Esther’s not the only queen this Purim. Beit Haverim, France’s association for queer and trans Jews, cut a video ahead of this Sunday featuring drag queens (along with other male and female dancers) breaking it down while explaining the holiday. “Esther, the most beautiful of queens, has saved us from a certain death. Let’s sing,…
Jews About Town is a new weekly column that features the hottest Jewish social events, parties, and networking opportunities for young professionals. To suggest a future event or write about one of these events, email us . Follow us on Twitter at @JewAboutTown. The Week Ahead: March 6 – 12 Monday NYC — Get up…
([JTA](http://www.jta.org ” “JTA”)) — [(JTA](JTA](http://jta.org “(JTA”)) — Purim is a dark story marked by a crazy party. I’m still unsure why a close brush with extermination became, in the Middle Ages, an opportunity for costumes and farce, but there you have it. It’s the fifth century BCE, about a hundred years after the First…
Usually, I love Purim. I cherish that Jewish tradition promotes a day, just one, to undermine its whole system of laws, where we are compelled to cross-dress, to give endless charity, to drink until one knows not the difference between “blessed is Mordechai and cursed is Haman,” good and evil. But, a teacher of mine…
In the beginning, there was mun. And it was good. Mun, sometimes spelled mohn, is the Yiddish word for sweet poppy-seed jam. It was a key ingredient in many Eastern European baked goods, from mohnbrötchen (poppy-seed bread) to munstrudel (a sweet, swirled bread). So it’s no surprise that Ashkenazic Jews used mun to fill their…
On the way home from the funeral, we discussed Amalek. It was Purim time, 1996. Israel was living through one of its worst spates of terrorism in years. Two students, Matt Eisenfeld and Sarah Duker, boarded a bus together and were killed, along with 24 other people. Matt was my friend. He and Sara were…
Because Halloween, as All Hallows’ Eve, has its roots in pagan mythology and the Christian calendar, Jews traditionally don’t celebrate it. But increasingly people (including Jews) around the world are celebrating American Halloween and that’s a terrible mistake. Maybe I am aging into a curmudgeon — certainly young children and LGBT communities have righteous fun…
NEW YORK — Leaders in the Jewish community of New York’s Rockland County condemned the hanging of a black-faced doll with dreadlocks outside a local home apparently in celebration of Purim. The effigy, which according to a News12 Hudson Valley report Thursday evening was spotted outside a Spring Valley house, angered many African-Americans and others…
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