In the Face of the United Nations

Chabad has once again built a Sukkah in front of the United Nations building in New York City, urging Jewish diplomats and passersby to do a Mitzvah – a good deed.

“This little Sukkah is our answer to all the lies and disgraceful talk that is being said across the street,” commented Rabbi Shmuel Butman, the initiator of the Sukkah and Executive Director of Lubavitch Youth Organization.

Throughout the days of the Sukkos holiday, hundreds visited the “International Sukkah” to say a blessing and shake the Lulav and Esrog.

Members of the diplomatic corps and Jewish community leaders attended a reception in the Sukkah that was held during one of the days of Chol Hamoed.

Israel’s Consul General in New York Ido Aharoni and his staff, JCRC head Michael Miller and other Jewish and city officials were welcomed by Chabad.

“We are facing the place where Holocaust denial is sounded without interruption, where the Jewish people in Israel’s right to exist is constantly being challenged,” Rabbi Butman noted.

He told his guests about the other Sukkahs that Chabad built on 6th Avenue and 32nd Street, on Wall Street and in Battery Park.

Thousands of Jews regularly use these Sukkahs for lunch during the business day, a snack while touring the city or take out dinner from nearby kosher restaurants.

“Good deeds like these are the way we, the Jewish people, push away the dire darkness that we find in the world,” Rabbi Butman said, quoting the Rebbe.

Thousands more Jews had the opportunity to shake the Lulav as well, thanks to dedicated Yeshiva bochurim and Crown Heights residents in a well orchestrated campaign led by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Butman.