The Man 

Ozzy Smith Toms River, New Jersey

The Mission

Jerusalem-based succah concierge

Just days before Succos, Ozzy Smith’s team is deftly navigating the Old City’s labyrinth of cobblestone streets, battling Erev Yom Tov traffic and everyday Jerusalem balagan to ensure his made-to-order succahs are assembled and operational. When Ozzy’s clients slip into their seats the first night, they are blissfully unaware of what it takes to ensure their succahs are set and ready to impress — which is just the way Ozzy prefers it.

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how Sukkos by Ozzy Events started

I worked in private aviation, servicing high net worth clients in their jet-setting expeditions. But four years ago during Covid, flights were grounded and my clients weren’t flying. A friend knew I was looking for work and asked if I could come to Orlando for the months following Pesach to serve as an in-house chef for him and his family. I took him up on the offer and stood in the kitchen for hours on end, creating meals for him, his family, and their many guests — all of whom had healthy appetites — it kept me on my toes!

By the time Shavuos came around, I needed a break from the kitchen. I’m the creative type, so I asked my client if I could try my hand at the décor, and with his okay, I went to a local florist and spent to my heart’s content. Then I went to town decorating the place. Everyone was blown away by the decor that Yom Tov… and that’s how Ozzy Events was born. I now run a premier event planning agency that plans and produces high-end corporate events and simchahs, plus a concierge service for luxury tours. For Succos, I can do anything from setting up an elegant, spacious, and functional succah for you, to full-service concierge — a succah plus food, an in-house chef, and wait staff.

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some of our more creative succah requests

One client wanted a sleeping succah in addition to his regular succah — not just sleeping quarters, but a full, cozy bedroom with a sofa and dim lighting, Another client wanted several succahs: one for breakfast, another one for the rest of his meals, and an entirely separate succah for hosting. There was the time a client rented an apartment in Israel and the only place for a succah was on the roof. But that already had a pool on it, so we had to build a covering of Bil-Jax construction flooring and then construct a succah on top of that. And then there are always the waterfall requests — people like the soothing sound of the waterfall, and we place them in a lot of the succahs we build.

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when the calls start coming in

People start planning their Succos during the summer months, and I get calls from clients throughout Elul. They let me know their address and when they’re arriving, and I take it from there. My most popular service this time of year is setting up your succah, which includes chandeliers for the lighting, fresh bouquets of flowers, and linen tablecloths, plus the tables and chairs. Everyone wants something high-end, elegant, classy, but generally speaking, clients don’t have too many requests for how things should look — if someone is calling me, they trust my design.

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some intense Erev Yom Tov preparations

A client once called the night before Yom Tov that he didn’t like how his designer decorated his succah — it looked too playful and disoriented. This client had rented an apartment in the Old City with a massive balcony overlooking the Kosel plaza, and he wanted the whole succah redone before Yom Tov. I have a staff in Israel, and for this job, I hired two bochurim from Meah Shearim to help. We got there slightly past midnight to take the whole thing down — meaning we dismantled all the lighting and disassembled the panels — and by the time the crowds were arriving at the Kosel for vasikin, only the frame was standing. I started contacting furniture and lighting shops in the area for chandeliers and fabrics, and when I finally found someone who agreed to let us rent from them, I rented a car for the bochurim and sent them to his shop to pick them up. Meanwhile, I ran to a florist to arrange the bouquets. Getting through Jerusalem and the Old City on a regular day is hard — on Erev Yom Tov it’s nearly impossible — but we managed to pull it off. By 4 p.m., his succah was ready — fully lit and designed.

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the most creative mechanism I used to transport equipment

I once had to get a couch into a succah a few flights up. The owner of the equipment rental place told me there was no way we could transport it up the stairs. I told him that we’ll figure it out — and hired a crane to go outside the apartment. We got the couch onto a truck, drove to the apartment, and from there, the crane hoisted it up and slipped it exactly where we needed it to be.

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what it takes to get things done in this industry

My motto is “Stay poz with Oz” — stay positive, tell yourself that you can fulfill any request, wherever and however. Specifically in an industry when the clients are high net worth and expect excellence in every area, you have to be uber focused on overcoming any obstacle — to be a yes-person, not a naysayer. In this line of work, you get one call from a client that they want you to do a specific job, and the next time you speak, you should be calling them to let them know the job is done. It’s on you to work out the details and not let excuses get in the way. I’ve put together events like a Kerestir-inspired sheva brachos featuring fine Hungarian cuisine, a custom-built replica of Rav Shayala’s guesthouse, and Avrum Mordcha Schwartz crooning Rav Shayala ben Rav Moshe in the background. Another time, for a butterfly-themed simchah, we imported enormous cages filled with butterflies fluttering in them to serve as the mechitzah.

