(Photo/Courtesy Hazon) Columns (Is It) Good for the Jews? May we help you find a sukkah? Facebook Twitter Email SMS WhatsApp Share By Eric Goldbrener, Larry Rosen | October 4, 2017 This week, on the “(Is It) Good for the Jews?” podcast … Larry Rosen: As you know, Sukkot is approaching. It’s one of the most, eh, fun Jewish holidays. Eric Goldbrener: Finally! Something to look forward to! LR: Exactly. So I found a website, begun in 1994 in Australia, called localsukkah.org. You know what it does? EG: Finds local sukkahs? In case you need to go shake your lulav? LR: Yes, and have a meal, too. Whatever sukkah-related activities you’ve got, but you can’t find a sukkah, you go to localsukkah.org and bang! Problem solved. EG: You can have a meal inside the sukkah? LR: Yes! Sukkahs for people on the go. “I’ve got a half an hour. I need a sukkah …” EG: Sure, “I’m going to go in, I’m going to break bread, I’m going to wave the lulav …” LR: I’m gonna get out. EG: Shehecheyanu. It’s a mitzvah. LR: Some are in temples, some are in Jewish Community Centers, some are in shopping centers. EG: A Jewish shopping center? How about that. LR: Yeah, I’m a little sketchy on the Jewish shopping centers. EG: I’d like to see that. LR: 336 listings in 26 countries. So if you are not like us — and don’t know Kimel — you might need to find a sukkah. You playing poker in the sukkah this year? EG: I play poker in Kimel’s sukkah every year. It’s good to play poker in the sukkah, man. LR: I got to play once. Only once. Let’s not go into that. EG: I’ll tell you what. I adore Kimel, and of course I love playing poker in the sukkah, but he’s got the off-the-rack, prefab, plastique sukkah. LR: Where do you get that? EG: You order it online? Go to a Judaica store. LR: Sukkah.com? EG: You know, I recently had a business meeting in a sukkah, with the co-producer of “The Revolt” [Goldbrener’s in-progress movie about Menachem Begin]. Here in San Francisco. He lives on this sloped lot, so the sukkah’s out there, with this magnificent view of downtown. It was a truly delightful business meeting. LR: Was it a spiritual experience? EG: We talked money! It was a business meeting in a sukkah! LR: They used to build a sukkah at our Jewish day school, when they weren’t all going to do “Sukkot in Yosemite.” But my only memory of it is my child getting into a fight. As we’re building the sukkah. My child throwing down near the sukkah in second grade! EG: You can’t expect a second-grader to control himself. LR: You ever build a sukkah? EG: Oh yeah. When I was a kid, my synagogue, we were there all the time. I was there every day. It comes time to build the sukkah, it was a big deal. I was like 9, 10, 11 years old. And what I liked was that all of these old-timers would come out to help build it. So you’d have these guys, 80 years old, who’d survived the camps and immigrated here. Didn’t speak English, only spoke Yiddish. Normally I only saw them at services, but they came out in force to build the sukkah. I revered these guys because they were so traditional, so Old World. They’d be out there rolling up their sleeves and we’d be building the sukkah together. LR: Man, that’s a good memory! EG: It’s a great memory. And you know, I didn’t have a dad. I’d go out there, doing this thing with these old-timers, something our community did. I was rich, man. We had culture. LR: That is fantastic. I’m not going to give up hope. I might still someday have a real, true Sukkot experience. Of course, we don’t have a yard, which might make it difficult. Sukkot starts Oct. 5 [this year], if you’re keeping track and are planning to build a sukkah, planning to visit Kimel’s sukkah to play some poker, planning to go to Yosemite. EG: Yeah, give Sukkot some love. It’s one of the best Jewish holidays. LR: It’s one of the few that we, as a people, truly celebrate. EG: We don’t cut loose often enough. That’s what Sukkot is for. Celebrating, especially how the world is now, is good for the Jews. Eric Goldbrener Eric Goldbrener is a Libertarian, Zionist, atheist and autodidact technologist. He co-hosts the podcast “(Is It) Good for the Jews?” Larry Rosen Larry Rosen is a writer, husband, father and author of “The Rabbi Has Left the Building,” a memoir about his son’s bar mitzvah. He co-hosts the podcast “(Is It) Good for the Jews?” Also On J. Jew in the Pew Sukkot may be over, but the gates never close (Is It) Good for the Jews? In Israel, out with Pink Floyd, in with Radiohead Jew in the Pew Sukkot begins: 'Open Doors' at USF, sunny skies in the Mission (Is It) Good for the Jews? When an internet Jew-hater turns out to be … Jewish? Subscribe to our Newsletter Enter Email Sign Up