Universities Raze Jewish Students' Gaza Solidarity Sukkahs

[cbabe]

https://www.commondreams.org/news/jewish-students-protest

Universities Raze Jewish Students' Gaza Solidarity Sukkahs

"I think it's despicable, cowardly, and highly hypocritical—after all the U.W. administration's efforts to supposedly address antisemitism on campus... just to tear down our sukkah?" said one student.

BRETT WILKINS
Oct 22, 2024

Some U.S. universities have torn down solidarity sukkahs that Jewish students opposed to Israel's war on Palestinians have built in recent days to honor the Sukkot holiday and to "protest as the Israeli military continues to invoke the Jewish tradition as fuel for the destruction of Gaza."

Sukkahs are temporary booths erected for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, an eight-day celebration of the fall harvest and the ancient Israelites' escape from slavery in Egypt.

To honor the holiday, students from Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and other Jewish-led organizations constructed Gaza solidarity sukkahs on campuses including Northwestern University; University of Chicago; Brown University; Columbia University; University of Washington; University of California, Berkeley; Stanford University; Yale University; University of North Carolina; University of California, Los Angeles; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Rutgers University; University of California, San Diego; and other schools.

"For the past year, we have witnessed the Israeli government, the U.S. government, and even administrators at our university distort our thousands of years-old Jewish tradition to justify genocide," University of Washington student Talia Braester said in a statement.

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[Mosby]

1. All the Sukkahs I've seen on campuses are just props

They aren't "kosher" so to speak, and they clearly didn't have permission to erect some sort of structure on Uni property.

[cbabe]

2. Props like a Christian crche scene? Also

please explain what kosher has to do with this?

And why the controversy now if the display had taken place in previous years?

Thanks for clarifying.

[Mosby]

3. The sukkah structure has to conform to halacha (Jewish law)

Here's a summary:

1. According to Bet Shammai, the sukkah must be large enough to contain a man’s head, most of his body, and his table

2. The walls of the sukkah may be made of any material, but must be sturdy enough to withstand an ordinary wind (Code of Jewish Law, Orach Chayim 630: 10).

3. It is meritorious to start building the sukkah immediately after Yom Kippur, even if it is Friday, because a chance to perform a precept should not be put off. One should choose for it a clean site. Everyone should build the sukkah,even if one is an eminent person (Code of Jewish Law, Condensed Version, Chapter 134).

4. There are many different opinions regarding the roofing of the sukkah. However, since we generally cover it with the branches of trees, or with reeds, which are detached products of the soil and not subject to defilement and are not tied together, there is no cause for scruples (Code of Jewish Law, Condensed Version, Chapter 134).

5. Enough boughs should be placed upon the sukkah so as to have more shade than sun. If it has more sun than shade, it is invalid. It is therefore necessary to put on enough branches, so that even if they should dry up, there would still be more shade than sun (Code of Jewish Law, Condensed Version, Chapter 134).

6. A sukkah that is erected underneath the branches of a tree is invalid. Even if the branches by themselves would provide more sun than shade, and the sukkah has been adjusted by means of putting there on extra branches, it is, nevertheless, invalid (Code of Jewish Law, Condensed Version, Chapter 134).

7. The obligation may be fulfilled with a borrowed sukkah but not with one that is stolen. Hence, a sukkah may not be erected on a public place. In an emergency, however, when one has no other sukkah available, one may sit in such a sukkah and say the prescribed benediction (Code of Jewish Law, Condensed Version, Chapter 134).

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All the JVP sukkahs I've seen on campuses lack a proper roof made from detached branches. The one at Columbia was built under a tree. None of them on public property are valid even if they were constructed properly. It's all just cos play.

[cbabe]

5. Thanks for the education.

[stopdiggin]

4. clearly allowing the building of 'structures'

(whether temporary or permanent, with the definition there almost certainly a cause of debate)
without permission, is opening the institution up to problems. Next thing - tent city for XYZ cause/movement ...