Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles)
1867
Step into a cozy autumn evening in 1867, where a family gathers inside a sukkah—a temporary hut built for the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot. The father, seated at the head of the table, raises a glass of wine for the blessing while a mother cradles a baby, bathed in the warm glow of a chandelier. Outside, two schoolboys with heavy satchels pause at the doorway, one gazing up in wonder at the leafy roof, while a woman approaches with a steaming tureen of food. Moritz Daniel Oppenheim, often celebrated as the first Jewish painter of the modern era, created this scene to document and romanticize traditional Jewish family life with deep dignity and warmth.