Giant Sukkah Hosts Record SukkahFest in New Jersey

This Chol Hamoed, Alan Montag was out shopping at the NetCost Market in Marlboro when he spotted a brand-new sukkah in the parking lot and stopped in to shake the lulav and esrog.

Something about the experience felt familiar. Before he left, he pulled up a picture from 1986. In it, his son, David, stands inside a Sukkah Mobile parked outside the very same market, then a Foodtown, where David helped passersby shake the lulav and esrog. It was the very first Sukkos season after Rabbi Boruch and Tova Chazanow arrived in the area as the Rebbe’s shluchim.

Four decades later, the Sukkah Mobiles are still rolling, and bigger than ever.

That sukkah was one of two new stationary Sukkahs and ten Sukkah Mobiles deployed per day across the region as Chabad marks 40 years in the area.

Each day, the Sukkah Mobiles fanned out across both counties, each covering multiple stops: busy shopping centers, senior residences and high schools. Local shluchim assigned the routes in their own areas, sending the Sukkah Mobiles to their communities’ busiest spots and events.

“It was hard not to see a Sukkah Mobile in the two counties,” said Rabbi Boruch Chazanow, executive director of Chabad. “This year, every Jew in Western Monmouth and Ocean felt it was Sukkos.”

Some 25 bochurim staffed the Sukkah Mobiles and Sukkahs, reaching nearly 5,000 people over Sukkos, with more than 3,000 shaking lulav. The bochurim were hosted at a nearby hotel, with catered meals daily and a stipend in appreciation for dedicating their Chol Hamoed to this shlichus.

On Wednesday, Chabad houses from across both counties joined together for SukkahFest at Camp Gan Israel of Central NJ. With 650 people in attendance, it was the largest Sukkos celebration the region has ever seen.

At its center stood a 5,000-square-foot Sukkah, where guests sat down to a catered barbecue. Carnival rides and attractions surrounded it, along with a comedy juggling show and the first-ever Sukkah Hayride. The night peaked with a Simchas Beis Hashoeiva concert featuring Binyomin Lerner and the Top Cats band.

The programs were organized by Chabad’s regional office in partnership with the Chabad centers serving the region, including Chabad of Manalapan, Freehold, Holmdel, Jackson and Toms River, along with Friendship Circle, Chabad Hebrew School and Camp Gan Israel.

The efforts were coordinated by Mendel Chazanow, Rabbi Avraham Bernstein, Rabbi Zalman Pape, and Yossi Hirsch.