Photo Friday: Your Descendants Will Know

Stand for Israel  |  October 6, 2023

Building a sukkah for Sukkot near a synagogue in pre-Holocaust Lviv, 1931
(Photo: wikicommons/Diamand Wanda)

“…your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 23:43)

The year is 1931. The city is Lviv, Poland (now Ukraine). The Jewish community of the city numbers nearly 100,000—including these Jews preparing their sukkah (the temporary shelter built for the holiday of Sukkot, the biblical Feast of Tabernacles) near a synagogue.

A decade later, the Holocaust had arrived to the city and its Jewish citizens. When WWII ended, only 200-800 of those Jewish people had survived. But the memories of the tens of thousands lost—and the 6 million Jewish lives taken during this dark period in history—as well as biblical traditions like Sukkot, mean that they will not be forgotten. Shabbat shalom, friends.