It takes a succa

What do Toblerone packaging, a miniature violin, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) logo, a hamsa and pictures of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Rambam and Martin Luther King have in common? They are components in the Succat Ha’aliyot model succa, built in 2009 by Sue Tourkin Komet.

The impact of this compact, passionate, and energetic woman calling herself “Susie Succot” was felt by the many people whose lives she touched here from her aliya in 1968 until she died on January 4 (7 Tevet) after battling cancer.

Komet’s Hebrew name, Yaffa Shulamit (yaffa means beautiful), aptly reflects her attention to detail and aesthetics in dress and design. She created some 40 model succot, inspired by Beit Avi Chai’s annual Model Succa Competition. In 2013, when the competition was held at the Israel Museum, her model Kirot Medabrim (Walls Speak) won first place.

Komet traced her interest and skill in carpentry to the carpenters in her family line, including her father, Richard Tourkin, a semi-professional carpenter, and her ex-husband, Max Komet, who had a carpentry business in Jerusalem in the 1980s. Some of Komet’s models were intricate with dozens of components.

Describing the creative process of Succat Ha’aliyot, she said she “spent 25 breathtaking intensive hours in three days, as an engineer, carpenter, seamstress and jewelry maker – integrating symbolic, spiritual, colorful, aesthetic elements.”

Komet was born in Washington, DC, in 1948 “months after the State of Israel was born.” Her father, Richard, was regional director of the JNF, and her mother, Miriam, was a nurse. Growing up in a Zionist home, she made aliya in 1968. She was an honors graduate of Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University, and the Hebrew University’s Baerwald School of Social Work. As a social worker she was employed in hospitals and special education schools for nearly a decade.

Her social-work skills helped her cope with various life challenges, and she maintained her joie de vivre and optimism throughout. Her daughter, Bracha, was born with cerebral palsy, and Komet raised her to be an intelligent person.

In 2005, Komet received a literary grant from Keren Amos of the Office of the President of Israel for publication of her forthcoming literary book, Jerusalem Out Front, Bethlehem Outback: Prose & Poetry.

In addition to “slices of life,” the book’s poetry highlights her career as a slam poetess since the 1990s in venues like Jerusalem’s Yakar Shul and the Tmol Shilshom literary cafe-bookstore, where she attended many literary events.

Her writings were published in some 30 publications – including The Jerusalem Post and literary publications like Voices Israel – the Israeli Group of Poets in English; Poetica Magazine and The Deronda Review. The works reflect her wealth of knowledge – general and practical – with a healthy dose of spiritual insights.

The title of her book indicates the location of the Jerusalem suburb of Gilo, where she lived for decades, since it was a small neighborhood. Friends from the early years moved to newer sections of Gilo, to other neighborhoods and to Gush Etzion.

A successful matchmaker, Komet was involved in the lives of friends throughout Israel, participating in many family celebrations “wearing her dancing shoes.” The month before she died, she attended the brit mila of a grandson of her sister, Leah Yerushalmi, and the wedding of her friends’ son.

At her request, musician Bernie Marinbach chose to play Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach’s Haneshama Lach (The Soul Is Yours) at her funeral – as the striking sunset with magenta and orange hues saluted this vibrant soul.

Remembering Sue Tourkin Komet, who passed away on January 4.