CLEVELAND — Sydney Ungar held a Cleveland Browns gathering on Sunday, Oct. 16, which included some non-typical tailgate items.
What You Need To Know
- Sukkot ended on Oct. 16
- The seven-day Jewish holiday celebrates the fall harvest
- The Bridge, a young adult group, hosted a tailgate to observe the festival
“So, here we have an ethrog,” Ungar said. “This is like the citron, it’s a citrus fruit. Here we have what’s called the lulav.”
Ungar is the director of The Bridge, a new organization that brings young Jewish adults together. Ungar said they focus on “non-guilt” group outings.
“So [a] non-guilt Jewish organization, to me, means come once in a blue moon, come to every program, come to anything and everything that you want and you’re always welcome, and that we’re never going to guilt trip people into feeling like they need to be here,” Ungar said.
Ahead of kickoff, the group celebrated the end of an important Jewish holiday, called Sukkot.
“Sukkot is a seven-day Jewish holiday, and it is in celebration of the fall harvest,” Ungar said.
They marked the holiday with a pop-up sukkah in the middle of the Muni Lot.
“The sukkah is a minimum three-sided temporary hut, if you will, and it represents the cloud that followed the Israelites in the desert when the Jews wandered for 40 years before getting to Israel,” Ungar said.
Ungar added their sukkah is made according to tradition.
“Up here you will see some bamboo,” she said. “This is called s’chach. It’s very difficult to say. S’chach has to be something natural. So, some people use bamboo like this. Other people might use the leaves on trees, and sticks, and branches and things like that.”
Guests also had the chance to shake the lulav inside of the sukkah, as they got excited for the game.
“[It’s] a really big game, and we should take every opportunity we can to get people together, celebrate the Browns, celebrate Cleveland, an awesome Guardians’ win last night and celebrate an amazing Jewish holiday,” Ungar said.
