Next to the abandoned sukkahs that have remained standing in Kiryat Shmona since the residents were evacuated from there a year ago, a few of the residents that remained erected new Sukkahs that seek to convey a message: Even in the days when 23,000 of its residents are displaced from the city, the holiday of Sukkot will still be celebrated there this year.
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Zeev (Zeevik) Zweigi, a social activist and local businessman, builds a sukkah in Kiryat Shmona
(Photo: Avihu Shapira)
The reservists of the Home Front Command unit assisted in the establishment of five Sukkahs. "I hope that the Sukkahs we built will symbolize the return of the residents soon, in peace and security," said IDF Home Front Command unit Lt. Col. Dudu Peretz.
"In our cooperation with the municipality and Rabbi Yigal Tzipori, the Chabad emissary in the city, we decided to build Sukkahs in central places here, in the hope that the families of the north will celebrate the next holiday in their homes," he said.
Among the few residents left in the city is Zeev (Zeevik) Zweigi, a social activist and local businessman. Over the years, he did not set up a Sukkah in the courtyard of his residential building, but instead visited in the Sukkahs of family and friends, but this year he decided to deviate from his custom. "As part of my activity this year, I walked around the houses and saw sad pictures of Sukkahs that stood and symbolized the life that was stopped. For me, the sukkah is an image of victory that we convey to our enemies," he said.
He erected the sukkah in a place that was especially symbolic for him. "Right here next to the sukkah I was hit by a missile and that's why I chose this place. We will defeat the enemies and they won't break us, we are a very strong homefront," he said.
Zweigi invited additional friends who remained in the city to help build his sukkah. "It really moved us when Zeevik announced that he would build a sukkah here," said his neighbor Dudu Stroll. Stroll, who owns a moving company, transported the contents of hundreds of apartments of residents who were vacated from the city last year. "Just as I took them out of the city," Stroll described, "so I will lead them back home soon with God's help."
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