A group of volunteers traveled to Rikers Island on Chol Hamoed Sukkos with a portable sukkah, a live band, and a full holiday meal — and gave Jewish inmates a celebration that one participant called the happiest day of my life.
The program was organized by the Lubavitch Youth Organization with Rabbi Zalman Tevel coordinating alongside prison chaplains Hecht, Kresmersid, and Mia. Inmates performed the mitzvah of taking the lulav and etrog, and a sefer Torah was brought into the facility for services.
Entertainment included the live band directed by Avigdor Zeitlin, along with clowns and juggling acts. The atmosphere they created was one of genuine festivity — the kind that does not require anyone to pretend where they are, but manages to transcend it anyway.
One woman wept upon seeing a picture of the Rebbe. The celebration concluded with communal singing of Ani Maamin and the Shema.
The program was dedicated to the memory of R' Avrahom ben Chaim Mordechai Kessler.
