(1) And first…..time for resolutions. You may recall that I made a New Years resolution in October, on Rosh Hashanah. My resolution was to read the Arts section of the New York Times every day. My goal was to become a little more up to speed on current culture. So far, I think I only missed one day of reading the section, but I have had to make some compromises. For one, since I have never played a video game and don’t think I ever will, I decided I didn’t have to read reviews of video games. I think that was a good decision, but it does compromise my resolution, to be sure. But, I figured, after all, this was a Rosh Hashanah resolution, and I am not Orthodox. I can compromise.

And it probably was a better choice that getting an M.A. in Contemporary Culture from Bowling Green University.

And here it is, time to make a resolution for 2025. I have thought long and hard about this one, have changed my mind several times, but finally have focused on something that I think is attainable. I resolve: to win a billion dollar lottery in 2025. That’s it. I ask for nothing more.

(2) Last night, we watched The Six Triple Eight on Netflix. I would recommend it, but not for the usual reason you recommend a film. As a film itself, it is good, but not outstanding, in my opinion. As a rendition of a true story that you probably know nothing about, it is a very important film and you should see it.

The “Six Triple Eight” was the name of a Women’s Army Corps battalion in World War II composed of African Americans. It was the only such group of African American women (some 800 strong) to be sent overseas, where it was given the task of clearing a backlog of over 17,000,000 pieces of mail to and from troops in Europe which the military had failed to deliver. The women cleared the backlog in 90 days, half of the time allotted to them for the task.

Remember the following: First, like all wars, World War II was awful for all troops fighting it. Second, the American military was fully segregated. Third, it was in fashion for White Americans to believe that Black Americans were inferior in every way, and that Black women were the most inferior of them all, and it was in fashion for White Americans to express their views publicly, both to each other, and to the Black Americans whose qualities were being questioned. Fourth, many or most White American soldiers lived in segregated parts of America, where bathrooms, lunch rooms and water fountains (not to say theaters and schools) were fully segregated.

This is all to say that the women making up the “Six Triple Eight” had a lot to overcome. And overcome they did.

The two leads, Kerry Washington playing the officer leading the batalion

The two leads, Kerry Washington playing the officer leading the battalion, and Ebony Obsidian, a young actress playing a member of the battalion whose White, Jewish boyfriend had been killed in battle months before, were both outstanding. Oprah Winfrey had a small part in one scene playing Mary McLeod Bethune and did her typical fine job. A casting mistake was made, I believe, when they decided that Eleanor Roosevelt should be played by Susan Sarandon, and another when Sam Waterston was cast as FDR, but the roles were small, and so was the amount of annoyance.

Obsidian’s character was named Lena Derriecott, and the real Lena Derriecott lived long enough to act as an advisor on the film to ensure (so it is said) that everything was accurate, and to give a wonderful coda to the film at the end. Derriecott passed away during 2014, just shy of her 101st birthday. The film also ends showing Michelle Obama giving an award to the battalion, and showing actual black and white footage from the war years.

(3) For my last book of the year, I chose one that (what’s new?) no one else has probably ever read. It is called Moses Hess on Religion, Judaism and the Bible, and was written by a Swedish professor of Jewish Studies, Svante Lundgren, in 1992. Hess was born in and lived in Germany in the 19th century, and while no one ever really heard of him (that would include me), he is worth learning about.

I am not going to try to tell you everything here, but let it be said that Hess was Jewish (and Jewishly educated), a Spinozan pantheist, a sometime Christian, an Atheist and a born-again Jew. He was a socialist, and a communist, and a friend and collaborator of Marx and Engels (he used the term “opiate of the people” and “from each according to his ability and to each according to his need” before Marx did). He was also a Jewish nationalist (adamantly against American Reform Judaism which denied that Judaism was anything more than a religion) and friend of Herzl. He believed that Christianity was better than Judaism to the extent that it was universal, while Judaism tended to push away non-Jews, but thought that Judaism was better than Christianity because it was a communal religion, while Christianity was an individualistic religion. He blamed the concept of Christian individualism as being the cause of capitalism, which he believed to be destructive of ideal human societies. He thought that one day, the Jews would have their own state, that it would be socialistic (which it was at the start), that Hebrew would be the language (no one else thought this at the time), and that indeed it would be a light to the nations. He believed in a Messianic Age, nit in a personal messiah.

That’s my summary. You can see why, as to Moses Hess, attention must be paid.

(4) That’s it for 2024. Onward…..