Posted to Chabad News on

Chabad Organization Donates Sukkah for OWS

JTA

A ‘Pop Up’ Sukkah was erected in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York.

The sukkah, which was built Wednesday at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, was sponsored by Occupy Judaism NYC, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, Kolot Chayeinu and CBST.

No permit was obtained to build the sukkah and, according to the Facebook Event page, there is a strongly enforced rule against building structures in Zuccotti Park.

“We chose to erect and occupy our sukkah here at Zuccotti Park,“ Dan Sieradski, the organizer of Occupy Judaism NYC, wrote in a statement. ”There is no better place to celebrate the festival of Sukkot this year than right here at Occupy Wall Street. We stand in solidarity with all those who are challenging the inequitable distribution of resources in our country, who dare to dream of a more just and compassionate society.”

The sukkah was donated apolitically by PopUpSukkah, a Chabad organization.

Six other Occupy protests across the country — in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Atlanta, Oakland and Los Angeles — have plans to build sukkahs at the demonstrations.

Last week, Occupy Judaism NYC organized a Kol Nidre service that was performed in solidarity with the protesters across from Zuccotti Park. Demonstrators have been protesting what they see as economic disparity in the United States for nearly four weeks.

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26 Comments

  • yaakov 613

    Those people are anarchists. Chabad should not associate with them mitzvah or not.

  • Sukka Gezula

    This cannot be a kosher sukkah as the city does not allow it. A sukkah must be on a site where there is permission granted to have it there

  • cm

    It’s good to have jews do mitzvot. But solidarity with these idiots??? and to advertize it???

  • nechama

    I think you need to differentiate between chabad donating a sukkah as an expression of solidarity versus other organizations. As a chabadnik, I certainly don’t empathize with these protesters and while chabad can put up a sukkah nobody can, in the name of chabad, agree with their ideas of socialism and communism.

  • disappointed

    while the idea of the Sukkah is good the reasons & organizations behind the movement just mixed you in to the politics & is actually a chillul Shem Lubavitch being involved with organizations & a movement which support anti semitism & marxism etc. It would have been more than enough to quietly deliver 7 set up the sukkahs. Nice going!

  • history repeats itself

    the occupy wall street protesters are protesting against jews. see videos of them harrassing people in yarmulkas. this is like supporting hitlers ymsmo brown shirts, stay away.

  • Moishele

    Pop Up Sukkah is not a Chabad organization. It’s simply owned by a Lubavitcher. Nice try, JTA. I’d like to see someone find Pop Up Sukkah listed on Chabad.org as a Chabad House.

    It’s like calling a sale at Empire Kosher “a Chabad organized reduction on the price of chicken”.

  • Milhouse

    Zuccotti Park is private property, and the occupiers are there without the owners’ permission. Thus the sukkah is possul.

  • Anon

    You guys have no clue what the movement is about. It’s like everything outside of CH is anti-Semitic so long as someone says it is.

    I’ve been to OWS and saw nothing that was anti-Semitic. People have every right to stand up for themselves against corporate and government greed.

  • Anon

    Another thing, if so many of you are against socialism, then give up your Medicaid, food stamps and government money supporting the Vaad and Shomrim. Gov’t benefit maps show CH is a big user of these benefits.

  • get your facts straight

    ITS OK TO VISIT MURDERS AND RAPIST IN JAIL, TO FEED THEM, TO CONSOLE THEM?! BUT A SIMPLE SUKKAH IS NOT???!!!

  • misinformed

    shows how misinformed ppl in this community are concerning politics….its ok to take the millions of dollars in benefits from food stamps to medicaid…but not ok to exercise free speech…
    all those on here saying there are many anti samites…ive been to ows many times over the last two weeks and dint see anything anti semitic/racist…just watch the tea party..they are hardcore racist…no one on here is saying didly about them and their actions…

  • Informed

    #13 – #16 – There is plenty of documentary evidence already posted on the web clearly demonstrating the marked presence of anti-Semites and Israel bashers taking part in and supporting OWS. Statements, signage, chants and rants are filled with Jew hating rhetoric. Here’s just one example:

    Interviewer: “Name and affiliation?”

    Occupy Los Angeles protester: “Patricia McAllister, I’m here representing myself but I do work for the Los Angeles Unified School District. I think that the Zionist Jews who are running these big banks and our Federal Reserve — which is not run by the federal government — they need to be run out of this country.”

  • to #17

    so this one person represents the whole? illogical!

    A)who is the interviewer? a murdoch owned no doubt
    B)you should have seen the tea party signs..

  • 2#17

    the tea party is inherently a racist movement. but the second an anti Semitic flag goes up, its time to close shop?
    double standered…

  • #15!!!!

    %15 you make a great point,100% right!
    and #17, you ask for reference, yet you do not list your source.

  • toul

    btw anon is right. i have already been a number of times and spoken to a number of people. two of whom were jews – maybe get some guys down there on mivtzoim would be the best way of responding to this article!

  • AA

    To #20: how about some proof that “the tea party is inherently a racist movement”? Some pictures, some documentary evidence? Or is your definition of “racist” – “something that I don’t like”?

  • AA

    Come to think of it, #20, right now the tea party is supporting Herman Cain – a Black man – for president. Therefore, it follows that if you oppose them (and him), you too are a racist.

  • Milhouse

    #16, #18, #20 (who are no doubt the same person) you are a damned LIAR. There is no racism at all in the TEA Party movement. None. How dare you slander the hundreds of thousands of people who participate in this wonderful movement, reflecting the values on which America was founded, by calling them racists?

    #15, those murderers and rapists are in jail, being punished. They’re not out committing their crimes. If someone would go to them during their crimes and encourage them, he would be guilty as an accomplice. Anyone who encourages these people is a partner in their cause, which is outright communism r”l.

    #14, OWS stands for nothing BUT greed. The violent rhetoric and threats against innocent businessmen are shocking. Business is the only source of wealth in this country, and these people want to STEAL that wealth by force. The issur on gezeila is one of the 7 mitzvos bnei noach.

  • Milhouse

    Here is the truth about OWS: “Almost every organization present at OWS is explicitly communist or socialist. Almost every piece of literature being handed out is explicitly communist or socialist. I don’t mean half, and I don’t mean the overwhelming majority — I mean almost all of it […] It’s been a long time since I saw anybody peddling books by Lenin. It’s been a long time since anybody told me the Ukrainians had it coming.”
    http://www.nationalreview.c…