Realizing this blog hasn’t posted anything in a long while. Author is working on a book — hope to share in some form sometime soon — and dealing with a variety of pressures from daily life and city and national worries. So, just by way of greeting, sharing pictures of DC Tefillin Barbie in 1) her sukkah, surrounded by message-filled images and a shelter, however shaky; and 2) post-sukkah sparseness, trying to figure out what is next.
Barbie in 5787 Sukkah. DC Tefillin Barbie in her cardboard and cloth sukkah with dried greenery roofing. Tefillin Barbie wears store-bought clothing, tallit and tefillin crafted by soferet Jen Taylor Friedman plus homemade kippah and shoes. Furnishings and lulav and etrog are homemade, so is tiny siddur (a replica of Siddur Eit Ratzon). Soferet Friedman supplied the Talmud volume, when Barbie arrived in DC in 2014. Decorations include a sign reading “Help us to see that no work truly prospers unless it bring blessing to others…never seek to dispossess others of what they have planted.– from Reform Prayerbook” (This is included as a wall in her sukkah every year, based on a larger canvass sign that once hung in the Occupy K Street sukkah and now usually hangs outside the larger, outdoor sukkah); a “Sumud Sustainers” image from Palestinian Legal including a keffiyah-kite is visible near the front (new for 5787), and a piece of artwork from a friend is in the back (also new for 5787).
Barbie post-Sukkot. DC Tefillin Barbie (see above for details on her appearance) at a table with a laptop. Talmud volume and siddur are off on a side-table.
Just BTW: We were assured by our local Councilmember that National Guard would be told to honor the law and stay 50′ away from Ballot Drop Boxes. But this was the view on the eve of voting.
Three National Guard standing at drop box for ballots near Foggy Bottom Metro station and GW University (Northwest DC) at rush hour, October 8, 2026. Directly violating current law. See, e.g., Brennan Center, The Conversation, and NPR. See also DC Board of Elections.
