When my Zaide (Grandfather) Leo was in the displaced persons camps in Germany after the Holocaust, he would often stand at the front of parades holding a flag as he was one of the biggest kids around.
I am named after my zaide and I too take pride in being a Jew. Of course, there are many things that were more difficult for him, but he taught my Dad, who then taught me, that you have to stand proud and loud.
I may have been angry at the start of the Nicolet sukkah issue, but by the end of the holiday, those feelings of frustration and disappointment turned into the pure joy that we should have on the Sukkot holiday by seeing the real success that we had this year. We turned the sourest lemons into the sweetest lemonade.
If you read the article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, it talks about me consulting with an attorney from my family. That attorney is my other grandfather, Papa Alan. He just happens to be one of the wisest men I know and a very good lawyer.
He explained to me that the issue about the separation of church and state was not being discussed correctly. It should have been an issue of reasonable accommodation, which has been talked about in many judicial rulings.
The fact that I could have a legal discussion with my grandfather and work with my parents on thinking about how to allow me and my friends to accommodate the law of eating in the sukkah during Sukkot was awesome. It brought the law class that I am taking this semester in high school to life.
Soon after I met with the Nicolet High School principal, a family friend was sitting at our Shabbos table and suggested that a friend of his might allow us to build a sukkah right next to the school.
Once the owner agreed, my friends and I focused completely on how to build a sukkah that could hold my friends and make it easy for them to get permission to leave campus.
In fact, I gave strict marching orders to everyone I knew, including my parents (well, my dad, who was starting to get a wee bit aggravated), that this would be a positive experience for everyone. We needed to make this fun and get people involved.
More than 15 Nicolet students and a few parents helped to build and decorate the sukkah. It was a lot of fun and we built a large and beautiful structure.
It was awesome to see students from all sorts of backgrounds participating in the construction. What was even better was that community members contributed funds to pay for delicious lunches for the students.
We were able to share in a big mitzvah and enjoy some great food at the same time. As Jews we come together over food and this really brought a whole bunch of us together as one.
The other big part of this story is the local and national attention that it brought onto the Milwaukee Jewish community. I was interviewed by the Journal Sentinel and a number of Jewish magazines.
I told each of the reporters that I did not want my name or information used if it was not going to be positive. My friends and I had a goal and we were not going to let meddling grownups mess it up for their own purposes. This was the story of Jewish students being proud of who they are.
I am not worried about other religious activities at the school as I welcome my classmates to take an active role in their religious lives. The more we see of each other’s practices the more comfortable we become with our differences. This actually helps to bring us all together in the long term.
In many ways this was like a second bat mitzvah for me. I was able to share the experience with my friends and work hard with my family and friends to make it happen.
Next year, I hope we will be able to build the sukkah on the Nicolet campus so that students do not have to get permission to leave during lunch. This was a little confusing and probably caused some students to not participate in this amazing event. We want this to be as simple and accessible as possible for any student to participate.
As a Jewish student, I realize that I will face challenges in the future. These include making up work when I take off for the holidays, finding kosher food on campus, and dealing with the anti-Semitism that seems to be gaining momentum at many colleges.
Being able to sit upright in a sukkah that my friends and I built gives me the confidence and experience to face any challenge that will come before me.
Leigh Bojan is a sophomore at Nicolet High School.
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