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how being creative means being able to trust and adjust

Two years ago, I was talking to someone about building his succah in Eretz Yisrael. We were going back and forth, he wanted something complex, and the price ended up becoming more expensive. When I sent him the proposal, he got all miffed about the price and started ignoring my calls: I had lost the job. Two days later, I got a phone call from someone in Israel saying they had a certain job but couldn’t figure out how to do it, and they wanted to know if I could take over for them. “No problem,” I said. The conversation started becoming complicated, back and forth, with a lot of questions. Finally, they said, “Let me just have the client reach out to you directly.” Lo and behold, guess who calls — the same guy who had backed out originally because I was too expensive! I told him, “Listen to me. I have no problem doing it. I just need you to commit. The second you commit, it’s done.” We got the job and executed it to perfection. And we found out that the other company they hired after they dropped me couldn’t figure out how to make it happen because it didn’t follow their usual outline, it didn’t fit their mold. In this business, there is no mold.

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some DIY hacks for a beautiful succah

The most important thing is to decide what kind of look you are aiming for: a rustic, outdoorsy vibe is going to involve very different props than elegant, classy décor, or a fun and playful theme. Once you have the look, Amazon is your best friend: There is lots of pretty cheap hanging décor and woven baskets that can help create the look you’re aiming for. Another good hack is that with flowers everything is about dimension —if you get a few different vases in a bunch of different heights, even if you put just one flower in each vase — it can create a beautiful tablescape. A stunning succah doesn’t have to be expensive, but you have to be willing to be creative.

The Man: 

Yossi Wechsler, Toms River, New Jersey

The Mission:

Succah posters

Behind the vibrant murals and gedolim visages that adorn the walls of succahs worldwide is Yossi Wechsler, whose product weaves succah decorating tradition with digital technology. Six years into the business, Yossi is learning which communities go for scenery versus personalities, who appreciates a poster that was created as a joke, and which eagled-eyed customers will call him out for unwarranted enhancements.

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what I do

I run sukkahposters.com, an online marketplace that creates, prints, and sells murals and posters for your succah.

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how I got into this

I dabbled in photography and videography as a teen, so much so that when I went to Eretz Yisrael to learn as a bochur in 2014, I took my hobby along and always carried my camera on me. I loved walking around Yerushalayim and shooting the charming street scenes there, including of course Meah Shearim and the Machaneh Yehudah shuk.

That summer, I was visiting a farm near the Gaza Envelope that had an esrog tree growing on it. My friend asked a Yerushalmi kid who was also there to hold on to an esrog and pose for a shot. When I got home, I played around with the photo on editing software and printed it for my family and some friends. I enjoyed seeing my art in their succahs, and a few years later, in 2018, I thought about making something bigger out of the concept. I bought a few images of Yerushalayim and landscapes and enhanced them to make them more vivid and ensure they’d print nicely. I ran an ad in a local Lakewood magazine, got about 100 orders, and realized this actually has potential.

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what we carry

We focus on two product lines. Our main product is scenic murals that can cover the entire wall of a succah, things like a view of the Kosel, an image of an alley in the Old City, a waterfall, even flower walls. Our second more recent line is gedolim posters, which we started three years ago. I worked with an artist to create renderings of different gedolim against a matching navy backdrop with a printed frame, and since then, we’ve started carrying other styles of gedolim posters. We also carry a lot of traditional succah posters, both as artwork and as murals, all in a waterproof, durable, 13-ounce vinyl.

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communal preferences

By and large, the chassidim purchase scenery designs — they want images of views from balconies, floral arrangements with curvy letters spelling different yehi ratzons and maamarei Chazal, and murals of sweeping natural scenes. Then there are the obvious ones: Satmar chassidim wouldn’t purchase a Kosel scene, and chassidim in general steer clear of our Israel-themed banners. Sephardim go for their chachamim, and the litvish usually choose their roshei yeshivah, which means that in Lakewood, we sell a lot of the leading talmidim of Rav Aharon Kotler. In Teaneck, posters of the Yeshiva University rabbanim like Rav Hershel Schachter, Rav Mordechai Willig, and Rav Moshe Weinberger are big sellers. Photos of Rav Chaim Kanievsky ztz”l, Rav Moshe Feinstein ztz”l, and Rav Ovadiah Yosef ztz”l sell well across the board, in all markets.

