Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Sukkot, a Jewish holiday that coincides with the autumn harvest, during which Jews erect sukkahs.
Sukkot
The Latest
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Fast Forward Rabbis Plan Sukkot Protest At Trump Tower Over Immigration
A group of rabbis is planning on staging a Sukkot-themed protest against the administration’s immigration policies outside Trump Tower on Monday. T’ruah, the rabbinic human rights organization, will erect a sukkah in front of President Trump’s residence on Monday morning in attempt to demonstrate how the administration’s decision to ban refugees and immigrants from certain…
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Community Do We Always Have To Tell The Truth?
A version of this article originally appeared in the Texas Jewish Post. I was only a few blocks away from the home of my my inlaws in Baltimore when I quickly switched from the left to the right lane and just as quickly hit the side of an oncoming vehicle. The evidence at the scene…
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Community What The Talmud Has To Say About The Stars
I have very distinct memories of my childhood nights in the Sukkah. I grew up in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish home in upstate New York. We were not permitted to eat a meal or sleep — even take an afternoon nap – outside the sukkah. After the meal on Sukkot evening, we would put the table…
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Fast Forward Celebrating Sukkot In Japan Requires Creativity — And A Bit Of Smuggling
KOBE, Japan (JTA) — Like many international smugglers, the one servicing the Jewish community of this port city 300 miles east of Tokyo has perfected his poker face to avoid customs inspections. He brings in kosher meat and, ahead of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, three of the four species — the plants that Jews…
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Life This Sukkot, Let’s Celebrate Our Material Blessings, Not Reject Them
Apparently, at the top of the financial ladder, some people are spending upwards of $10,000 to build a sukkah with opulent flower arrangements, lush centerpieces, to build a sukkah with opulent flower arrangements, lush centerpieces, and ornate chandeliers. It all seems like a bit much. The editor of this paper commented: But is Sukkot really…
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News That Sukkot Ritual Of Waving Branches Around Has Pagan Roots
While long overshadowed in the pantheon of Jewish holidays, Sukkot is the big one in the Bible – garnering the most mentions in the sacred text and coinciding with major ritual sacrifices and the reading of the Torah. But does this holiest of Jewish festivals have pagan origins? According to historical research, two of the…
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Life The Time I 3-D Printed A Sukkah
For around 3,300 years, Jews everywhere have been building sukkahs. While the Romans no longer build aqueducts, the pyramid-builders have moved to Vegas, and even the druids no longer work in Stonehenge: We here are still building our holiday booths. It’s this time of the year that in hardware stores from Boston to Beit Shemesh,…
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Food Why Gefilte Fish Is A Perfect Symbol For Sukkot
Every year on Sukkot, my great-grandmother made gefilte fish for the elders of the synagogue who “dwelled” in the sukkah for seven days. To continue this mitzvah even after she left this world, she stipulated in her will that my grandmother take over her task. Anyone who has made gefilte (meaning filled or stuffed) fish…
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Music For Bob Dylan’s biographer, ‘A Complete Unknown’ is a dream come true — even if it’s mostly fiction
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Culture They were a kosher bakery success story — 80 years later, people are still trying to make a buck off their babka
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Film & TV Why ‘The Brutalist’ resonated so deeply with me
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News RFK Jr. wants fluoride out of drinking water. Israel has a decade of lessons to offer.
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