Your Dream Sukkah

Your Dream Sukkah

Seeing as it's Sukkos, I'm going to preface Micha's writing with an observation. I have a friend, an American, who has been married to an Englishman for years. Something some of you may have noticed is that many Orthodox Jews, particularly those living in Israel, choose to decorate their sukkos with the kinds of glittery and flashing accoutrements that those of us who grew up in the U.S. associate with a distinctly non-Jewish festival that tends to fall out around Chanukah time.

So, like my friend, some of us thought that perhaps the ideal kind of decor would be along the lines of the earthy-woodsy harvest sort of theme. Which rankles those Orthodox Jews who grew up in Europe, where the winter-fest decorations are more in the holly-mistletoe-red berries on the green vine theme.


Which meant that what my friend found "too goyish" was her husband's Jewish ideal, and what he found annoyingly familiar was her Martha Stewart dream sukkah. So perhaps the Chabad custom of just decorating the sukkah as you would your own home is starting to make more sense... Move out your better furnishings, hang some paintings, put down the Kilim, and enjoy the atmosphere. However you choose to decorate, Moadim l'simcha!