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surprise sellers

Last year, we created posters of two mega-popular Daf Yomi maggidei shiur: Rabbis Sruly Borenstein and Eli Stefansky. They both sold like wildfire. People bought them for their own succahs and as gifts for friends who listen to the shiurim.

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how I gauge what to carry each year

Every year, we cycle a few out, removing the not-so-popular ones and adding new options. I spend a lot of time on research and development throughout the year, keeping an eye out for emerging trends. For example, colorful pop art is gaining traction, and last year we started featuring gedolim posters from artist Anshie Kagan’s collection. It’s a very different take on the standard gadol poster, and his pieces are very popular. We also collaborate with other artists like Tova Sharjashuv, Moshe Milstein, and more, so we sell a variety of styles and types. In terms of subject material, Eretz Yisrael is at the forefront of our minds, more so than previous years, so I collaborated with artists and created more Israeli and achdus and IDF-themed posters.

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when I get started in the season

I start thinking about the new season after Shavuos, but real planning goes into high gear after Tishah B’Av. Orders start coming in on Rosh Chodesh Elul, and it picks up heavily after Tzom Gedalyah. From Motzaei Yom Kippur until a minute before Succos, it doesn’t stop. Every year, we get a few orders on Chol Hamoed from people who saw something they liked in a succah they visited the first days. Some people also show up to my house late Erev Succos. If I happen to have it in stock, I can sell it, but we carry such a variety, it’s just too much to have it all for these last-minute orders.

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my team

It’s me and two staff members who manage the operations and customer service, and we work with various print shops across the country to print our orders. My immediate family — parents, in-laws, siblings — all help with posting the ads and spreading the word. My oldest is six, so the kids don’t really help out yet, but one day….

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equipment I always have on me

I can run the entire business from my phone, and my most-used app is the calculator. People calling to order a mural that covers their wall usually give us measurements in feet, but all of our printers need specifications by inches, so I’m constantly using the calculator to convert feet to inches.

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the most rewarding aspect

“The mural changed my Yom Tov.” People send us photos and videos of their succahs, and it’s nice to see that we’ve had a hand in simchas Yom Tov. During Covid, a lot of people that go to Israel regularly for Succos ordered our full wall scenes to help them recreate that experience. That year, some people even asked if we could recreate the specific view from their apartment. We were able to do it for a bunch of them.

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the contrasts between my day job and this side hustle

In my day job, I’m a vice president at Kando Group, a national construction and preservation firm, and I’m in touch with C-level executives and hedge fund managers who are making multimillion-dollar decisions and dealing in very sophisticated transactions. Sukkah Posters brings in a side parnassah, which is nice, but I do it mainly for the thrill of being involved in retail level customer care — there is something strangely rewarding about going from complex transactions to the nitty gritty of shipping a box of posters out to Cleveland. I get a kick out of how Sukkah Posters customers quibble over a $25 poster and chat with us on the website how much the posters cost — despite the fact that our prices are easier to locate than the chat button is. I find that when it comes to ordering, the chassidim have a particular challenge because they often don’t have Internet and when they call in an order, they have to explain which nature scene they want, which can get confusing as they can be difficult to describe: “The one with the pink flowers. And the water.” Hmm. “We carry three: cherry blossoms, the orchard scene with a brook in the background, and the waterfall — which one?”

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the most underrated or overlooked part of this job

The planning is very tedious, and while choosing which photos to run is a lot of fun, the actual operation of ensuring that orders are being fulfilled and shipped requires you to be very efficient — there isn’t much room for error. Also, these days everyone looks at all online retail markets like Amazon and assume we cover the cost of shipping and can take returns (we even get return requests after Succos). That isn’t the case, and it can be challenging for clients to understand that.

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the best way to hang your poster

The most common and best way to hang a full-sized mural is with zip ties to the top beams of the succah, or poles if yours is canvas — basically, anything that can connect to the grommets. For the posters that are placed lower down, your everyday hanging tac should work. If your walls are fiberglass, I suggest 3M double-sided tape or Command strips.

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critique that was on point

Our gedolim posters are digital artistry, so they can be a conglomeration of photos and some computer-generated enhancements. A customer was once perusing and told me that it doesn’t make sense that we have a photo of a certain gadol smiling — he was a talmid of his, he said, and his rebbi never smiles. It turns out our artist maneuvered his lips a bit to make the photo nicer, but we lost out on the authenticity.

