Sukkot in the Twilight Zone

The title of this post is a bit facetious but this year, my Sukkot has certainly been a lot stranger and more dreamlike than in previous years. I used to celebrate it with Jewish friends back in California, so I'm no stranger to eating in the Sukkah and the overall joyful atmosphere of this holiday. But last night's celebration truly takes the cake.

First off, there's a well known anecdote about Jewish holidays about how almost every one of them can be described with "they tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat!" Sukkot isn't quite like that. It's a lot more joyous. The Torah itself commands Jews to be happy. There is feasting and singing and dancing and you get to eat outside in a little hut called a sukkah that you decorate yourself and it's a lot of fun. And you get to shake the lulav, made up of four species of plant - the citron, which has taste and fragrance; the date palm, which has taste but no fragrance; the myrtle, which has fragrance but no taste; and the willow, which has neither taste nor fragrance.

Like many other things within Judaism, there is rich symbolism to this. To some Jews, taste represents Torah and knowledge, whereas smell represents mitzvahs. Thus, the willow represents the Jew who has no knowledge of the Torah and who does not perform mitzvahs. The myrtle represents the Jew who performs mitzvahs and tries to be good but does not know a lot about Torah. The date palm represents the Jew who knows the Torah and Talmud and all the Jewish history backwards and forwards, but who may not perform any mitzvahs. And the citron represents the Jew who is knowledgeable and performs mitzvahs.

And on Sukkot, all four species are shaken together because - in theory - it is a time when all Jews are supposed to come together and celebrate, despite our differences. And last night really embodied that aspect of Sukkot for me more than I've ever experienced.

Because last night I celebrated with the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jews.

A Journey to World War One [WITH INTERVIEWS!]

I'm gonna skip doing a flouncy intro and just cut right to the chase - last weekend was the annual "Camp Doughboy" WWI event on Governor's Island.

Though a lot of my friends were gonna be there (many of which longtime readers of this blog will probably recognise), I actually didn't think I was gonna be able to make it this year. But I guess the gods were on my side, because one odd circumstance after another led to my Saturday being unusually free (I usually work until 6 on Saturdays!), so I hopped on the ferry to Governor's Island.

And boy am I glad I did.

World War One often gets brushed under the rug in American history, in favour of its flashy sequel. But the stakes were equally high, if not higher, and it definitely deserves a hell of a lot more lip service than it gets! I learned so much from this event! And I wanted to take the opportunity to share with you all some of what I learned.

While wikipedia will lead you to a lot of resources about the circumstances and outcomes of World War One (or "The Great War" as it was known back then) I decided to focus on something a little different - the stories that are rarely told of people who are rarely recognised for their role in the war.

Below the cut are interviews describing the roles of Native Americans, female doctors, and Hollywood starlets in the war effort. I sincerely hope you all learn something you didn't know before in reading them. Enjoy!