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Paper short abstract:

The sukkah is a temporary architectural form built to symbolize the domestic space. Its construction is the foundation of the observance of the annual, week-long Jewish festival of Sukkot. This paper examines the contemporary material and interpretive diversity within this tradition of Jewish home-making.

Paper long abstract:

The sukkah is a temporary architectural form built to symbolize the domestic space. Its construction is the foundation of the observance of the annual, week-long Jewish festival of Sukkot. This paper examines the material and interpretive diversity within this tradition of Jewish home-making. For seven days, inside this ritual shelter, observant Jews eat, pray, socialize, and sleep. Builders and users of these shelters construct them according to religious prescription and informally-learned practice, but their decoration and interpretation are shaped by individual experience and creativity. Offering examples of these vernacular constructions across the United States and Israel today, I consider the construction, re-construction, and deconstruction of historic, current, and future circumstances through this dynamic Jewish material practice.