I Love When Purim and International Women’s Month Collide

History is full of brave and badass women who did not shy away from speaking up when it counted. Unfortunately, most of their stories have either been reduced to the footnotes or lost entirely to the sands of time.

On this very short list of females whose names and narratives that we know is Queen Esther. During the Jewish holiday of Purim (which started last night and ended tonight), we remember her because she saved the Jews of Persia from the antisemitic pogrom that was being planned by Haman.

Being that March is International Women’s Month, I can’t think of a better reason to celebrate the legacy of Queen Esther. It took courage and a belief in knowing that she was doing the right thing, even when she knew that her life could be forfeit.

It is for this reason that she is remembered, revered, and respected to this day.

P.S. The newest Maccabeats video (We Don’t Talk About Haman) is out and it is brilliant.

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Throwback Thursday: Aristocrats (1999)

When we think of members of the British aristocracy. The pageantry, the press, the fancy clothes, the titles, etc. But, the question is, do we really know them or do we think we know them?

The 1999 six-part miniseries, Aristocrats, followed the lives of four sisters who have been born into the highest levels of 18th-century British life. Caroline (Serena Gordon), Emily (Geraldine Sommerville), Louisa (Anne-Marie Duff), and Sarah (Jodhi May), are the daughters of 3rd Duke and Duchess of Richmond (a pre-Downton Abbey Julian Fellows and Katherine Wogan). The series follows these sisters as they grow from girls to women and deal with what life has thrown at them.

I enjoyed this series. What I think made it interesting was that even though the main characters come from a certain stratum of society and live in a way that is specific to both their era and class, they are human. Each woman in her own right is full of life, love, contradictions, missteps, etc.

Do I recommend it? Yes.