By Rabbi Mendy Katz, Director of military and prison outreach at The Aleph Institute
Recently, the Aleph Institute was able to convince the Secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections to allow Jewish inmates to have sukkahs in every prison in Florida. Aleph donated and shipped 15 fold and go sukkahs to prisons all over Florida this year (we even sent one out on Friday after receiving a last minute request with Saturday delivery so the inmates can have it on time for the first night).
A few weeks ago, I sent an email to the chaplain at the Krome Detention Center in Miami requesting permission to donate a sukkah. There happened to be a few Israelis housed there in the past few weeks and I wanted them to be able to fulfill the commandment of eating in a sukkah.
The chaplain said that the request was denied by the administration due to security concerns and because they never did it before. I forgot about it for a couple of weeks as we got busy with arranging Yom Kippur services and sending out over 300 Lulav sets.
On Friday morning, I said to myself, let me give this one more shot.
I sent an email to the Assistant Field office Director for Immigration Customs Enforcement in Miami and sent him the memo authorizing the Sukkah in the Federal Prisons and the Florida Prisons and a picture of these Fold and Go Sukkahs that have no metal or wood and pose no security issues.
After a few hours of back and forth calls and emails, the request was denied again. I finally gave up , thinking I tried my best.
After Shabbat, my colleague Rabbi Aaron Lipskar send me a text asking me if I saw the weekly video of the Rebbe from Living Torah?
I immediately clicked on the Living Torah App on my phone and watched a clip of The Aleph Institute’s founder Rabbi Sholom Ber Lipskar and Sholom Moshe Sheridan talking to the Rebbe about inmates celebrating Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Out of the blue, the Rebbe asks, are the inmates going to have a Sukkah for Sukkos?
Right then and there I knew that this was a direct message not give up on the Sukkah for the four or five jewish detainees at Krome.
I was about to take off from MIA to NYC. Before take off, I sent out a few emails with an urgent call to pull out all the stops to try and get this done. Rabbi Weiss and Rabbi Zvi Boyarski along with Zach Segal, got on the job and started to reach out to all their contacts at ICE in Washington.
Emails were going back and forth Saturday night and Sunday morning. At 11:45 am as I was on a subway on the way to Manhattan I get a message from the chaplain that the Sukkah was approved.
As soon as I reached the chaplain when I get some service as the train pulled into a station I told the chaplain I would have to get back to him as I had no service on the train.
How do I find a Fold and go sukkah that has no metal and wood, 6 hours before the holiday begins in Miami while on a subway train with no service on my cell phone? Hashem answered immediately.
The train stays in the station for a longer period of time and I have service. I sent out messages to all the What’s App groups looking for a Sukkah. I decided to call the closest Chabad Rabbi to the facility, Rabbi Levi Friedman who tells me, I may have an old pop up Sukkah but I am not home. I will call you when I get home in a half hour.
Suddenly there is an announcement that the train will be stuck here for a while as there is a major issue at the 96 Street station. The passengers are told to take another train. I realize this is Hashem telling me get it done now, I decide to stay put and work on the sukkah.
The chaplain calls me back and says he needs to leave to his church and he needs the sukkah ASAP. I told him I would call him right back. I called Rabbi Fridman and asked if there was someone home who can confirm the sukkah is there and he says yes and he will call me right back .
I immediately open my lyft App and get it ready to go. Rabbi Friedman confirms he has the sukkah and texts me his address and phone number for his wife. I ordered a Lyft to his house and called his wife Sashie and asked her to bring the sukkah out to the driver.
Mrs. Friedman dropped everything on Erev Sukkos in the middle of cooking and made sure the sukkah made it into the Lyft.
As soon as all was arranged and the Lyft was in route to Rabbi Friedman’s house, the train started moving again. The sukkah arrived at the detention facility and the chaplain with the help of the Jewish detainees was able to put the sukkah.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe still loves and cares about every Jew where ever he or she may find themselves even close to 22 years after his passing. Today, on October 16 2016, the Rebbe had a sukkah delivered to the Jewish Detainees at Krome Detention Center in Miami.
The dedication of one Jew to another is so inspiring
Magnificent!
alef insitute ur da best
Just there at aleph, you are doing amazing work, it’s definitely worth helping such a organization.
Thank you Mendy, Aaron and everyone else for giving up a life of freedom to help those missing that.
Great work, you make the Rebbe proud! Gut Yom Tov & Good G’Benchted Year!
Awesome, amazing inspiring story! Yasher Choach, Chag Sameach! Moshiach Now!
What they do is amazing and awsome wow its unbelievable how much work and dedication is put in making sure everyjew has what they need