Anti-Zionist Jewish Students Begin ‘Liberation Sukkah’ for a Planned Seven Days on Math Lawn

On Wednesday evening, a group of Columbia anti-Zionist Jewish students built a sukkah on Columbia’s Math Lawn for the Jewish holiday Sukkot.

Participant hangs a Palestinian flag from the "Liberation Sukkah."

Photography by Sophie Meritt/The Barnard Bulletin

By Sophie Meritt, Sunaya Mueller, and Jaya Shankar

On the evening of Wednesday, October 16, a group of anti-Zionist Jewish students established a “Liberation Sukkah” on Columbia’s campus on the Math Lawn outside Earl Hall. The structure celebrates Sukkot, a week-long Jewish holiday which began this evening, honoring the autumn harvest and historical Jewish displacement.

Just after 5 p.m., a small group of students assembled the sukkah, which consisted of a PVC pipe structure covered by tarps painted with slogans and lines of poetry, such as “Defend the world in which we win as if it were your child,” “I said I loved you and I wanted genocide to stop,” and "Nest under a flock of roofs that keep multiplying their shelter.” 

As the structure was assembled, participants—many in keffiyehs and kippahs—sang songs in English and Hebrew while a speaker from the group read out a list of community guidelines for the sukkah, including ones emphasizing that it is a “space of prayer” and that “everyone is welcome.” 

The Columbia chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) released a joint Instagram post urging students to “come join us as we set up and have our first Sukkot meal together!”

The organizers of the “Liberation Sukkah” plan to have meals, conduct teach-ins, and have “time with our community together” on the Columbia’s lawn until the end of Sukkot on October 23.

The building of this structure follows the Jewish tradition of celebrating Sukkot with the building of a sukkah, or a small temporary hut. “We build sukkahs to honor our ancestors who were wandering in the desert,” said a "Liberation Sukkah" press liaison. “To do that, and then ignore the displacement of Palestinians right now would be to render our prayers hollow.”

Photography by Sophia Arango/The Barnard Bulletin

According to one speaker during the sukkah’s programmed service, the “Liberation Sukkah” has the goals of “continuing to escalate, continuing to educate, and continuing to hold Palestine in our minds and actions.”

“We refuse to observe a holiday that revolves around shelter while turning our backs on the displacement, suffering, and death that our religion has been exploited to justify and our university profits from their indirect investments in weapons manufacturers,” read a distributed flyer.

The “Liberation Sukkah” comes less than two months after Columbia University released revised Rules of University Conduct on August 23, prohibiting camping and encampments on Columbia’s campus. Protests on campus, according to the guidelines, “may not claim exclusive use or substantially inhibit the primary purposes of a given University space or facility for an extended period of time without prior authorization.”

However, it is currently unclear as to if and how the conduct guidelines may apply to the “Liberation Sukkah.” Organizers emphasized that the structure "is not an encampment," with one press liaison saying, “This is a religious structure to commemorate a religious holiday with no demands.”

The rules of conduct were modified after the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on Columbia’s Butler Lawns in Spring of 2024, organized by a coalition of pro-Palestinian student groups. Many of the student protestors, including Columbia JVP members, were arrested by the NYPD on April 19 and April 30. Some Columbia and Barnard protestors were evicted or suspended.

“We hope that the administration does not take issue with Jewish students practicing their faith in a way that aligns with their moral and political convictions, but we can not say for sure,” the press liaisons said.

Photography by Sophia Arango/The Barnard Bulletin

Other Columbia Jewish groups also began separate Sukkot celebrations today. On Tuesday, October 15, Ian Rottenburg, the Dean of Columbia Religious Life, announced four Sukkot observations hosted by Barnard, Columbia Hillel, and Columbia Chabad. 

“We established this sukkah because we have not been welcome in Jewish spaces,” said the “Liberation Sukkah” press liaisons. “All are welcome. This is a holiday about welcoming the stranger.”