NMMR: Do most Jews "do" sukkot?

[ohgillian]

Because yet again, I feel like at my shul you are a huge failure or at least an anomaly if you haven't built a sukkah in your yard.

[ijack]

We celebrated with some neighbors last night - they had a "pop up sukkah"

[jenn248]

I'm not terribly religious, so I am probably not the best person to ask, but no, we don't celebrate sukkot. We basically just do Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover, and Hanukkah.

[vegas]

I grew up with a father who was raised Orthodox, I went to a Jewish day school and I attended a conservative synagogue and I knew very few people who actually had a Sukkah in their yard. We had one at our synagogue that we'd use to celebrate, but otherwise I can think of one or two families who did it on their own.

I definitely don't think you are a bad Jew for not building a Sukkah!

[Deleted]

I haven't since College. We plan on it when we move to a real house and can build a sukkah. Never thought of the pop up sukkah idea. Hmm.
Eta- it was sporadic. Mostly went to the temples sukkah.

[Awkward]

I had never heard the term and just googled it. Very interesting! The wikipedia entry talks about a "drive-thru" sukkah in Florida!

[jackie011]

We never had one growing up, but attended Sukkot events at the synagogue. I work at a Jewish school and I think a handful of the families built their own sukkah, but they are all Orthodox families.

[Mrs.Beagle]

I didn't.

My parents were friends with a rabbi, so we just went to their house.

I hope to have one sometday.

[nancybotwin]

I grew up in the northeast, and no one I knew had a sukkah. Now that I live in a warmer climate, I know a lot of people with a sukkah. We don't have a yard for one, but I am so excited for the day we can finally build one.

[lanyac]

Oct 8, 2012 9:31:57 GMT -5 jenn248 said:

I'm not terribly religious, so I am probably not the best person to ask, but no, we don't celebrate sukkot. We basically just do Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover, and Hanukkah.

This was my family growing up. As a kid in sunday school we'd celebrate sukkot, but not at home. But now that DH and I are both atheists, we just celebrate birthdays and winter solstice (so we can still get gifts!) When we have kids, I think I'd like to do some of the Jewish holidays, because they're very elaborate and interesting.

[liveintheville]

I want to build a sukkah one year to piss off the historical society crazy. She'll bitch and we'll claim religious exemption. But so far we're too lazy.

[kangaroo11]

My brother and I used to build a semi-sukkah (it had 2 walls instead of 3) when we were kids, but I've never done it as an adult. I only know of one family that builds a sukkah yearly.

[Deleted]

We didn't. We don't really live in an area that makes it possible (townhouse, no yard, no real place to put one). I grew up with one occasionally, but it wasn't a really big deal. I don't think I know of anyone locally that does, but my brother and his wife built one this year (in Israel).

[dragonfly08]

I grew up in a fairly Jewish area, and other than the members of the Orthodox shul nobody (my family included...we were Conservative, and there was also a Reform shul in town) had a sukkah at home. Everybody pretty much just went to the one at their respective synagogue.

[mrsw101109]

I used to live in a hasidic jewish neighborhood and almost every house had one. I used to like to drive around and check them out. In my condo they would have a group sukkot that everyone would share the cost of.

[fuddyduddy]

In my Conservative Jewish community in LA (the one I grew up in), almost everyone does.

I haven't built one here because I am far away from my family and the Jewish community isn't exactly thriving, so I have trouble getting into the holidays.

[bronxgirl]

We didn't build one at my house growing up- we went to friends' sukkahs or our synagogue. Now i live in an apt. I celebrate the holiday, but have no place to build my own sukkah.

[Lilac]

We never did, we just went to the one our temple had. The only people I ever heard of doing their own at home were my Orthodox cousins from Israel. They spent a year in the US and we happened to visit them during Sukkot.