Celebrate Sukkot by preparing JPR’s paper chain decoration, adding insights about Jewish communities worldwide to your Sukkah
Sukkot is a major Jewish harvest festival that celebrates the protection God gave the Israelites when they left Egypt. It is one of the three annual pilgrim festivals when Jews traditionally visited the Temple in Jerusalem. One of the main ways to observe the holiday today is to build and dwell in a 'sukkah', a decorated temporary hut with a roof made of branches, as a reminder of the shelters the Israelites lived in during their forty years in the desert. In the week of Sukkot, many Jews eat their meals in the sukkah, and some even sleep there.
The sukkah is often decorated with fruit, pictures and other decorations such as paper chains. So in honour of the festival this year, we have created a special JPR paper chain with some data points from our recent research. If you have a sukkah, or if you are visiting friends or family with one, feel free to make the JPR chain to hang in it. It will add some colour to it, and the data points will provide plenty of food for thought and discussion.
Each colourful strip holds a nugget of information about Jews in the UK and around the world: How many Jews are there in the world today, and where do they live? How many Jews in the Diaspora are married to non-Jews? How many Jews in the UK have family members living in Israel? How many European Jews fast on Yom Kippur?
All you need to do is download and print our Sukkot paper chain, then gather your family members or friends to help cut and stick it, before hanging it in your sukkah. The data points will teach you something new every day of the festival, and help you to connect with the millions of Jews celebrating Sukkot around the world.
Chag same’ach from all of us at JPR!