This window was probably once part of a communal sukkah belonging to an American synagogue, and may have matched stained-glass work in the sanctuary. A sukkah is a temporary booth built by observant Jews to celebrate the weeklong autumn harvest of Sukkot. The biblical verse mandating this practice is inscribed in Hebrew on the window: “In sukkot you shall dwell for seven days” (Leviticus 23:42). Ubiquitous in modern synagogue decoration, the Star of David is central to the window’s design and is repeated in smaller sizes within the large star.
Many synagogues were built in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, during the large wave of Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe. As some of those congregations later consolidated or dwindled, their synagogue buildings were sold and repurposed or abandoned and sometimes destroyed. A number of works entered the museum’s collection as a consequence.