Sunday, October 16, 2005

40. Recalling the Desert while Wrapped in Goose-Down

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I figured that no one in Deering would ever have a sukkah, especially this year when Sukkot falls so late in the autumn. Well, I still don’t think there had ever been a sukkah in Deering, but some people come close.
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An excerpt from the article from this week’s English version of The Forward:
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In Fairbanks, Alaska, each year David Crawson and his wife, Jennifer Eskridge, build one of the few sukkot around. “Sukkot is not a highly observed holiday here because it is so cold,” Crawson said. “There’s almost always snow falling before Sukkot or during.” But give up Sukkot? They sooner would add layers of clothing, insulate the sukkah walls with colorful tapestries to break the wind or huddle in sleeping bags rated for 20-below weather. One “balmy” year when the temperatures were merely freezing, Eskridge and her daughter (then 6) did just that. More commonly, the family builds a fire pit in the sukkah. It sits on a metal stand. The colder the temperature, the smaller the fire hazard, they say. “We always eat in [the sukkah], that’s a hands down. We’re Alaskans; we just put on more clothes,” Eskridge said.

You can go to see the entire article at:
http://www.forward.com/articles/4792

Comments:
Yup - I found an article in the New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/16/
nyregion/16lula.html

I think ths year, some people will have to share. For the future, can they be grown in the Negev?
 
Well, it seems as if the press is really full of news about Jews in Alaska this week! There was a letter to the editor in this week's Yiddish Forward (Forverts) From a Steven Jacobs in Fairbanks:

(quoted material begins)

װי קריגט אַן אַלאַסקער די ביכער

חשובֿער רעדאַקטאָר

מיך- און מסתּמאַ אַנדערע לײענער-װאָלט מען זײער צופֿרידן געשטעלט, אױב בײַם אָפּדרוקן אַ רעצענזיע פֿון אַ נײַעם בוך געשריבן אױף ייִדיש איר װאָלט אױך געגעבן צו װיסן װי אַזױ און פֿון װאַנען מען קען עס באַקומען. עס איז ניטאָ קײן ייִדישער בוכהאַנדלער װוּ איך װױן

(c-lady's translation)
How can an Alaskan get the books?

To the editor:
It would delight me--and probably other readers as well--if when you printed a review of a new book in Yiddish, you also let us know how and from where to get it. There are no Yiddish bookstores where I live.

respectfully,
Steven Jacobs, Fairbanks Alaska
quoted material ends

Of course both of these items are about Fairbanks, which is practically Miami Beach compared to Deering.
 
Hi, Chanela,
We finished and decorated our succa this afternoon. (It's probably easier here than it would be in Deering.)
We really missed D. today because when she was little and came to NY for Succot, she was our chief decorator.
Chag sameach!
Ima
 
Hi mom! call me when you can! (Phonetag bites) I think I'm seeing dad either today or tomorrow, so we'll both give you a ring when we're together. I LOVE YOU AND I MISS YOU MORE THAN I EVER EXPECTED! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Goofy (your daughter, in case you have forgotten me)
 
In Hebrew, Alaska is spelled אלסקה
 
The Yiddsih spelling of Alaska is

אַלאַסקע
Add an 'r' to that and it means someone from Alaska, as in "How can an Alaskan get the books?"
 
Anyone know how to write Alaska in Ladino?
 
Plano - who better to design software to stop spyware than someone who makes spyware? They know what to look out for. :-)
 
Let's just say it did not affect the lulav supply in Deering.
 
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