A canopy of peace

Shared Home Sukkah project to be held after organizer killed on Oct. 7

Coexistence effort encourages Israelis of all stripes to meet in sukkah huts around the country to engage in real dialogue over the holiday period

Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center

From the October 23 Shared Home Sukkah project, being held again during Sukkot 2024, in order to encourage a sense of shared society in Israel (Courtesy)
From the October 23 Shared Home Sukkah project, being held again during Sukkot 2024, in order to encourage a sense of shared society in Israel (Courtesy)

Organizers will hold the Shared Home Sukkah coexistence project over the upcoming Sukkot holiday, even as one of its founders was murdered in the October 7 Hamas terror assault on the final day of last year’s inaugural event.

Known as The Shared Home Sukkah, the event — the second one of its kind — is a project of the Safeguarding Our Shared Home organization, Project 929 and other organizations of various political and religious stripes, calling on Israelis to open their sukkah huts to guests and hold meaningful conversations about the issues that occupy them.

The event was first held last October, during the holiday of Sukkot, organized by the protest group Safeguarding Our Shared Home with Project 929, an Israeli Bible study initiative that aims to engage people across the spectrum in a shared Jewish activity.

This year, the Shared Home Sukkah event is dedicated to the memories of Moshe Ohayon, the former CEO of Project 929, and his son Eliad Ohayon, both murdered in Ofakim during the October 7 Hamas assault on southern Israel last year.

Moshe Ohayon was one of the leading forces behind the Sukkot project, and last year held a learning session in his Ofakim sukkah.

His wife, Sarit Ohayon, said that her husband paired people from opposite sides of Israeli society and she planned on continuing his legacy this year.

Moshe and Eliad Ohayon (courtesy)

Last year, the project took place in 250 sukkah dwellings across the country with thousands of participants.

“Our goal is to bring different people with different thoughts under one roof — or in our case, under one s’chach,” said Eyal Gur, one of the leaders of Safeguarding our Shared Home, referring to the traditional frond canopy used to cover the temporary booths that are erected during the holiday.

“The sukkah symbolizes for us the ability to step out of our comfort zone, open up to other opinions, and build a shared home for all of us together,” he said.

Rabbi Benny Lau, head of Project 929, called upon Israelis to expand their hearts a little, along with the boundaries of the sukkah, opening it to those who are not part of their household.

The project, which is free and open to the general public, requires pre-registration on the Shared Home Sukkah website. The website includes an interactive map of registered sukkot across the country.

Families and organizations can register to host or be hosted in a sukkah, and planned gatherings include a sukkah in the Ofakim hosting city residents and kibbutz members, a sukkah in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square with secular and religious Israelis, and a sukkah in Haifa with evacuated families from the north.

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