On Wednesday evening, members of Jews for Ceasefire Now erected a “Gaza Solidarity Sukkah” on the Quiet Green to mark the week-long holiday of Sukkot, one of the Jewish High Holy Days.
A sukkah is a temporary structure built by Jewish communities during Sukkot to engage in holiday rituals, which can include eating meals and spending the night. JCFN, a pro-divestment student activist organization, received approval from the Office of Chaplains and Religious Life to set up the sukkah, according to the group’s co-president Lily Gardner ’26.
Students plan to sleep in the 16-by-16 foot sukkah throughout the eight days of the holiday. Not all students will spend all the eight days in the installation, and they expect others to join throughout the week.
The group’s members drew a connection between the Sukkot holiday, which commemorates the biblical story of the Israelites fleeing Egypt, and the mass displacement of civilians in the ongoing wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
An estimated 90% of Gaza’s population, which amounts to approximately 1.9 million Palestinians, have been internally displaced since the Israel-Hamas war began, according to the BBC and the United Nations. ABC News reported that nearly 25% of Lebanon’s population, or 1.2 million people, have been displaced due to Israeli military action in the country.
For Rafi Ash ’26, a member of JFCN, the sukkah represents “an open space” to process both joy and grief in observance with the holiday. He added that the sukkah also demonstrates the group’s resolve to continue their divestment campaign after the Corporation’s decision last week not to divest from companies with ties to the Israeli military.
JFCN was formed last year to call on the University to divest from Israel and publicly call for a ceasefire. Twenty members of their organization were arrested on trespassing charges during a sit-in in a University building to push for divestment. The group was also involved with other pro-divestment demonstrations, including a hunger strike and encampment.
“It is important to take up space on this campus and show that the undemocratic Corporation will not silence the student movement,” Ash said. “We want to show the Corporation that as they arrive on campus, they are working against the student body.”
“We will stay visible,” Ash added.
The Corporation’s decision against divestment, following a University advisory committee’s concurring recommendation, “resulted from a process that was deliberate, inclusive, fair and participatory,” University Spokesperson Brian Clark previously wrote to The Herald.
An analysis by Brown’s Advisory Committee on University Resources Management found that less than 1% of the University’s endowment was invested in the companies identified by pro-divestment activists as having ties to the Israeli military. As of June last year, 1% of the endowment was equivalent to $66 million.
Gardner came prepared to spend the night at the sukkah, showing up with blankets, wool socks and layered clothing. “I learned from last spring when I was sleeping on the Main Green (in the encampment), and I was quite cold,” she said.
Samantha Bloom ’25, who helped create the art displayed on the sukkah’s walls, incorporated “symbols of Palestinian identity and resistance” into her work, including an olive tree and the pattern of a keffiyeh, a traditional Palestinian headscarf.
Bloom emphasized her gratitude for the JFCN community, describing it as “healing and beautiful.”
Throughout Sukkot, the group plans to host religious programming, including prayer, song and poetry, Gardner said. They also plan to host joint events with other groups on campus, including the Brown Divest Coalition and housing access organizations.
Ciara Meyer is a Senior Staff Writer covering the Beyond Brown beat. She is from Saratoga Springs, New York and plans on concentrating in Statistics and English nonfiction. In her free time, she loves scrapbooking and building lego flowers.
Sophia Wotman is a Senior Staff Writer covering the Affinity & Activism beat under University News. She is a junior from Long Island, New York concentrating in Political Science with a focus on women’s rights. She is a jazz trumpet player, and you’ll often find her performing on campus and around Providence.