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orders from left field

Someone ordered posters for what he called the “achdus succah” — he chose gedolim that were known for having opposing stances and hung them next to each other in sets of two. And one year, when a strong storm knocked down succahs all over Lakewood, a bunch of people ordered wall-size murals to use as the walls themselves.

The Man 

Yosef Oelbaum, Lakewood, New Jersey

The Mission

Koishikel weaver

Since time immemorial, the “koishikel” — the palm-leaf woven ring that secures hadasim and aravos to the lulav — has been the product of choice to bundle these three minim together. While standard handwoven koishiklach are available at your local arba minim market, those looking to add hiddur to this item patronize Yosef Oelbaum, who has designed and produced some of the world’s most elaborate koishiklach. His clients include rebbes and well-heeled chassidim who utilize his wondrous creations over Succos before reverently placing them in their breakfronts for display — until the following Succos.

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how I got started

I worked at my neighbor’s arba minim store tying people’s lulavim when I was 12 years old. That’s where I started tinkering with the basic koishikel to see how it’s made, and it wasn’t long before I figured out how to make them myself. I’m the artsy type and I enjoy creative, constructive tasks, so after I mastered the basic design, I started experimenting more and more with the rings. I knew I didn’t want to produce the basic koishikel — those existed already and I wouldn’t be bringing a new item to market — so I decided to design a different style. I went on to create the crown ring, something I can sell as an add-on to the basic set. It took me an hour to make each one, and I sold them for $15 for a set of three. It became a super popular item in Los Angeles, where I grew up. Since then, I get leftover lulavim on Chol Hamoed or after Yom Tov, and I dry them out to create koishiklach.

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why koishiklach

Maseches Succah is my favorite masechta. The Mishnah in Succah has a discussion in the third perek about how the lulav should be tied together, an eged. Rabi Yehuda says the eged can be done only with the material of the arba minim, so as not to add another min to the bundle. But Rabi Meir says one can use another material, and he proves his position by stating that the anshei Yerushalayim would place their own lulavim in rings made of gold. The Mishnah refutes this proof, saying the gold was decorative only and didn’t actually function as a lulav holder. When I learned the Mishnah, I wondered, How did the golden rings look? What was placed underneath the golden rings that actually kept the lulav bundled together with the hadasim and aravos? The closest point of reference we have are the koishiklach and lulav rings. I was intrigued, and I started studying them more to see how they’re made.

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where I got my design inspiration

As a kid, we would get the Bechatzros Kodsheinu magazines, the ones filled with glossy photos of different rebbes. I was enamored of the koishiklach on the Rebbes’ lulavim, and I decided to try my hand at it. I started creating koishiklach with a basic weave, one stitch of the lulav leaf, and then I graduated to two by two (which is a finer weave), and then finally I managed to get three by three. Now, I take one leaf and split it into four, a very fine stitch that gives the texture a nice chevron pattern.

In 2014, when I was 18, I made a few sets of koishiklach featuring pomegranates and palm trees. I was in yeshivah in upstate New York, and the chassidishe cook there introduced me to some of his friends who lived nearby — Satmar chassidim in Kiryas Joel — who liked what they saw.

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something I quickly learned

You can’t work with fresh leaves. They have moisture in them, and as they dry, the leaves shrink to two-thirds their original size; any product made with fresh leaves will start to lose the tightness of the weave in a matter of days. The trick is to use very dry leaves, which allows the contraption to maintain its shape. The year after I had made my initial batch of rings, I started by going to lulav sellers before Succos and asking them for their pasul lulavim. I dismembered the leaves, bundled them, and laid them on the roof of my house to dry for several days. Then I turned them into rings, which stayed firm for the duration of Yom Tov.

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the numbers

I make 5-10 koishiklach a year, and each one takes approximately 30 hours. They start at $2,500 and go up from there. These days this is a side hobby; I take custom orders only.

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my most popular designs

Most of the koishiklach I make are crowns — nice, elegant designs, and people like them because the crown represents malchus. A pineapple design also works well, and I once made a palm tree design for a Satmar customer. Aside from being associated with Succos in general, the palm tree is used in the logo of the Satmar chassidus — the last name of the Rebbe, Teitelbaum, translates to date palm. That design is very ornate, but it didn’t catch on with other customers, who felt it was too elaborate. But sometimes even an enhanced koishikel isn’t elaborate enough. One customer ordered a crown and then called when I was in the middle of a job and asked for the dimensions. He wanted to have some silver casing over the koishikel, and he needed the measurements for the silver store so they could create these adornments for him.

