White House Boos Haman As Greenblatt Leads Purim Megillah Reading

Purim Megilla reading at the White House Image by Screenshot/Twitter

By Nathan Guttman March 1, 2018

Jewish White House staffers made time Wednesday evening to gather in the building to celebrate the holiday of Purim by reading the Megillah, the Book of Esther.

The reading, led by Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt, included the traditional noise-making groggers that participants sounded off every time the reader said the name of the evil royal adviser Haman.

Greenblatt shared video of the reading on Twitter, adding that he was “Blessed to be able to celebrate the holiday of Purim in the White House. Proud to serve the incredible United States of America.”

It does not appear that anyone was wearing costumes.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO