Thursday, April 25th 2024 |
By EMILY RAY BARAF
(JTA) — Purim is often filled with boisterous celebrations, drinking and an embrace of the otherwise taboo.
Yet the Book of Esther recounts a traditional story that confines to the most damaging stereotypes about women, especially in its portrayal of queens Esther and Vashti. In the traditional reading of the Purim story, the reserved Queen Esther (her name literally means “hidden”) manages to save the Jewish people...
By RABBI DAVID WOLPE
Purim is a holiday of masks. A mask doesn’t fully change you, but it obscures identity, distorting who you are. A mask permits you to assume a slightly different way of being in the world. The boy who dresses as Mordechai can act old and wise, but everyone recognizes him as a boy playing a role; the girl who dresses as Esther can play at being bold,...
By ARIEL SOBEL
LOS ANGELES (JTA) – Queen Esther had a secret – a violent, consuming reality pulsing through her veins that kept her up at night. It made every room feel like solitary confinement. If it were exposed, it could end her job, her marriage and even her life. But slipping into silence was not an option. So after years of torment, Esther went public as a Jew.
When Esther...
Adloyadah, the annual community-wide Purim celebration, will be held this Sunday, February 25, at the Uptown Jewish Community Center from 11:30 a.m. till 3:30 p.m.
The event will be held indoors regardless of weather, so parents should rest assured that the weather will not spoil any plans to celebrate the redemption of the Jews of Persia some 500 years BCE.
The center’s backyard is not available this year due to...
By CNAAN LIPHSHIZ
TILBURG, Netherlands (JTA) — Although he lives in a city with only a few dozen Jews, the Israel-born photographer Idan Hemo and his family enjoy each spring what he calls “hardcore Purim” street festivities.
“Everyone dresses up, including and especially the adults, in elaborate costumes and there’s just constant drinking and an incredible party atmosphere on the street,” Hemo said of the annual street party that takes...
By RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB
“PURIM: SERIOUS FUN“
Yiddish, in many sectors of the Jewish community, is a dying language. This is a pity because of the many pearls of wisdom that are contained in Yiddish stories and folk songs.
One such song has these words:
Haynt iz Purim
Morgen iz oys
Gib mir a groschen
Und varft mir aroys.
Roughly translated:
Today is Purim
Tomorrow it...
The community wide Purim celebration will be held indoors at the Uptown Jewish Community Center on Sunday, March 12, beginning at 11:30 a.m.
In addition to expected inclement weather, the center’s back yard is not available this year due to construction for the new fitness center and aquatics area.
The doors to the center will be open at both the front and the rear of the building, this year. Wrist...
(JTA) — The Bnei Akiva Jewish youth movement published online a Purim video of its members performing a dance choreographed by the brother of a fallen Israeli soldier. Hemi Goldin, whose brother, Hadar, was killed by Hamas in 2014 and whose body has not been returned for burial, invented the dance routine in memory of his brother’s joviality, World Bnei Akiva said in a statement about the video, which was...
By ELLEN HERSHKIN
(JTA) — Shots fired into a classroom window at an Indiana synagogue. Cemeteries desecrated in Pennsylvania, Missouri, and New York. Swastikas scrawled on Jewish buildings. More than 100 bomb threats called in to Jewish community centers.
History doesn’t always repeat itself, but echoes of the darkest chapters serve as warnings. We study the past and preserve our tradition so that we’ll recognize the signs. For these troubled...
By CNAAN LIPHSHIZ
(JTA) — Though he may be one of France’s best-known puppet makers, Michel Nedjar insists he does not really create the acclaimed and haunting figures that he calls his “Purim puppets.”
A former tailor’s apprentice whose life’s work last week went on display at the prestigious Metropolitan Museum of Lille, Nedjar says he merely “exhumes” his puppets to reconnect to his brethren who were murdered in the...
