At first glance, the sukkah built for Sukkot 2025 at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem looked entirely ordinary. The sukkah, a temporary hut built during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, symbolizes both fragility and faith. Folding tables, white chairs, golden ornaments and colorful paper chains hung from its roof of branches. Yet as the sun rose through the cypress trees, something different unfolded beneath the makeshift canopy, before a captivated audience of children and parents. In the midst of Sukkot, Zionism was reborn.
Children sat cross-legged on a wide mat, unaware that inside this unusual sukkah they would hear stories of Israel’s founding. Stories that strayed into a holiday tent but found their home on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. And there, even a temporary hut became a vessel of history – if you will it, it is no dream.
Asphalt Theater at Mount Herzl
On a small improvised stage, three actors from “Asphalt Theater,” a well-known Israeli performance ensemble, brought history to life. Within minutes, the lively sukkah turned into a stage for the Hebrew story. Between plough and kettle, coop and cabin, flew words and images of the pioneering generation. Through songs and comic tales, children discovered – perhaps for the first time – how Israel was born of love, vision, and the stubbornness of those called pioneers.
The performance at Mount Herzl began in 1882, evoking the early settlements, watchtowers, “wall and tower” outposts, and kibbutz plans. The actors climbed atop one another, built makeshift towers, and filled the space with laughter that swept the children along. Amid the bustling imagery of building, struggle and faith, suddenly came the voice of David Ben-Gurion:
“We hereby declare the establishment of the State of Israel!”
The children applauded as though Israel had just been born anew – inside a fragile sukkah on the soil of Mount Herzl.
(Outrage during record Jewish visits on Temple Mount)
From Sukkot Tradition to Zionist Journey
At the end, everyone entered the sukkah – parents, children, actors – sat around tables, ate, spoke, and continued, almost without noticing, the ancient tradition of sitting in a sukkah: a place where people step out of permanence and into the essence of time.
Between simple cloth walls, it became clear that simplicity itself allows a bridge between the days of Moses and Sukkot, and the modern Zionist story. Both are journeys of wandering, faith, and building. Perhaps every sukkah is, in its way, a Zionist sukkah. Each branch roof is a reminder of the path the Jewish people have traveled – from Exodus to aliyah waves, from Sinai desert to Herzl and to Jerusalem. And at Mount Herzl in 2025, even if the sukkah decorations were not flags or maps, its content was pure Zionism – alive, humorous, emotional, and full of meaning. The message seemed to sink in: it does not matter where you build your sukkah, nor what you hang upon it. If there is faith, past and future, the sukkah already stands firm at the heart of the nation.
