Creating Art for the First National Sukkah
October 17, 2022
This year, the Vice President, Kamala Harris, and Second Gentleman, Doug Emhoff, put up a national sukkah at Blair House, their residence, for Sukkot, the Jewish festival of harvest.
In Judaism, a sukkah is a hut that is built for eight days every year over Sukkot to commemorate the 40 years the Jewish people wandered in the desert on their way to Israel after escaping slavery in Egypt. To remember the journey through the desert to the Land of Israel, Jewish people build and decorate a temporary hut outside their homes and eat meals in them for the 8-day duration of the Sukkot holiday.
Levi Zinkow showing drawing to be hung in the first national sukkah (right). Photos courtesy of Orly Zinkow
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, hosted a Sukkot celebration at the first national sukkah.
Ambassador Lipstadt is a family friend and reached out to ask if my five-year old son, Levi, could draw a picture for the Vice President’s sukkah. Levi, ecstatic and honored, ran to his art table and furiously began to draw. Levi was thrilled to be included in the Vice President’s celebration, and proud that his faith could be highlighted on a national platform.
