip at the end of the year.

The fundraiser advertisement went up at the end of August letting the community know that they were ready to hire, and in less than 48 hours, the seniors had a full schedule of sukkah building. The senior class was blown away by the support.

Farber senior class representatives Yaffa Klausner and Jonny Kornblum have been in charge of coordinating the sukkah building, although the entire senior class is involved in building.

“We sent out a flyer and we got many emails, but we could only accept so many with only so much time because all the holidays are early this year,” Kornblum said. “I believe we accepted 25 or 26.”

With sukkah takedowns still to come once the holiday is over, Klausner said they haven’t finished fundraising, though she believes the total will be a couple thousand dollars.

Some Farber senior classes in the past have gone to Upper Michigan for their senior trip, but Klausner said they could change it if they wanted to.

“We actually didn’t have much time to

Sukkah Builders start planning the trip before we got thrown into the fundraiser,” Klausner said. “It’s like the first for Hire week of school we’re already working on fundraising, but it’s really

Farber seniors build sukkahs great, and we’re happy to help people build their sukkahs.” for senior trip fundraiser. Beyond raising money for their senior trip, Klausner believes the effort is a good way to engage with the community. “We had some people who emailed us saying they usually build their own sukkahs, but they got injured or they need help this year,” she said. “We even got our first- and second-grade teacher wanting us to build her sukkah, which we were very obviously happy to do for her. It’s just a great way to get Farber seniors involved in the community.” helping build Klausner says the community has sukkahs been really grateful, and while coor-throughout the community. dinating and building has been a learning curve, it’s been a rewarding experience. “Through doing this, we’re really more involved in everybody’s Sukkot experience,” Klausner said. “We’re not just building our own sukkah, and the sukkah is like the most important part, so we’re really building people’s holidays for them.”

Holocaust Memorial Center to Rebroadcast MSU Concert Remembering the 80th Anniversary of the Babi Yar Massacre

This month marks the 80th anniversary of the Babi Yar massacre, which occurred Sept. 29-30, 1941. On the evening of Sept. 29 in 1941, almost 34,000 Jews were forcibly rounded up and shot over two days at Babi Yar, a ravine that was then located on the outskirts of the city of Kiev, Ukraine. This horrific massacre became a symbol of Jewish suffering during the Holocaust with the mass shootings carried out in Eastern Europe by the Nazis.

To observe this anniversary, the Holocaust Memorial Center will rebroadcast the 2019 concert of Shostakovich’s Babi Yar: Remembering the Holocaust performed by the MSU Symphony Orchestra and Choral Ensembles. The performance features Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 (Babi Yar) and selections from Charles Davidson’s song cycle, I Never Saw Another Butterfly.

The concert is available to watch from Sept. 23-27 at www.holocaustcenter.org. For more information call (248) 553-2400.

The program is presented by the Michigan State University College of Music and the Michael and Elaine Serling Institute for Jewish Studies and Modern Israel at MSU, in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, the Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus, the Jewish Community Center of Metro Detroit and the Detroit Jewish News.

The concert rebroadcast is sponsored by Gretchen and Ethan Davidson, Margie Dunn and Mark Davidoff, Howard J. Gourwitz, Belle and Julius Harris Visiting Artist Fund established by Lauren Julius Harris, Stanley and Selma Hollander Endowed Fund in Jewish Arts & Music, Sue and Alan Kaufman, Iris and Stephen Linder, Rebecca and Alan Ross, Elaine and Michael Serling/The Serling Institute for Jewish Studies and Modern Israel, Drs. Lou A. and Roy J. Simon, Linn Van Dyne and Mike Knox, Jeff D. Williams, and Andrea L. Wulf.