You can drown out more than just Haman this Purim. “The Donald Noisemaker,” a free app available in the iTunes store, allows users to shake away their distaste for President Trump during the holiday. Wave your phone up and down and you’ll get sound bytes of Trump saying the words “wrong,” “oy-ya-ye,” and “boo” over…
At Jewcy, Gabriela Geselowitz offers advice to Jews thinking of wearing blackface for Purim. Don’t. I second that advice wholeheartedly. Still unsure why blackface — on Purim or in general — is a bad idea? Geselowitz spells out the essential: “If a minority community overwhelmingly communicates that an aspect of emulating them for a costume…
In Tel Aviv, Purim is not just a holiday for humans. Plenty of dogs are decked out in fashionable costumes. One dog I saw was dressed like a lion. The dog-lion attracted claps and whistles from passersby. Another more feminine dog wore a headband with a pink sequined bow, and still another had an elaborate…
We do not tend to think of Mordecai as a displaced person, but perhaps we should. His family, we are told, had been exiled from Jerusalem (Esther 2:6) by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Mordecai himself embraces this placelessness. Out of home in the world, the man refuses to come indoors. King Achashverosh cavorts in lavish…
Despite its regular appearance on the Jewish calendar, Purim tends to take me by surprise each year, leaving me scrambling to bake my hamentashen and assemble a costume for our synagogue’s all-ages party. Last year, though, I was prepared. “I’m going as a nun,” I announced to my husband. A friend had a costume from…
Purim is the Israeli Halloween. Pop-up costume shops appear in the weeks ahead, children dress up for school and hamantaschen are as ubiquitous as mini Snickers bars. But there’s a darker side to the holiday, too. The Purim story is a tale of revenge. After Esther and Mordechai foil Haman’s plot to kill the Jews,…
Purim is coming up this Saturday, and we found the perfect six videos for you to watch in celebration. You know, in between digging through your closet for a last minute D.I.Y costume and shoving endless hamantaschen into your mouth. “Esther’s a Jew” by Erez Cohen Esther, JSwipe and a well-produced spin on Ellie King’s…
The story of evil trying to triumph over good is a story the Jewish community knows well. Every Purim, we remember the heroic actions of Queen Esther, who took a stand against evil and reversed the plot of a man who planned to persecute and annihilate the Jewish people. Her quiet diplomacy helped her husband,…
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