10 Best Places to See Sukkot in Jerusalem

NileGuide.com ^ | September 14, 2009 | Judy Lash Balint

[jerusalemjudy]

The Sukkot festival is almost here. A few days after Yom Kippur (that falls this Friday night and Saturday), Israelis celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, as it’s known in English. For seven days, Jews commemorate the time spent wandering in the desert as well as pondering the temporary nature of our own existence. How do we do this? By actually building and living in temporary booths (that’s the meaning of the word Sukkot) and Jerusalem is one of the best places to see how many variations and interpretations of a “booth” people can come up with and attach to their home or business or even build in their parking spot on the street.

So here are my suggestions of a few of the best places to go to see the most interesting sukkot this year–the holiday starts on Wednesday night, September 22 and continues for seven days, so there’s plenty of time to plan a Sukkah route.

1. Start out with one of the grandest–that would be at the President’s Residence on Hanassi Street in Rehavia. President Shimon Peres holds court at an open house in his sukka on one of the intermediate days of the festival. You’ll get a cold drink, a hand shake and a photo op with the president–providing you have the patience to stand on line for a while…

[ml/nj]

Very timely for me. Thanks. I'll be arriving Tuesday afternoon Sept 28 in time for the last full day. I have a wedding to attend on Oct 12th but decided to show up early specifically to see succot in Jerusalem.

ML/NJ