Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWhile providing fascinating and abundant ethnographic detail about sukkah builders, their families, and their daily lives, [Berlinger] raises important theoretical questions that merit additional attention.
* Reading Religion *
This is an important and timely book: important because it contributes significantly to the expanding literature on Jewish history and culture; and timely due to its arrival just as many are questioning the relationship folklore as a discipline has to the field of vernacular architecture studies.
* Journal of Folklore Research *
Berlinger's rich and nuanced ethnography sheds light on many sukkot from Bloomington to Tel Aviv, Jaffa, and Jerusalem, and back to Brooklyn; like the wandering in the Sinai desert, this journey is crucial, and although the Promised Land does not allow one to rest as it opens further questions, it is Berlinger's wandering that helps us in framing such wonderings.
* Journal of American Folklore *
The book is a clear and original contribution that considers Jewish folklore within wider sociopolitical contexts. It raises questions and offers insights previously unexplored in the field, within both Jewish Studies and vernacular architecture.
* Western Folklore *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
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
