Worldwide Events Make Fall Holiday a Public Affair

For the first time in its long, storied history, Rome’s Jewish community is taking the fall holiday of Sukkot to the streets by erecting a temporary dwelling known as a sukkah at a public piazza in the heart of the Italian capital.

Rabbi Yitzchak Hazan, who moved to Rome some 30 years ago to open the city’s first Chabad-Lubavitch center, is constructing the dwelling – a biblically-commanded remembrance of the huts used by the Jewish people thousands of years ago during their trek through the desert – in the heart of the Piazza Farnese, just meters from the French Embassy and a stone’s throw from the Coliseum. Municipal officials and Israeli diplomats will help inaugurate the structure during a ceremony on Monday.

According to Hazan, small community sukkahs have for years been built in the courtyards of Rome’s synagogues, but the construction represents the first time that a large public gathering will be able to take place in one. Many people follow the custom of doing all of their eating and drinking in a sukkah during the week-long holiday of Sukkot, which this year begins Friday night.

When the rabbi applied for permission to erect the structure, he was pleasantly surprised when the city not only approved of the plans, but offered to pay for its costs as a show of support to Rome’s Jewish community. Hazan contrasted the warm reception to reactions 22 years ago when he presided over the city’s first public Chanukah menorah lighting.

“Back then, people were scared. There was simply no such thing as being that Jewish, that publicly,” explained Hazan. “But now, people have courage. This is one of the ways the community has grown. Everyone is simply excited and looking forward to Sukkot.”

Article continued at Chabad.org – Students and Soldiers