Framing Sukkot

Gabrielle Anna Berlinger

Description

The sukkah, the symbolic ritual home built during the annual Jewish holiday of Sukkot, commemorates the temporary structures that sheltered the Israelites as they journeyed across the desert after the exodus from Egypt. Despite the simple Biblical prescription for its design, the remarkable variety of creative expression in the construction, decoration, and use of the sukkah, in both times of peace and national upheaval, reveals the cultural traditions, political convictions, philosophical ideals, and individual aspirations that the sukkah communicates for its builders and users today.

In this ethnography of contemporary Sukkot observance, Gabrielle Anna Berlinger examines the powerful role of ritual and vernacular architecture in the formation of self and society in three sharply contrasting Jewish communities: Bloomington, Indiana; South Tel Aviv, Israel; and Brooklyn, New York. Through vivid description and in-depth interviews, she demonstrates how constructing and decorating the sukkah and performing the weeklong holiday's rituals of hospitality provide unique circumstances for creative expression, social interaction, and political struggle. Through an exploration of the intersections between the rituals of Sukkot and contemporary issues, such as the global Occupy movement, Berlinger finds that the sukkah becomes a tangible expression of the need for housing and economic justice, as well as a symbol of the longing for home.

Acknowledgments
Note on Language Use
Introduction
1. Translating Text: Sukkot in Bloomington, Indiana
2. Shchunat Hatikva, Tel Aviv: A Geography of Difference
3. Within Shchunat Hatikva: Values and Spaces
4. Sukkot in Shchunat Hatikva
5. Sukkot in Jaffa and Jerusalem
6. The Right to House and Home
7. Transcending Architecture: Sukkot in Brooklyn, New York
8. Conclusion
Appendix: Materials Chart and Sukkot Floor Plans
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Rituals
• Jewish Studies
• Philosophie et théologie
• Nueva York
• Sucot
• Folclore
• Israel
• Sukkah
• Tel Aviv
• Sukkot
• Judaism
• Anthropology
• Religion
• Practice
• Brooklyn
• Tel Aviv-Jaffa
• Folklore
• Indiana
• New York

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 20 septembre 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9780253031839
• Langue: English