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some of my orders from Rebbes

When I was learning in Eretz Yisrael as a bochur, I went to the famed Zupnik shuk and asked a Yershulami selling arba minim if I could use his space to sell my specialty rings and koishiklach. He was happy to give me the space as it brought lots of customers to his table, and I got a rent-free space out of it. I made a lot of sales that year, and my most prominent customer was the gabbai of the Shomrei Emunim Rebbe, Rabbi Avraham Chaim Roth, a brother-in-law of the late Toldos Aharon Rebbe. As a token of gratitude, the gabbai arranged for a special visit for a brachah from the Rebbe.

The Tosher Rebbe also uses a koishikel I created. His gabbai ordered one that has space for nine hadasim, as per the minhag in Tosh. Taking many hadasim is prevalent among many chassidim — the source is a shitas haRambam. Interestingly, in the mid-1850s, a coin from the Bar Kochva revolt was discovered depicting a lulav and a huge bundle of protruding leaves, which may be based on this shitah to bring many hadasim. Many actually mistake the depiction for an elaborate koishikel, when in truth it’s a bunch of hadasim.

When I was 16, I gave my grandfather, Rabbi Kuperman, an administrator in Lakewood’s Beth Medrash Govoha, a set of rings with a rounded crown similar to the logo of the yeshivah. He gave them to Rav Malkiel Kotler, who used them that Succos.

A lot of the rebbes have someone in-house who supplies them with a koishikel, and some of them have called me to share tips and techniques.

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when most orders come in

Chol Hamoed. People see someone in shul with a koishikel I made, and they call me as soon as Yom Tov is over to tell me they’d like one for next year.

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equipment I use

Aside from lulav leaves, I also use very sharp scissors (no particular brand) and bobby pins, which I’ve found to be the best clips. The leaves are extremely delicate, and bobby pins are small enough that they don’t get in the way.

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how long a koishikel lasts

Mine last for ten years — most can, actually. The problem is that people put the whole koishikel in the fridge at some point over Yom Tov to preserve the hadasim and aravos. The moisture in the fridge loosens the koishikel and it gets moldy from it, too. I make the koishikel and the tubes separately so the hadasim and aravos can be separated from the elaborate koishikel, and I instruct all my customers to store the hadasim and aravos in the fridge in the provided tubes and to air-dry the tubes after Yom tov. This way the actual holder never gets wet, and if the tubes get moldy, I replace them. Throughout the year, as long as you store them in a dry place, they should last. I ship my koishiklach in a Lucite box, because many of my customers display them in their breakfronts throughout the year.

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where standard koishiklach come from

Morocco, where local villagers weave palm leaves by hand to form the double basket most people use for their arba minim — they export them all over the world. The Moroccan woven koishikel is an adaptation of the Chinese finger trap, which tightens as it’s pulled outward; they essentially take two such traps and loop them together on the bottom. The problem is that these aren’t really designed with daled minim in mind, because hadasim and aravos branches aren’t the same size, and the Moroccan standard version doesn’t account for that. People end up having to squeeze three thick hadasim branches and two thin aravos into the same sized tubes, which simply doesn’t work. If the openings are small, the aravos go in fine but the hadasim have to be forced in, and that makes the leaves fall off. If you end up with bigger openings, the hadasim stay put but the aravos slip right through. My first venture into the koishikel business was when I started making koishiklach with bigger tubes on the right for the hadasim and smaller tubes on the left for the aravos — all of my koishiklach have three tubes with wide openings, and two tubes with narrow openings for this purpose.

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my day job

I work in the food industry and do food editing. I also make custom besamim holders from the leaves of a date tree.

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mass-producing ornate koishiklach

One arba minim importer took my samples to Morocco to try to get the villagers there to replicate my creations, but they couldn’t follow them — they were too elaborate, and these aren’t skilled laborers. Another fellow I met asked if he could take them to South Asia, where the labor is just as cheap but much more skilled than Morocco. I was happy for him to try, but that didn’t pan out either. India doesn’t have date palms like Morocco, so they didn’t have access to the material needed to produce these koishiklach, and importing lulav leaves wasn’t cost-effective anymore. Someone suggested that I make a tutorial. I may one day, but I want to make sure it’s a teachable skill before I do that.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1033)