If you are looking forward to Succot, but dreading putting up your succah, you are in luck – if you live in Australia, that is.
Handyman Billy Klein and his friend, carpenter Zuzz Rapp, who go by the moniker “the Sukkah Boys”, make light work of building the temporary structures used during Succot, which falls this weekend.
Completing just one succah is enough to leave many of us a sweaty exhausted mess – but Klein and Rapp the pair have constructed thousands of succot since they began offering this specialist building service.
The venture began in 2014 as a casual gig, with Klein building succot for neighbours. But demand was so great he brought in Rapp to help, with the pair now constructing hundreds of the huts in the fortnight leading up to the festival every year.
Speaking to US publication Tablet Magazine in 2023, Klein, who is in his thirties, said: “The ten to 12 days leading up to Succot are frantically busy. It’s a logistics nightmare. We have 300 jobs in a two-week period. The customers all want it done last minute. And the day after Succot, they all want it down.”
Rapp said: “To get everyone done before the holiday is extremely hard work. But we have never let a customer down.”
The “Sukkah Boys” employ around ten contractors to help in the busy period.
The work might be intense but it is also rewarding knowing they are helping their clients celebrate succot, and they do their best to meet their customers’ unique specifications.
Recalling a woman who hired them previously, Klein said: “She lived by herself and was terminally ill with cancer, but she really wanted to put up a recyclable succah. We used tyres and plastic bottles. It was probably one of our most meaningful jobs. She was so involved even though she was sick.”
The pair also give back to the community. After sending a succah to a friend in a remote part of Australia, they teamed up with Chabad of Rural and Regional Australia, which supports Jews living in regional and remote communities around the country.
“We said that we would love to donate a succah to every community they serve. Even if the community did not have a rabbi, we were happy to send it to a local community member so they could put it up for their friends,” Klein said.
As of 2023, the handymen had donated around 30 succot to Chabad and they have achieved the feat of seeing a Sukkah Boys succah installed in every Australian state and capital city, as well as in smaller communities.
They have even taught workshops in schools on how to build succot. If they did this in hopes of being able to put their feet up while the younger generation took on the task, the plan backfired: “Many people who had never had a succah wanted us,” Klein said.
"They thought it would be nice for their family to have one and to celebrate with their kids.”
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