Sukkah tent near RMC celebrates Jewish holiday

By Jeremy Huang     9/30/13 7:00pm

Last week, passers-by might have noticed a white tent standing in the Central Quad near the Rice Memorial Center. This structure, called a Sukkah, stood at Rice from Sept. 18 to 25 to observe the Jewish holiday Sukkot, according to Duncan College sophomore Hannah Abrams.

Abrams said that inside the tent, members of Rice's Jewish community came together to celebrate. She said a highlight of the experience was the free homemade lunches provided by Houston Hillel, a local branch of the international Jewish campus organization Hillel. 

Abrams said, however, that the history behind Sukkot reaches far beyond food and rejoicing.

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"Sukkot is the Jewish harvest holiday," Abrams said. "Jews spend the week living primarily outdoors, in the kind of booths the Jews had while they were wandering in the desert for 40 years, in order to remember

the exodus."

According to Abrams, the background of Sukkot instills a deep tradition in today's commemoration of the holiday, and there are procedures that must be followed dutifully in erecting the Sukkah.

"It's constructed according to biblical and rabbinic laws," Abrams said.

Duncan College freshman Sydney Vigran said the shelter holds a close tie to its environment in homage to the lands upon which modern Jews' ancestors

once roamed.

"[Sukkahs] have three sides, and we are commanded to dwell in them," Vigran said. "The roof is typically things that are grown in the ground and can be seen through."

According to Rabbi Kenny Weiss of Houston Hillel, the tradition of raising a Sukkah - and Jewish tradition in general - goes a long way back at Rice.

"Rice has had a pretty continuous Jewish club presence since the first year Rice opened," Weiss said. "I'd guess that Jewish students have built [Sukkahs] on campus since the 1970s, if not

earlier."

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