High Tea in the Sukkah

In this drawing of Dr. Hermann Adler, the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, in his sukkah, the artist has represented the adaptation of English custom to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. This harvest festival marks the time when the children of Israel were commanded to live in a sukkah (booth) for seven days in remembrance of their liberation from Egypt. The holiday was revitalized in England with the large immigration of Easter European Jews at the end of the nineteenth century. Tradition and acculturation coexist in Solomon J. Solomon's painting, as Jews with uncovered heads and the chief rabbi accommodate each other's ways.