JSU members plant apple tree. Photo by Chloe Marshall '26.
On Tuesday, April 15, the MFS Jewish Student Union (JSU) invited community members to join them in the planting of an apple tree that is representative of Jewish tradition, more specifically, the holiday Tu B’Shevat. The JSU affinity group leaders, Ethan Cohen ’26 and Lexi Friedenthal ’27, along with their faculty advisor Dan Sussman, have worked together to bring the project to fruition.
Tu B’Shevat, which occurred earlier this year, is a “Jewish celebration of trees and their importance in our lives and communities,” as Cohen explained. The JSU leaders were looking for an interactive activity to celebrate the holiday and, according to Cohen, decided that planting the tree was the “best way to engage with the meaning of the holiday.”
The process of acquiring the tree began with Sussman, who ordered and stored the tree until the group was ready for the planting. On April 15, members of the MFS community gathered to plant the tree in a pot that is now being rotated between Sussman’s classroom and an outdoor location to give the tree an adequate amount of sunlight in its early growth stages.
Chloe Marshall ’26, a member of JSU, expressed her gratitude for Cohen and Friendenthal’s work with the tree.
“Even though we’re a really small community at the school, our affinity group leaders try really hard to make us a part of the [MFS] community, and this is just an example of their success,” she said.
Marshall was excited by the educational opportunity provided by the tree and shared that even as a Jewish student, she didn’t have much prior knowledge about Tu B’Shevat before it was discussed during Affinity group meetings.
She shared, “It was fun for me as a Jewish student to learn more about Judaism, so I hope that with this tree other people in the community [who] aren’t Jewish can maybe have the same experience and learn about it too.”
The tree planting comes at a difficult moment for the Jewish community at MFS, following the recent discovery of two swastikas on campus. Friedenthal reflected that the act of planting the tree was “helpful, as long as it’s respected,” acknowledging its potential as a meaningful gesture during this time.
While Marshall noted that she “still [sees] MFS as a really positive, welcoming community … The planting of the tree comes at a good time because it shows the strength of the Jewish community.”
Member of JSU Charlotte Nesevich ’25 shared, “This is a great step towards making sure that Jewish students can see themselves in what the school is doing.”
While the tree is temporarily planted in a pot, the JSU leaders explained that this is not the end of their project.
Cohen said that his “long-term goal is to permanently plant the tree and create an annual tradition where one new tree each year is planted in that area, which will eventually blossom into an orchard.”
This final project has not yet been approved by Administration, and JSU is actively waiting for approval to permanently plant the tree in the ground by the McShap Path.
In regards to the prospect of an orchard on campus, Marshall remarked, “It would be so meaningful to come to campus in decades and see our tree that we planted next to all of the other ones.”
Cohen similarly expressed his support for the orchard project.
“The fact that we’re able to make a contribution to the community in any capacity is always a good thing, and our goal is not to stop at this one tree. This is the beginning of a larger project that we’d like to be involved in,” he said.
Friedenthal, who, like Cohen, is advocating the tree to be permanently planted, added, “It’s showing that [Jewish students] do belong here, and it’s giving a physical representation of that.”