Sukkot at YESOD

Sukkot at YESOD started off with a bang. Truckloads of Russian schoolchildren came to the building, with class after class of kids parading through the building and into the new sukkah outside. Alyson and I enjoyed just roaming through the various rooms at YESOD, checking out the festivities in all the nooks and crannies around the building. As volunteers who work very non-traditional hours, we have the flexibility to just jump in and participate when we find something that looks fun. Here, we got roped into cutting out cardboard Sukkot symbols for a group of children who were decorating picture frames. It was great, because it reminded us of our niece Hannah's birthday party early this past summer. And hold onto your seats for the next revelation: Alyson and I even sang for a group of elderly Chesed clients! That's right, Alyson overcame her fears and sang publicly! I have no idea how it happened; what started with us saying "We'll join you for a few minutes for lunch" somehow translated into Russian as, "Of course we want to sing for you!" After a few rounds of "Oseh Shalom" (my favorite version, Debbie Friedman's melody) and "Lo Yisa Goy," we were warmly thanked by our audience, who I think were as surprised as we were by our impromptu performance!

Also, even though the weather is getting colder, a steady stream of visitors continues to come through and see the YESOD building. You would think that we would be bored by giving the same tour shpiel for the twentieth time now, but you'd be wrong. As we continue to learn more about this community, we have more details and specifics that we can add to our tour. Moreover, as our Russian gets better, we can actually translate a sentence or two spoken by the Adain Lo kids or the elderly Chesed Avraham clients to their Western guests. The tour pictured here was a special one for two reasons. First, because I knew Debbie and Walter Cohn when I was working at the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, and it's always a pleasant surprise to see recognizable faces in this foreign land. But even more importantly, and somewhat strangely, during our visit to the Chesed Avraham Day Center in the building, Debbie and Walter received a round of applause for their contributions to Jewish life. And they deserved it--they are fantastic lay leaders, and we're excited to have them over to our house for Shabbat dinner tonight!