Love Sukkot in Atlanta

Get a Free Lulav and Etrog, Part of a Year-Long Celebration

Chabad center spearheads a campaign of Jewish learning and living for 18th anniversary

By Mindy Rubenstein

 

As the saying goes, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” Maybe so, but this year in Atlanta, there are such things as free lulavim and etrogim.

 

Rabbi Eliyahu Schusterman, co-director of Chabad Intown with his wife, Dena, is spearheading a new campaign this Sukkot to offer these holiday necessities to the community without a charge.

 

“It’s been creating quite the buzz!” attests Rabbi Ari Sollish, who runs Intown Jewish Academy, an expansive adult-education program that offers classes throughout the year. Course options will be augmented with new programming in celebration of the Chabad center’s 18th year—its chai year.

 

In fact, the year will be filled with special events, and educational, social and religious opportunities revolving around this milestone.

 

As for Sukkot, the goal is to give out 180 mezuzahs, and as many lulavs and etrogs, says Rabbi Schusterman. Two yeshivah students are in the Atlanta area for the holidays “doing some of the heavy lifting,” he adds, including hanging the mezuzahs, and delivering the lulavs and etrogs. One of them happens to be Shusterman’s 19-year-old son, Mordechai, who studies in New Haven, Conn..

 

The effort is in line with various mitzvah campaigns promoted by the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory.

 

Campaigns have included encouraging Jewish men and boys over the age of 13 to put on tefillin, and women and girls to light Shabbat candles. Other campaigns endorsed by the Rebbe—three of which are now in their 40th year—include urging Jews to keep kosher, utilize the mikvah (the Jewish ritual bath) and commemorate the Hakhel year, with its emphasis on communal gatherings for Jewish men, women and children.

 

Theory Into Practice
Another new initiative they are starting is a tour of sukkahs near the Chabad House in Virginia Highlands, an upscale neighborhood near downtown Atlanta that includes an impressive mix of homes and eclectic shopping. Each sukkah will have a specific theme focused on different foods and their blessings – another opportunity to teach.

 

The Schustermans, the parents of eight children, moved to Atlanta 18 years ago from Southern California. Dena Schusterman’s parents Rabbi Chaim and Leah Drizin, were the first Shluchimat the University of California, Berkeley, and then moved to Los Angeles. The rabbi’s parents,originally Shluchim in Long Beach, Calif.,now reside in Los Angeles.

 

Dena Schusterman is director of the Intown Jewish Preschool, which she started eight years ago, and the Hebrew school directed by Rabbi Ari Sollish, couples “serious learning with serious fun.”

 

On Sukkot, during the intermediate days, she plans to take the children to a nearby park, where they will erect a sukkah. “It gives them the opportunity to make the blessing, and invite their parents and do the blessing with others,” she says. “It’s about really experiencing Judaism, so that it’s not just theory.”

 

The event will take place in the famous Atlanta Beltline Skatepark and will include bike-riding, a parade and pizza. “It’s a great Sukkot morning together,” says Dena Schusterman.

 

The first night of Sukkot, Chabad will host an open house in three shifts. Families with young children can come at bedtime and make a blessing. The second shift includes adults and older children. And then around 9:30 p.m., they will host the young-adult crowd. Last year, more than 250 people came through their sukkah on the first night.

 

The theme for their 18th year is threefold: Torah, mitzvahs and love. Love has many connotations, he says: It can refer to community, connection, aspects of mitzvot service, and certain life and interpersonal skills. They plan to highlight the Torah’s guidance for relationships, as well as topics such as medical ethics and finance.

 

Moreover, Intown Jewish Academy is launching a new certificate program with three tracts: practical aspects of mitzvahs, such as kashrut; ethical teaching and incorporating Jewish law into life; and general Torah learning.

 

In addition to Sukkot, other community events throughout the year will focus on these themes. A program for young adults called “Shabbat 180” is in the works for November. The December family Chanukah celebration will focus on the three-part theme. In January, they will host a tefillin wrap and breakfast for 180 men, and the next month comes the “Friday Night Light” program, which involves 18 people hosting Shabbat meals, inviting 10 people a piece.

 

The year-long celebration will culminate with a community-wide gala in April.

 

“Part of the purpose of the Friday Night Lights program is to make these family activities, involving children in the beauty and excitement of preparing for Shabbat,” says the rabbi.
But for now, the focus is on the High Holidays and Sukkot. So far, Chabad Intown has given out nearly 71 lulavim and etrogim, and more than 30 mezuzahs, which they have been putting up in homes and offices. Calls and email keep coming in.

 

“Our hope is to get a response from people who have not been involved before,” says Schusterman, “but are intrigued by the opportunity.”