An old folk tale teaches that the sufganiyot we eat on Hanukkah were God’s creation, a gift to cheer up a despondent Adam and Eve after he expelled them from the Garden of Eden.

Those who reject the very idea of jelly donuts as divine consolation prizes point to North African sfenji — the small, deep-fried dough eaten for centuries by Moroccan Jews to celebrate the eight-night holiday — for the origin story. That, of course, doesn’t explain the jelly filling, which is where Central European Jews entered the picture. They long ate fried pastries filled with meat or vegetables . . . until the sugar brought by colonialism led to an explosion in fruit preserves. Those first jellied pastries had little to do with sufganiyot: They were nothing more than deep fried jelly sandwiches.

Polish Jews improved on the recipe with ponchik (Polish pastries) replacing bread with rounds of dough and lard with schmaltz or goose fat. Finally, ponchick met sfenji when European Jews began returning to Palestine and, as with so many dishes and traditions of the melting pot of Israel, became sufganiyot.

Over the years, especially in Israel and the United States, sufganiyot have been glazed, dusted and dipped — and plain red jelly replaced with chocolate ganache, vanilla cream, passion fruit preserve, caramel, even cookies & cream.

This delicious pop-up exhibition will showcase how both New York and Israeli artists have responded to this iconic treat.

And each night of Hanukkah, we’ll offer you the opportunity to decide whether you prefer old-fashioned or modern sufganiyot!