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.