A lovely Hanukkah sight

Last night I was walking past the Brookdale dormitory for Stern College, a college for Orthodox Jewish women. It was obviously the time to light Hanukkah candles, for there must've been forty women lighting their menorahs. The room was totally filled with light - it was a beautiful sight on a cold evening in New York.

Move over Tenement Museum - here comes American Girl

While visiting the American Girl store for the first time, the history buff in me was happily surprised to meet a doll named Rebecca among their "Historical Figures." Rebecca is a girl of about 12, living on the Lower East Side in 1914. To illustrate her world, they've built a charming diorama of a room in Rebecca's home - replete with egg cream, seltzer bottle and  bagel.

Sukkoh City

An organization of young Jewish professionals called Reboot, which includes our daughter, Kay, put together a contest to design a modern Sukkoh - the outdoor structure that is part of the holiday of Sukkohs, and a reminder of a time when Jews were wandering around the desert for 40 years and sleeping in temporary structures. 600 entries were received from around the globe, and a group of architects and critics picked twelve to be built and exhibited for two days in New York's wonderfully busy and vibrant Union Square Park. Readers of New York Magazine voted for their favorite and we were present as Mayor Bloomberg announced the winner - a bubbly contraption that was our least favorite. A number of the sukkohs were sold and the money passed along to Housing Works for their homeless projects.

The event was New York at its best - creative people presenting their cutting-edge work to a crowd of skeptics, fans, skate boarders, street artists, chess players, local politicians and a great variety of others. Everyone was taking pictures, talking with the architects, who had come from places as far away as Berlin and Idaho, and, generally putting in their two cents. People were meeting old friends, the Mayor's hulking security team was keeping their eyes on the crowd, and we even bumped into our Rabbi - on his way to a guitar lesson.
Here are some pix:

This log weighed a ton and was supported by glass panels

A sukkoh built from simple wooden shims

Based on a pineapple?

Our fave - every grommet hand carved with a Jewish star

The crowd was a typical NYC smorgasbord, especially when it came to head coverings