Bnei Akiva builds succahs for seniors, disabled people throughout Israel
"The 'Team of Builders' [project] run by the youth movement has succeeded in telling us the real story of this nation in recent years."
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFA man passes assembled succot in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea She’arim in Jerusalem(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
In the past week, the Bnei Akiva youth movement helped build succahs for senior citizens and people with disabilities as part of a nation-wide project in preparation for the upcoming Succot holiday.During the "Team of Builders" project, the youth movement set up a website and phone line for people to request help building the traditional huts. The movement then notified youth in the relevant areas who scheduled times to come and build the succahs and to come after the holiday and take down the succahs.The project began in a Bnei Akiva group in the city of Givataayim in central Israel five years ago. The entire youth movement quickly joined in and extended the project to the rest of the country. The project is dedicated to the memory of three soldiers who fell in battle: Mjr. Beniyah Ryan, who fell in the Second Lebanon War and Mjr. Beniyah Sarel and Sgt. Beniyah Rovel who fell during Operation Protective Edge in 2014."The 'Team of Builders' [project] run by the youth movement has succeeded in telling us the real story of this nation in recent years," said Bnei Akiva Secretary-General Yair Shahal. "The special connection between citizens and many families from different communities and the wonderful youth has succeeded in breaking barriers and symbolizing the great uniqueness of the Succot holiday. It seems that specifically today, after two rounds of elections and increasing polarization in the public, there's no more suitable action for defragmentation than this. Bnei Akiva will continue to act throughout the year in order to connect and bring close all the different parts of Israeli society as it has done since it's founding 90 years ago."