Photograph: Tailor’s house

European Jews

Minsk province, Mozyrsky district, village Zapolye

1906

Gelatin silver printing with chemical development (DOP)

11,8 x 16,5

РЭМ 1013-30

“The house is built of round pine logs with plain rabbet joints; it has three rather large windows, six panes in each; the roof is of thin lath; a small mud room covered with split planks is attached to the house. During the Feast of Booths, a part of the mud room roof is dismantled, and the opening is covered with spruce branches” (From A. K. Sergputowski’s description in the RME collections schedule). The Feast of Booths (Sukkoth) is an autumn feast, when the family moves for seven days to a Sukka (booth or hut), through whose roof the sky and the stars can be seen. The Sukka symbolized the booths where the Jews lived for the 40 years of wandering in the desert.