South Dakota Rabbi celebrates Jewish festival of Sukkot

"This event has been celebrated since the Jews left Egypt thousand of years ago. Every single year, Jews around the world and Israel and in South Dakota dwell in this Sukkah," Rabbi Mendel Alperowitz with the Chabad Jewish Center of South Dakota said.

The Jewish festival of Sukkot began Wednesday and South Dakota's new rabbi is helping Jews in the state mark this important celebration.

For a full week, Jews around the world live in these temporary structures where everyone is welcome.

"It symbolizes the idea of world peace and our hopes and prayers that the entire world can enter a real untopian era where we can get along with each other and it really starts with us turning to our neighbor and each one doing what we could to make the world better tomorrow than it is today," Rabbi Alperowitz said.

The rabbi says these temporary booths also emphasize how we all rely on God's protection and commemorates God sheltering the Jewish people as they traveled from Egypt to the promised land.