Sukkot has always been my husband Marc’s favourite festival. He loves building a temporary structure, eating and sleeping in it for a week. We used to live near to the Ultra-Orthodox community in Stamford Hill and he is a bit of an expert on making a kosher Sukkah, which we used to do each year for what was then North London Progressive Jewish Community, now Kehilla North London.
So it was a shock to find ourselves in a County with very few Jews and we were glad to join Herefordshire Jewish Community, which became part of Three Counties. We continue to build as kosher a sukkah as possible in our garden. This year we have tarpaulin walls on a wooden frame with the roof composed of branches pruned from the garden. Our chickens were astonished to see this when they arrived with us; this year it is the turn of the kittens to be surprised. As they are largely outdoor cats, they were delighted to find we had built a new place to stay, to shelter from the wind, even if the rain comes in. We have eaten and slept in it when possible, with our new furry friends at our feet, or on patrol for night creatures.
I will be speaking about it to local schoolchildren, and I have mentioned it at my son’s school and earlier at his nursery. The question remains whether there are other Jews in the area, or even in the County, with a Sukkah of their own? Our local newsagent gets 4 copies of the Jewish Chronicle, though they don’t sell many, so it’s possible we are not the only ones, though we have not spotted any other Sukkah nearby, unlike North London where there were very many of them. Any sightings would be welcomed. – Alison