Chabad’s Downtown Chicago Sukkah Becomes an International Jewish Art Exhibition

Twenty-seven Jewish artists from around the world transformed Chabad’s longtime Daley Plaza sukkah into a public gallery, inviting thousands of passersby to encounter Jewish art, tradition, and community in the heart of the city.

Since 1979, a sukkah has stood in the heart of downtown Chicago at Daley Plaza. This Sukkot, for the second year in a row, Chabad Center for Jewish Life transformed it into an international Jewish art exhibition, with 40 works by 27 artists from around the world covering its exterior walls.

The Sukkah Project takes the familiar tradition of beautifying a sukkah and turns it outward, offering the thousands who pass through Daley Plaza each day an invitation to step inside and take a closer look.

At the exhibition’s Sept. 23 opening, participating artist Jacqueline Kott-Wolle spoke about what that visibility meant to her personally. Her paintings draw on family photographs and memories to tell the story of Jewish life across generations; her parents and grandparents arrived in Canada after the Holocaust and rebuilt their lives there.

Kott-Wolle recalled growing up in a Toronto suburb where her family’s sukkah made her acutely aware of being different. “The sukkah made me feel very vulnerable,” she said.

Today, she proudly puts up a sukkah of her own. Seeing her paintings displayed on a sukkah in the middle of downtown Chicago carried particular meaning. “Making Jewish art for me is like going home,” Kott-Wolle said. “It is the truest expression of myself.”

“The walls of our sukkah have become an outdoor tapestry of art inspired by Jewish life and tradition,” said Rivkah Benhiyoun, co-director of Chabad Center for Jewish Life and creator of the Sukkah Art Project. “Each artist brings a different perspective. Together, their work offers a joyful picture of what it means to belong to something larger than ourselves.”

For Benhiyoun, outreach and education are part of the vision, bringing people from different backgrounds into contact with Jewish life through art.

Another participating artist, Riffi Bleichman, exhibited a painting of the Hebrew word Chai, meaning “life” and carrying the numerical value of 18. The work marked her own 18th wedding anniversary. “It was such a milestone for my husband and I to celebrate our 18th anniversary,” she said.

“Our invitation is not just to our community, but extends itself to the whole city,” Benhiyoun said. “Some people will come especially to see the exhibition. Some will discover it by passing by. We hope that each one feels welcome.”

Hundreds of visitors stepped inside, joined guided visits, asked questions about the artwork, and took part in the mitzvot of Sukkot, including making a blessing in the sukkah and on the lulav and etrog.

The exhibition also drew organized groups from a wide range of backgrounds, including members of the Jewish and Assyrian Heritage Organization, some 40 students from Lake Zurich Baptist Church, and a Yachad group serving Jewish individuals with cognitive challenges.

Rabbi Meir Chai Benhiyoun, director of Chabad Center for Jewish Life, spoke about the sukkah as a home that extends beyond physical walls and about what Jews have carried with them across generations. “What kept us going all the years is our Torah, our humor, our music, and our art,” he said.

Chabad Center for Jewish Life hopes to deepen the project in the years ahead, bringing in more artists and creative projects while expanding relationships with schools, families, and community organizations throughout Chicago.

This fall, the sukkah’s walls gave Jewish artists a highly visible place to tell their stories and invited the city to experience Jewish life firsthand.

More information about the Sukkah Project and its participating artists is available at cjlart.org.