Petropavlovsk Hesed "Ephraim" thoroughly prepared to meet the wonderful fall holiday of Sukkot. Prior to the event, children from the Day Center gathered in Hesed for a "rehearsal". They built small souvenir huts, learned songs and looked for information about the traditions and customs of the Feast of Tabernacles. This is how the community was preparing for a trip to the park to build a real sukkah. Finally the long-awaited trip took place! The family camp went to a wonderful recreation area "Pestroe".

The weather was overcast but the twenty people that had accepted the invitation of Hesed "Ephraim" did not regret going on the trip. During the day the sun came out to everyone's delight! Children and adults were building a sukkah with great interest and had a lot of fun. All participated in the contest organized by our volunteer Nina Michelson. But the most active were Danil Sergeev, Daniel Levchenko and Dima Almazov.

Having built a sukkah (and it turned out great!) and played active games in the fresh air, we all had a delicious dinner. There were a lot of delicious things in our hut - dates, olives, grapes, pomegranates because Sukkot is a celebration of the harvest.

We were accompanied by singing group "Shalom" including Nina Mikhelson, Nelly Levchenko, Anelya Zhigarlovskaya. And when we were returning home our ladies delighted us with the wonderful songs from their repertoire on High Holidays - "Simchat Torah", "Shana Tova" and others.

Sukkot in Petropavlovsk was a success. We followed the Jewish tradition and had a great time.

Julia Soroka