How do Jewish UvA students celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles?
With the Feast of Tabernacles, Jewish people commemorate the journey of the ancient Israelites through the desert in an open tabernacle hut or sukkah, overlooking the starry sky. For Jewish UvA students, such traditions mean a lot. And, “There's something intimate about standing together in an open hut.”
The Jewish Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) is an ancient tradition. Before the war, Amsterdam was full of sukkahs or huts of worship around this time, but nowadays they can almost only be found in private homes. Such is the case with Jewish UvA students. This week they are celebrating the feast that commemorates the seven-day journey of the people of Israel to the promised land of Canaan in a sukkah built of natural materials such as reeds and leaves. What does the Feast of Tabernacles mean to them?
Their own sukkah
UvA student Eve Kandiyoti (18) has fond memories of Sukkot. Every year at home in Brussels, where she grew up, her father built a sukkah in the garden. There, under the open thatched roof, plenty of food was enjoyed in the presence of family and friends, especially vegetables and fruits from the garden, Kandiyoti says, because Sukkot is traditionally a harvest festival. In ancient Israel, the grain was harvested around this time and stored for the coming winter season.
She still finds such traditions and customs enormously important. But now that she is in Amsterdam studying cultural anthropology and development sociology, she finds it impractical to go back to her parents in Belgium for every Jewish celebration. This is partly why last Intreeweek she searched diligently for a Jewish UvA study association to join, but had no luck. She was able to find only Muslim and Christian associations. “I feel that the Jewish community is somewhat underrepresented at UvA,” Kandiyoti said.
So she was all the more relieved when she met student rabbi and master's student in Middle East studies Yanki Jacobs. He, among other Jewish students, set up his own sukkah on the Zuidas this week. Kandiyoti is thrilled at the prospect of going there: “I'm expecting a home away from my own childhood home,” she says poetically.
Radiator against the cold
As a student rabbi working out of the student organization Chabad on Campus, Jacobs tries to make Jewish customs and traditions as accessible as possible to young adults, “so they can then decide for themselves what they want to do with it.” The Feast of Tabernacles is particularly well suited for that, he argues. “Whether you're in New York, Amsterdam, or Antwerp, there are sukkahs in people's homes or synagogues everywhere. It is a very tangible and evocative celebration.”
Still, he insists he does not want to impose feasts or customs on students: “We aren't on a mission.” After all, the level of commitment to Jewish traditions varies from person to person. Some Jewish students celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles once every few years, some not at all. More traditional people, on the other hand, celebrate it every year, says (recent graduate) UvA student Noam Brilleslijper (24).
The latter celebrates the feast at his parents' home. Every year they built a sukkah in the garden, complete with a radiator against the cold. Brilleslijper says: “It's quite an effort. You build a hut for one week and then immediately break it down again. So not everyone has one in their garden during Sukkot.” The result is that many people visit his parents' house. “That makes it a very social event. There's something intimate about standing together in an open hut.”
Relevant thinking
To make Jewish culture more visible in Amsterdam, three modern sukkahs have been set up in the former Jewish neighborhood this week as part of the scholarly art project “The Jewish City,” an initiative of the City of Amsterdam, the UvA, and the Jewish Cultural Quarter. “Great,” Brillesplijer says about the project, both for Jewish tourists, who can't celebrate the festival anywhere else, and for “the positive exposure to Jewish culture.”
Student Rabbi Jacobs is also pleased with the project, in which he was involved as an advisor. Jacobs says: “It is very important, especially for young people, that they realize that Judaism is much more than the dossier of anti-Semitism and Israel issues. Of course, anti-Semitism should not be trivialized. On the other hand, we should also emphasize that Judaism is a relevant way of thinking and a part of society with many substantive aspects.”
For example, “joy, connection” and unity” are central to the Feast of Tabernacles, he explains. “The idea is that we (the Jewish people, ed.) are only strong when we are together, with room for diversity. It is a certain awareness that we are not complete without each other.”
Phones are off
This happens deliberately in an open hut, “where you should be able to see the stars, so to speak,” and at the beginning of autumn, when it gets colder. “That's to emphasize that it has nothing to do with nice weather,” Jacobs says. “Because if it were nice weather, you feel more like you're just sitting in a gazebo.”
Phones are also off in the sukkah for the first two and last two days, and there is also a ban on work and a rest commandment. In that sense, it can be compared to “a kind of spiritual detox,” Jacobs said. “Just taking a break for a moment together.”
