- September 24, 2026
- 4:04 pm
- World News
September 24, 2026, Kyiv. Moshe Reuven Asman recorded an address on the eve of Sukkot right during the construction of the festive sukkah. And almost immediately, a second sound appears in the video, unmistakable: an air raid siren wails over Kyiv. Asman continues to speak. He doesn’t leave the frame, doesn’t change the subject. He talks about joy.
Author: Editorial Staff of NANews
It was done almost without any direction. The wooden frame of the future sukkah, Kyiv, the approaching Jewish holiday — and the alarm reminding us of the reality in which all this is happening. Moreover, the reality on this day was not symbolic at all: on the night of September 24, Russian troops again attacked Kyiv with ballistic missiles and drones. According to city authorities, two people were killed, at least eight were injured; residential buildings, administrative buildings, cars were damaged, and near one of the hits, the capital’s maternity hospital was damaged.
And after such a night, a person takes the parts of the future hut in hand and says: tomorrow is Sukkot.
“This is the time of our joy”
Asman begins his address from Kyiv and then reminds of the words of the Torah related to Sukkot: this is “the time of our joy”. The phrase itself is familiar to any religious Jew. But in Kyiv in September 2026, it sounds completely different because the siren is heard between the words.
He talks about the Jewish people who went through suffering and tragedies but rose again and continued to live. And then almost without transition, he talks about Ukraine:
“Every day drone attacks, missiles, wounded people for whom we will pray.”
This is not an attempt to say that one should rejoice because everything around is good. On the contrary. His thought is built on the fact that things are bad around, sometimes scary, sometimes a person is not in the mood for a holiday at all. But life cannot be entirely given to war.
“Life goes on,” says Asman. And then he explains what perhaps became the main meaning of this short video: a person is not obliged to give the enemy the ability to live, pray, build, gather the family at the table.
A sukkah built during war
Sukkot in 2026 begins on the evening of Friday, September 25. A sukkah is a temporary hut with a roof made of plant material, where during the holiday people eat, spend time, and traditionally some even sleep. The commandment reminds of the exodus from Egypt and how the sons of Israel lived in temporary dwellings after leaving slavery.
For the Israeli reader, there is a small calendar difference here: in Israel, the first day of Sukkot is a full holiday, after which Chol HaMoed begins, whereas in Jewish communities of the diaspora, including Ukraine, the first two days are holidays. Therefore, the Kyiv community is preparing for meals in the sukkah on the evening of September 25 and on September 26–27.
Where exactly Asman is building the sukkah, there is no separate geotag in the video itself. But the schedule of his Kyiv community published on September 24 indicates festive meals in the sukkah at the Central Synagogue of Kyiv, and the community’s address is Shota Rustaveli Street, 13, right in the center of the capital. Therefore, it is most likely about the sukkah of this community at the Central Synagogue, also known as the Brodsky Synagogue.
Asman not only says that he is participating in the construction of the sukkah. In the frame, he himself climbs a stepladder and rolls out the plant covering on the roof — schach, an obligatory part of the sukkah. It can be straw, reeds, bamboo, or other plant material: according to Jewish tradition, the roof of the festive hut should be made of what grew from the ground and is no longer connected to it.
And all this time the air raid siren wails over Kyiv as it continues to wail. Asman talks about joy, about Sukkot, about faith in the future, then takes up work again, climbs higher, and lays the schach on the roof.
At some point, words are almost unnecessary. Under the wail of the siren, the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine completes the sukkah with his own hands, where the holiday will be celebrated in a few hours. The war has not disappeared. The alarm has not ended. But the construction has not stopped.
And here Sukkot unexpectedly ceases to be just a story about ancient history.
Leaving a permanent home — although the feeling of permanence has long been gone
Asman explains the meaning of the sukkah very simply: for seven days, a person leaves their permanent dwelling and moves to a temporary one. This is how Jews remember the exodus from Egypt — the path from slavery to freedom.
There is something almost painfully accurate in this for modern Ukraine. Millions of people over the years of war already know what it means to leave their own home not for seven days. What it means to have a bag by the door, an air raid app, a night in a shelter, a power outage, and a message to loved ones: “We are okay.”
Therefore, Asman’s words about the temporary hut in Kyiv today are read a little differently than in a peaceful year. A sukkah is by definition fragile. It is supposed to be that way. But it is in it that a person sits at the festive table and pronounces a blessing.
NANews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency has already reported how Jewish life in Ukraine during the years of the great war learned to exist not after alarms and shelling, but alongside them: in winter, Asman’s community-created “Mitzvatanks” worked as mobile points of assistance, heating, and support. More: “Light against darkness: how ‘Mitzvatanks’ work against the backdrop of energy terror” And on September 24, this same logic was almost reduced to a single frame: a sukkah is being built, a siren sounds, work does not stop.
“Despite the fact that sometimes it is hard on our souls”
Asman does not pretend that fear can be turned off by order. In his address, he separately talks about bad weather, difficulties, and the state when “it is hard on the soul.”
And then he utters a mixed Russian-Ukrainian phrase — and perhaps that is why it sounds alive, not prepared for a press release:
“With joy and faith in the future, we will defeat all enemies.”
And he concludes the thought very briefly:
“Light will defeat darkness, good will defeat evil.”
For Asman, this formula is not new. He used it before, talking about the war, Ukraine, and helping people. NANews also wrote about another of his projects, where the same idea of Jewish mutual assistance practically linked Ukraine and Israel — “Mitzvatanks” worked first in Ukrainian cities and then helped people in northern Israel. From Kyiv to northern Israel: Asman’s ‘Mitzvatanks’ in two wars
Kyiv and Tel Aviv build a sukkah in one evening
There is another detail to this story. Almost simultaneously, on September 24, already in Tel Aviv, the Ukrainian-Jewish youth community PROSTIR gathers to build their first joint sukkah at the Ukrainian Cultural Center. Decorations, treats, l’chaim, music, and people getting to know each other are promised there. NANews: Ukrainian-Jewish community PROSTIR builds a sukkah in Tel Aviv
Two cities, two sukkahs. In Tel Aviv — Ukrainians and Israelis starting a new season of the community. In Kyiv — Asman assembling a festive hut while the city is once again under a warning of danger.
Comparing the wars of Ukraine and Israel literally would be incorrect — they have different histories, different adversaries, and different circumstances. But there is an experience that today is too well recognized on both sides: the holiday does not come when all threats are over. Sometimes it comes when the phone still shows an alarm.
And perhaps that is why the last seconds of this Kyiv video turned out to be stronger than any specially designed holiday card. Asman stands near the unfinished sukkah and congratulates Jews on the upcoming holiday:
“Chag Sameach.”
The siren is still audible. And the sukkah is still being completed.