Tuesday, March 19th 2024   |

Purim

How Jews are addressing the megillah’s bloodiest chapter during wartime this Purim

By JACKIE HAJDENBERG

(JTA) — Like many synagogues, Rabbi Nate DeGroot’s California congregation had a tradition of accompanying the annual recitation of the Purim story with rowdy humor. But when the storytelling arrived at the penultimate chapter, the jokes stopped and a monitor that had displayed Purim-themed memes went dark.

That’s because Chapter Nine of the story, recounted in a book of the Bible called Megillat Esther, contains a vibe...

Sarajevo Jews celebrate a second Purim. For centuries, they weren’t alone.

By DAVID I. KLEIN

(JTA) — Starting tonight, many Jews around the world will celebrate Purim in the same ways: by reading the story of the heroic Queen Esther, dressing in festive costumes and drinking alcohol.

For many of the 900 or so Jews in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it will be the first of two annual Purim celebrations.

Since 1820, locals have also observed the Purim de Saray (Saray being...

OP-ED: The Purim story starts in fear and ends in vengeance. Can America and Israel break that cycle?

By ANDREA HODOS

(JTA) — Many people think of Purim as a children’s holiday — unadulterated joy, fun and merriment. But I have come to see it as a profound moral commentary on what it means to hold power, and a cautionary tale about what happens when we fail to do our part to break the cycle of violence when the power is in our hands to do it.

I...

Purim guide for the perplexed 2023

By YORAM ETTINGER

(JNS.org) –“Purimfest 1946!” yelled Julius Streicher, the Nazi propaganda chief, as he approached the hanging gallows in Nuremberg. On October 16, 1946, 10 convicted Nazi war criminals were hanged, just as the ten sons of Haman were hanged in ancient Persia.

Julius Streicher’s ranch served as a camp for young Jewish Holocaust survivors on their way to Israel. One of them was the late Eliezer Cotler,...

A graphic novel of the Purim story, from a Batman comics editor

By JULIAN VOLOJ

(JTA) — In 1996, Jordan Gorfinkel launched two series of comics that get at the two sides to his personality and career.

One was “Birds of Prey” — which has since been the basis for several television and film adaptations — that he created while overseeing the Batman franchise as an editor at DC Comics. (Another claim to fame during his tenure from 1991-99 was the creation...

Laughs

By RABBI JOSEPH PROUSER

Recently added to the décor of my “Saba Cave” (a basement rec room and personal sanctuary, so dubbed by my grandchildren) is a framed, vintage 1942, full-page magazine advertisement for a “Hitler Pin Cushion.” Depicted is a six-inch figurine of the Fuehrer, disconsolate in expression, hunched over, a pin cushion on his posterior.

Customers are urged to carry out a “rear line attack” and “stick it”...

My mom’s hamantaschen recipe carries the memories that she is losing

By ERIN BESER

(JTA) — My mother always loved to cook and bake, but I was never welcome in the kitchen. Not every night before dinner, not before Shabbat when she made challah every week, and not in the leadup to Chankkah and Passover, when her latke and seder preparations were underway.

The big exception was just before Purim, when she would ceremoniously invite me into the kitchen to help...

That time ‘Saturday Night Live’ celebrated Purim and St. Patrick’s Day

By LISA KEYS

(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — The joyous and, yes, slightly drunken holidays of St. Patrick’s Day and Purim both fall on March 17 this year. As it happens, these Jewish and Irish festivals also collided in 1984 — and of course the funny folks over at “Saturday Night Live” had a sketch to mark the occasion.

The “cold open” from the March 17, 1984 episode...

The ‘Double P’: Purim and St. Patrick’s Day coincide this year, giving Irish Jews more reason to raise a glass

By CNAAN LIPHSHIZ

(JTA) — Irish Jews are getting ready to celebrate a rare occasion that they call the “Double P”: when the Jewish holiday of Purim and St. Patrick’s Day both fall on the same day.

“It’s a very joyous moment that combines both parts of our identities, which share a lot of similarities, including a strong sense of identity and the pursuit of freedom,” said Malcolm Gafson, the...

Staying sober on Purim: Jews with alcohol use disorder can be triggered during the drinking holiday

By RACHEL ROMÁN

(JTA) — When Jerry was 21, he was invited to a “white kiddush,” a twist on the Shabbat eve service that substitutes vodka for the traditional wine or grape juice. It took place during Purim, the Jewish holiday when alcohol is not only permitted but often encouraged.

While there, he was poured 16 ounces of straight vodka in a glass. As he became inebriated, he grew belligerent...