With help from Rabbi Paula Winnig (Rodef Sholom), graduate students Kyle Willis and Anne Vallas, and Dr. Adam L. Fuller, we set up our Sukkah on DeBartolo Plaza. We extend our deepest gratitude to Sarah Lown and Randi Partika for providing us with such lush and fragrant schach (the branches on top).

The Sukkah will remain on DeBartolo Plaza until Thursday, September 30. It’s full of informational posters which teach about the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. This year, the holiday is from Monday evening, September 20th through Wednesday night, September 29th. (The final day is also the holiday of Simchat Torah, when Jews traditionally celebrate completing the annual cycle of reading the Five Books of Moses in synagogue.)

Each fall, Jews traditionally erect a temporary dwellings called a Sukkah (literally “booth”) in preparation for the Festival of Booths, Sukkot. Families eat festive meals in the Sukkah. Some even sleep in them. The holiday and the Sukkah itself commemorate the biblical tale of how ancient Israelites wandered through the desert for forty years before entering the promise land of Canaan. It also recalls the fall harvest—when Israelites constructed temporary shelters in their fields—and then set out on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem with their offerings.