Courtesy of Jason Rubenstein

The Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale celebrated Sukkot this year with the construction of a new sukkah, under which undergraduates, graduate students and professors have enjoyed eating their meals, sleeping overnight and even attending classes. 

The sukkah, an open-air structure built from natural materials, was constructed using a winning entry from a design competition. The structure is central to the celebration of Sukkot, the autumnal holiday that, in Jewish tradition, commemorates the sheltering of the Israelites after the Exodus from Egypt. Per Sukkot tradition, the sukkah only stays up in the Slifka Center for the duration of holiday, which takes place between Sept. 29 and Oct. 6 this year.

“On Sukkot, there’s a commandment to rejoice and be happy, and the Slifka Center really accomplished that this year with their sukkah,” Mira Dubler-Furman ’27, who attended Slifka’s Sukkot Shabbat dinner last Friday, said.

According to Aviva Green, the Center’s director of Jewish student life, this year’s winning sukkah was designed by a team of three New York- and Tel Aviv-based architects: Aliel Kaye, Stav Dror and Liad Sandmann. For this contest, artists and architects submitted potential designs and a panel of judges selected the winning entry.

Green added that the idea for the contest arose from the success of the Blanksteen Artist in Residence program at the Slifka Center. This initiative, which funds a selected artist to create a piece in collaboration with students, was introduced last year.  

“While considering how we should improve upon our sukkah for this year, the idea came up to use the model of the artist residency to solicit designs for an innovative and beautiful sukkah,” Green wrote to the News. “We wanted to lean into the architectural and design elements of a sukkah, and so we thought that an artist/architect would be the perfect person to do so.”

According to Green, the winning sukkah was selected for its creation of “a warm and inviting atmosphere” through the abundance of natural light, the fluidity of the modular elements and its unique roof.

The design, Green added, highlights important themes of the holiday — “openness, tradition, the inversion of the ephemeral and permanent and the harvest.” 

But Slifka’s Sukkah is not just an artistic installation. Throughout the week, the space has hosted a plethora of gatherings, ranging from meals, to classes, to sleeping under the sukkah.

“The Slifka Sukkah has really turned into a home,” Eytan Israel ’26, a student leader of the Modern Orthodox Jewish Community at Yale, said. 

Rabbi Jason Rubenstein, the Jewish chaplain at Yale, added that the sukkah has also been a place for practicing the ritual of the four species, where palm branch, myrtle, willow and citron, are shaken in unison in every direction in order to experience and celebrate the natural world with all the senses. 

According to professor Maya Benton, who is currently on leave, the Sukkah has historically had a role in pushing the boundaries of Jewish visual art. 

“Historically speaking, the sukkah has always been a place where the Jewish people could experiment artistically, because when you have a temporary architectural space, you’re not worried it could get torn down, or about the literal legal restrictions that were historically imposed on the construction of synagogues in various places,” Benton told the News.

The new sukkah at Slifka will be dismantled, stored and then put back together in coming years by Slifka staff and students. 

The Slifka Center’s building at 80 Wall St. was designed by the New Haven architecture firm Roth & Moore Architects. 

NORA MOSES
Nora Moses covers Student Life for the News. She is a sophomore in Davenport College.