MANHATTAN, Kan. — Authorities are investigating the vandalism of a temporary dwelling erected outside a Kansas State University residential complex for the Jewish harvest festival Sukkot.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the sukkah was found late Friday wrapped around the car of graduate student Glen Buickerood, damaging the vehicle. Buickerood, who doesn’t identify as Jewish, had collaborated with the Jewish student group Hillel to put up the sukkah to promote diversity.
Buickerood said in an email to university officials that he distributed posters and hung one on the sukkah telling students about the structure before the vandalism.
Hillel adviser Greg Newmark says what happened was “certainly anti-Semitic in effect.” Newmark says the “most generous” thing he can say is that the people involved “are remarkably insensitive.”
The sukkah was rebuilt Sunday morning.
