An "important and timely" study of the Jewish holiday's temporary shelters and the meaning of home ( Journal of Folklore Research).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 ...

Each year 11 million people trek to the Louvre to gawk at the Mona Lisa. Many visitors clutch guide books in hand describing the painting. For some, it’s the experience of a lifetime, one they’ll talk about with friends and family for decades.Yet some modern researchers say that the vast majority of people will never recognize the hidden messages in this painting. That’s because those hidden messages are subliminal.Buried below the threshold of conscious awareness, D...

Exploring the people and contexts that imbue Jewish material culture with its meaning.In museums, synagogues, antique stores, and personal collections, Jewish objects are gathered, studied, and passed down as material representations of a culture and faith. What defines these items as "Jewish," and how does an item acquire or lose this characteristic throughout its life?Drawing from material culture studies, folklore studies, and curatorial perspectives, th...