Middlesex University spreads a tabernacle of peace with campus Succot event

“It embodies the mission and what we plan to this year.”

Luana Lissner, president of Middlesex J-Soc, said, “This is the largest event we’ve done.”

Noting the tradition of inviting guests into the succah, she added: “Succot is the best festival to welcome people from different cultures and backgrounds.”

A final year psychology and neuroscience student, she comes from Curitiba in Brazil. When she came to London, the experience of being in such a large Jewish community had been “a bit of a shock at first, but I found myself here – part of myself that was hidden away.”

Edgware and Hendon Reform Synagogue's Rabbi Mark Goldsmith hosting a discussion (photo: Yiwa Lau)[Missing Credit]

It could be hard to find Jewish students to be part of the campus Jewish community, she acknowledged. As Hendon was such is a big Jewish area, she explained, “a lot of students have their own friends | and just want to come here and get their degrees and go home”.

But she added, “regardless of how many Jewish students there are, if there is just one student who wants to come hwew if they need something, it makes it worth it.”

Her own commitment is obvious from the fact that this is her second year as J-Soc president.

Lulav-waving: Banent Multi-Faith Forum president Esmond Rosen shows how it's done (photo: Yiwa Lau)[Missing Credit]

Councillor Zahra Beg, who earlier this year became the first Muslim Mayor of Barnet, succeeding Rabbi Danny Rich, said it was “a deeply special moment for me” to attend the event.

Stressing the importance of hospitality, charity and caring for neighbours in both Judaism and Islam, she said the council had been holding roundtables for Jewish and for Muslim residents to air their concerns but now aimed to hold a joint event.

It was, she said, “the best way to build a sanctuary of peace and unity together in the whole of the borough”.