Autumn is a glorious season, but New England also offers hues of history and heritage all year round. Here is the birthplace of Thanksgiving, started by pilgrims who escaped to America to find religious freedom, and celebrated their harvest with the Indians. Actually, Thanksgiving was modeled after the holiday of Sukkot, so Jewish tradition and New England heritage go back a few years!

These northeastern states burst with history, culture, and activities for all ages and inclinations. You can relive those first steps on North American soil at Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Plantation and Old Sturbridge Village, where reenactments make history come alive. As Jews, we relate well to the hopes and trials of migr ation and relocation, and the dream of a place we can live out our principles in peace.

Boston is renown for its historic sites, museums, colleges and tourist attractions. The Freedom Trail walks you past the site of the Boston Tea Party, and more recent history is on view at the Kennedy House and Museum. Stroll through Harvard Yard or hop across the Charles River to hob-knob with the MIT geniuses, and there is Jewish sponsored Brandeis University in nearby Waltham.

Boston's Jewish history can be pursued on a guided tour by Michael Ross, author of "Boston Walks The Jewish Friendship Trail Guidebook." Sites include Beacon Hill houses of the first Jewish Supreme Court Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis and Edward A. Filene, President of Filene Stores, and majestic synagogues.

There is Kosher dining downtown at the Milk Street Café (not chalav Yisrael), 50 Milk Street, and the Brookline's Harvard Street features Judaica galleries, kosher restaurants and food stores (call Vaad HaRabbonim for particulars).

Southwest of Boston, Providence, Rhode Island is home to many cultural sites. In Newport, the Touro synagogue, first in North America, is open for Shabbat services and for guided tours. Its designers were hopeful that America's religious tolerance would prevail, but mindful of past persecution, they built a secret escape route under the wood bimah in the center. Newport also offers guided tours of the gold and marble mansions of the famous and wealthy, a fascinating venture into another world.

If your vacation ideal is more rural than urban, apple orchards, pumpkin patches, berries, maple sugaring and cranberry bogs are just a few of the local crops. Along the coast or on Cape Cod, the ocean beckons with shell collecting, whale-watching and sunset gazing. The covered bridges, quiet farms and towns and White Mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire, and

Berkshires of Western Massachusetts offer beautiful pastoral vistas.

Only a 45 minute drive and 20 minute commuter-rail ride from Boston, the quiet bedroom community of Sharon has historic homes and a relaxed country ambiance. Among the cottage dwellers of the once popular Jewish resort near Lake Massapoag lived a budding musician, Leonard Bernstein. The Sharon phone book reveals long lists of Cohens, Goldsteins, Silvermans; it has the highest per capita Jewish population (70%) in the US, and is home to two Jewish day schools and many synagogues.

The Sharon Woods Inn kosher bed and breakfast is a unique home away from home for the Jewish traveler. Hosts Dovid and Tova Yarmush offer a suite of two bedrooms, meals, brown bag lunches and Shabbat meals in a private setting. Their large Sukkah blends nicely with the glorious foliage.

Within walking distance of Sharon's synagogues and the lake, they are a short drive from a National Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary and several state and county parks. Sharon is easily accessible from Providence airport half an hour away.

A network of Chabad Houses in Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, Cambridge, Boston University and throughout the Boston area offer Jewish hospitality and assistance, including Chabad in Providence and Warwick, the western Mass. cities of Springfield, Worcester, and the college town of Amherst. An exciting project developing in Amherst is "Moshiach City" an organic farm and co-housing Jewish community featuring educational exhibits of the Jewish agricultural laws. The Amherst area town of Holyoke is the National Yiddish Book Center depository.

The honking geese, smell of leaves and bite in the air of upcoming winter inspire reflection. One could almost imagine King Solomon strolling through one such quiet forest as he composed his pensive Ecclesiastes. Read on Sukkot, it reminds us of the transitory nature of life and of Divine Providence and endurance. New England's characteristics of revolutionary ferment and creativity, combined with the beautiful natural splendor and Kosher-friendly accommodations, make it an ideal vacation area.