Sukkos and the city

I'm washing my hands by a table in the middle of Amsterdam Avenue. I look up as I say the blessing and it's those tall monstrous Manhattan buildings all around, and a flow of yellow cabs and a full moon in the clear dark sky. How much more bizarre can Sukkos get?

Not many people here can afford their own sukkah. They all live in flats you see. This is not like London where you can step out through your back door straight into your sukkah. Here it's a journey every time you want to have a meal: a journey to your synagogue, or the back yard of your building, where you share the space with dozens, if not hundreds, of other people. You then remember that this is exactly what the festival is all about: being on a journey as an individual and also as a community.

The rooftop sukkahs are the best. Up there it doesn't feel claustrophobic any more. But as I sit there on the splendid terrace of a massive penthouse apartment, having the most amazing single malts, I still can't decide whether I will ever like it here. I feel an alien and I'm not sure if that's going to change.

And then I make my own little journey, down south to Silver Spring near Washington, and encounter a very different, cosy and youthful and warm Sukkos-experience and then I travel north of Manhattan, to Riverdale, which does actually sound like an enchanted place as someone pointed out to me, its name being so close to magical Rivendell, and I award my hosts with the 'Sukkah with the best view' prize as their balcony overlooks the Hudson river and its New Jersey banks which look breathtakingly beautiful at this time of the year.

Simchat Torah is a truly festive occasion here. You are obliged to try hard to be happy over the holiday and everybody tries willy-nilly, but here in New York people are actually doing a good job of it! It's particulary interesting if you're a woman. Women are dancing in huge numbers, not the sad sight I'm used to in Europe, and we get a few Torah scrolls, and we get our own all-women hakafot (celebratory rounds) and in the more modern communities we of course get everything - each woman is called up to the Torah, and they may read it for themselves, and they may be elected the Brides of the Torah. And then because we're in America and this is a really free country, we go out into the street - cordoned off by the police - and dance and sing some more and let the whole world know that we're celebrating!