From Tajikistan to Ashdod: A Bukharian Times Correspondent Builds His First Sukkah

Growing up in Tajikistan, Moshe Sabirov never saw the people around him build a sukkah. This Sukkot, in Ashdod, he built one himself, and wrote about it in a first-person reflection published by The Bukharian Times on Oct. 1, 2026.

Sabirov, a photojournalist and special correspondent for the paper who is studying for a master’s degree at Ariel University in communication, public advocacy and combating antisemitism, wrote that French, a language he speaks, led him to Mauricio Baruch, a work acquaintance who has lived in Israel for about 30 years. Baruch’s wife comes from a family of Moroccan Jews. One evening after work, the two decided to build a sukkah at Baruch’s home.

Learning by building

They put up the walls and fences that evening and laid the schach the next day. Sabirov was trusted with the design. “I was getting to know the laws of the Torah in practice for the first time,” he wrote. “Before that I could read, listen, and ask questions.”

At the holiday meal with his host’s in-laws, conversation moved among French, English and Hebrew. Children from the neighborhood wandered in to introduce themselves. “A sukkah is not only walls, a roof and decorations,” he wrote. “It is a meeting place.” The rice served with the meat, he added, reminded him of plov.

“We haven’t built it for four years”

The surprise came from Baruch, who told him the family had not put up a sukkah for about four years and thanked him for helping build it again. “I came to Israel and thought that it was me who would learn the traditions and culture here,” Sabirov wrote. “But it turned out that I can also bring something.”

His conclusion: “The most important thing is the people who met inside it. Jews from different countries, different generations, different languages and different stories.”

Sources: The Bukharian Times.