Jewish Community Center
Washington, DC, 2012
Every year during the holiday of Sukkot, for one week, Jewish families all over the world eat, pray and, weather-allowing, sleep in temporary huts (Sukkot in Hebrew) to re-live the experience of their ancestors of thousands of years ago, who dwelled in huts while wandering in the desert for forty years before reaching the Promised Land. We can assume that the original Sukkah (plural Sukkot) was made of fronds of the palm trees that are widespread in the Middle East and have long been used for this purpose. A palm frond, Lulav, is present in each Sukkah and is waved along with willow and myrtle branches and a citron (Etrog) in six directions in a daily ritual during the holiday.
Therefore, I decided to concentrate my interpretation of the Sukkah on images of the palm tree. Using steel as my medium, I created the walls mimicking roots of palm, while palm fronds form the roof of my Sukkah.
Meredith Jacobs, Last Chance to See "Sukkat Shalom", Washington Jewish Week, December 12 201