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Mar. 10, 2021
Purim 2021 was the first holiday Melbourne’s Jewish community celebrated together in nearly a year.
After the southeastern Australian state of Victoria imposed a snap five-day lockdown early last month, following an outbreak of the hyper-contagious U.K. variant at a Melbourne hotel, Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann at the Ark Modern Orthodox synagogue started researching the halakhic validity of a Zoom megillah reading. But the state government lifted the lockdown on February 17 and Kaltmann hastily prepared for a hamantaschen bake, two megillah readings and a Purim party – all socially distanced, of course.
“The atmosphere was electric,” Kaltmann told Haaretz after the hamantaschen bake launched the festive celebrations last month. “Everyone was so happy to be around other people.”