Downtown Chicago Sukkah Becomes 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.

13 Oct 2026, 22:33 by COLlive Editor · COLlive

By Elie Benhiyoun

For nearly half a century, a sukkah has stood in the heart of downtown Chicago. This Sukkot, for the second year in a row, Chabad Center for Jewish Life transformed its longtime Daley Plaza sukkah 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 the interior walls of a sukkah and turns them outward, offering the thousands who pass through Daley Plaza each day an invitation to step inside and take a closer look.

“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 have been part of the vision from the beginning, bringing people from different backgrounds into contact with Jewish life through art.

That idea took on a deeply personal dimension at the exhibition’s Sept. 23 opening ceremony through participating artist Jacqueline Kott-Wolle. 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, while her work explores the Jewish life that followed.

At the opening, Kott-Wolle recalled growing up in a Toronto suburb where her family’s sukkah made her acutely aware of being different. As a middle school student, she felt exposed by such a visible expression of Jewish life outside her home.

“The sukkah made me feel very vulnerable,” she said.

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

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

The artwork faces outward onto Daley Plaza, where people may seek out the exhibition or simply discover it while passing through downtown.

“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 over the course of the exhibition, joining guided visits, asking questions about the artwork, and taking part in the mitzvot of Sukkot, including making a blessing in the sukkah and on the lulav and etrog.

The project’s outreach included public and private schools as well as Jewish and non-Jewish community groups. Members of the Jewish and Assyrian Heritage Organization spent time at the exhibition asking questions and discussing the work, an example of the kind of connection between communities Benhiyoun sees as central to the project.

Some 40 high school students from Lake Zurich Baptist Church also visited, taking part in a guided tour led by Chana Moscowitz, followed by refreshments inside the sukkah. Their visit culminated in a guided meditation led by Rabbi Meir Chai Benhiyoun.

Myra Orlinsky, who brought a group from Yachad, an organization serving Jewish individuals with cognitive challenges, said the experience quickly became participatory.

“Everybody got involved,” Orlinsky said. “The participants really enjoyed what they were doing, and we are so glad that we came.”

Rabbi Meir Chai Benhiyoun, director of Chabad Center for Jewish Life, spoke about the broader meaning of 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.

Even persistent rain did little to slow the response, with visitors continuing to arrive and nearly all scheduled group visits taking place.

The Sukkah Project is now in its second year, building on a Jewish presence at Daley Plaza that dates back to 1979. Chabad Center for Jewish Life hopes to deepen that work in the years ahead, bringing in more artists and creative projects while expanding relationships with schools, families, and community organizations throughout Chicago.

For two weeks this fall, the sukkah’s walls became both canvas and invitation, giving Jewish artists a highly visible place to tell their stories and inviting the city to experience Jewish life firsthand.

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

Downtown Chicago Sukkah Becomes 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.

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