New Orleans Museum Builds Rooftop Sukkah

In honor of Sukkot, the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience (MSJE) partnered with unCommon Construction to build a traditional sukkah on the museum’s rooftop. The museum’s sukkah served as both a free communal gathering space and as a venue for a weeklong slate of structured programming.

During this annual harvest festival, Jewish households and communities traditionally construct a sukkah: a hut-like outdoor structure for socializing, dining, and hosting guests. Each year, the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience, located in New Orleans’s busy warehouse district, transforms their building’s rooftop into a sukkah with a view of downtown New Orleans.

“Sukkot is a microcosm of what MSJE is about, because it lets us show off our Southern hospitality through Jewish tradition,” says public programs manager Lizzi Meister. “It’s a holiday about welcoming others into your home, feeding friends and strangers, and being outside together. It brings together the best of our two cultures.”

The nonprofit organization unCommon Construction empowers youth through construction apprenticeships. By engaging in a collaborative build process, high school juniors and seniors earn wages, apprenticeship credit, an equity award, and experience.

Says Ross Harmon, unCommon’s construction manager, “This is a great project with lovely views, and a great museum. Any time I can do projects with the community, like this is my favorite. Plus, the apprentices had a great time!”