Extrait

FRAMING SUKKOT
Jason Baird Jackson, editor
FRAMING SUKKOT
Tradition and Transformation in Jewish Vernacular Architecture
Gabrielle Anna Berlinger
Indiana University Press, in cooperation with the Mathers Museum of World Cultures, Indiana University
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
2017 by Gabrielle Anna Berlinger
A free digital edition of this book is available at IUScholarWorks: http://hdl.handle.net/2022/21232 .
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Berlinger, Gabrielle A., author.
Title: Framing sukkot : tradition and transformation in Jewish vernacular architecture / Gabrielle Anna Berlinger.
Description: Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, [2017] | Series: Material vernaculars | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017041133 (print) | LCCN 2017036944 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253031839 (e-book) | ISBN 9780253031815 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253031822 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Sukkah-Buildings, structures, etc.
Classification: LCC BM695.S8 (print) | LCC BM695.S8 B47 2017 (ebook) | DDC 296.4/33-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017041133
1 2 3 4 5 23 22 21 20 19 18
All photographs are by the author.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Note on Language Use
Introduction
A New Generation Is Living in Tents
Into the Field
An Ephemeral, Ritual Architecture
A Transient Shelter on a Journey Home
A Permanent Place
A Folklorist s Approach
Guiding Questions
Evolving Methods and Meanings: Vernacular Architecture Studies
Ritual and Festival Studies
Jewish Folklore
Theory in Practice
Mapping the Book
1 Translating Text: Sukkot in Bloomington, Indiana
In Text
In Architecture
In Ritual Performance
Bloomington Vignettes
Key Infrastructures
Bakol Geller
Yonit Kosovske
Mediating Tradition
2 Shchunat Hatikva, Tel Aviv: A Geography of Difference
Drawing Borders of Distinction
North and South
Ashkenazi and Mizrahi
Israeli and Foreign
3 Within Shchunat Hatikva: Values and Spaces
Shuk Hatikva
Bnei Yehuda
Houses of Worship and Sites of Belonging
4 Sukkot in Shchunat Hatikva
Sukkot in Practice
Place and Protection
Gratitude and Grace
Relativism and Labor
5 Sukkot in Jaffa and Jerusalem
Dreams and Love
Family and Equality
6 The Right to House and Home
Building Sukkot in the Park
The Last Night
Without Aravah, Nothing Is Equal
Occupy Sukkot
7 Transcending Architecture: Sukkot in Brooklyn, New York
Joseph Piekarski
Rabbi Chaim Halberstam
Mayer Preger
Rabbi Ephraim Piekarski
Conclusion
Objects and their Reach
Equality
Ephemerality
The Right to House and Home
Memory and Modernity
Appendix: Materials Chart and Sukkot Floor Plans
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
L IKE BUILDING A sukkah, writing this book has brought together friends and family, newcomers and neighbors, to create a space for sharing. I am grateful to so many who helped build and dwell in this space with me.
In graduate school, I received my first guiding lights from my dissertation advisors. Henry Glassie has been my model of an ethical folklorist and compassionate scholar, offering endless support and vision. Michael D. Foster and Judah M. Cohen showed me how intellectually curious scholars could pursue their work with artistry and integrity. For Jason Baird Jackson, my advisor and friend from the first day of my graduate studies, few words can convey my immense gratitude. He has been my steadfast supporter and motivator, inspiring me with his hard work, commitment, and ideals. I owe each of these mentors a great debt for cultivating the highest standards of committed research, writing, and collaboration, and for continually encouraging me with their personal wisdom and kindness. Many other faculty and staff members in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology and in the Jewish Studies Program at Indiana University, Bloomington, offered valuable support to me over the years as well, and to each one I am deeply grateful.
Continuing this project during my Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Bard Graduate Center and as Assistant Professor of American Studies and Folklore and Babette S. and Bernard J. Tanenbaum Fellow in Jewish History and Culture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been immeasurably enriched by the support of colleagues and students. In particular, Bernie Herman, Marcie Cohen Ferris and Bill Ferris, Patricia Sawin, and Glenn Hinson have welcomed me into a North Carolina folklore community with warmth and generosity, and the UNC American Studies and Jewish Studies faculties have energized me with their curiosity and commitment to interdisciplinary exchange.
I am also thankful for the funding that has enabled me to study, research, and write. My doctoral studies were funded by the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Program of the US Department of Education and by Grants-in-Aid of Research from the Robert A. and Sandra S. Borns Jewish Studies Program at Indiana University. Hebrew language study and preliminary field research were funded through a Foreign Language and Area Studies Grant from the Center for the Study of Global Change at Indiana University and the US Department of Education, and a Pre-Dissertation Travel Grant from the Office of the Vice President for International Affairs at Indiana University. My dissertation writing was further supported by a College of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Completion Year Fellowship from Indiana University. All of these resources allowed me to undertake, pursue, and complete this research.
Beyond the university, the individuals who became my community of scholars and friends during my fieldwork in Indiana, Israel, and New York deserve my greatest appreciation. Without their open doors and open hearts, their interest in and patience with my questions, and their willingness to share their life experiences and beliefs with me, my research would not have been possible. To these individuals and so many others whom I cannot all name here, you give this project its spirit, meaning, and reason for being. Thank you, Pnina, Adi, Neta, Amir, Itay, and Asaf Cohen; Dror and Smadar, Suad (Tikva), Sharon and Yair, Doron and Fani, and Ronen Kahalani; Simon Tobi; Yoram, Yonah, and Gila Meshumar; Uriel, David and Edna Zada; Zina and David Borochov; Shmuel, the pomegranate juicer in the shuk ; Eliyahu and Batya Saig; Simcha and Chaim Maimon; Nisim Boaron; Yosef and Naomi Meshulam; Dina and Yitzhak Emunah; Amnon Hezkiah; Shaul and Sivan Moyal; Drori Yehoshua; Baruch, Meital, and Israel Rada; Lea Chekol; Dana and Itzik Amsalem; Pazit and Zehorit Adani; and all the women in the Beit Dani Community Center Senior Program who treated me like a granddaughter, feeding and blessing me daily; Bakol Geller; Yonit Kosovske; Rabbi Chaim Halberstam; Mayer Preger; Joseph Piekarski; and Rabbi Ephraim Piekarski. For the honesty, wisdom, kindness, and friendship that all of these individuals shared with me, I am deeply indebted.
Colleagues and friends inspired and supported me through every stage of this project. To Selina Morales and Aaron Spector, Maria Kennedy, Chris and Anna Mul , Thomas Grant Richardson and Carrie Hertz, Rachel Gonz lez-Martin, Jen Boles, Erin and Mike Lee, Devi Mays, Devorah Shubowitz, Zilia Estrada, Suzanne Godby Ingalsbe, Hsin-wen Hsu, Teri Klassen, Allison Distler, Paul Colbert, and Ed O Brien, you made Bloomington a home for me and helped me write this chapter of life. In New York, Kay Turner, Steve Zeitlin, Amanda Dargan, Miles Robert Parker, and Wendy Weiss shared an appreciation for the beauty and humor of everyday life amidst and despite New York s madness, and I will always be grateful. My colleagues and friends in Israel were also invaluable contributors to my growth, learning, and quality of life during my fieldwork. Karen Ross, Fiona Wright, Maya Shapiro, Lisa Feinberge, Sonia Smith, Mary Loitsker, Vicki Idzinski, and Tal Shamur, thank you for listening, empathizing, and challenging me in the field. Last of all, I thank my cousin Roni Arbel who, on a whim on the last day of Sukkot in 2009, dropped me off at the curb on Etsel Street in Shchunat Hatikva when I asked him where I might photograph sukkot in Tel Aviv. Without knowing it, he gave the next years of my life meaning and direction.
Gary Dunham, Janice Frisch, and the staff at Indiana University Press deserve great appreciation for believing in this project and supporting its publication with the highest level of collaboration and professional expertise. I am indebted to them for their wise advice and patience. I also thank the two readers who provided valua