Students at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York (CUNY) and the State University of New York at Albany (SUNYA) have erected succahs on their campus grounds in celebration of Succoth the Festival of the Tabernacles, which ends at sundown next Friday. Two succahs were built on the Brooklyn College campus in order to accommodate the Jewish students, a large percentage of them Orthodox. The Jewish Cultural Institute, under the leadership of Mr. Elly Rosen, in cooperation with the Minyan Club of Brooklyn College, an Orthodox student organization, arranged for and supervised the building of the two wooden structures. The succahs were open to members of the student body, faculty and administration to experience the traditional blessing of the lulav and essrog and participate in a Succoth program which began last Wednesday. The succah of the SUNYA campus was built by members of the B’nai B’rith Hillel Society under the guidance of Mr. Howard Picker, an instructor at the Free University of Judaica. The students here held a Succoth service and many slept in the succah. Even before the holidays began, the succah became a popular place for students to visit and meditate. “Hip” students, who normally evidence little interest in religion, were highly intrigued by the Jewish symbol that embodies many of their ideals. The succah commemorates the 40 year period of wandering in the desert by the Israelites after the Exodus from Egypt.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.