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The Enduring Story of Esther in America
Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern is the Senior Advisor to the Provost and Senior Program Officer of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University, and the editor of “Esther in America” (Maggid Books)
Queen Esther Approaching the Palace of Ahasuerus ( Purchase, The Annenberg Foundation Gift, 1997/Metropolitan Museum of Art/Wikimedia Commons)
For Jonathan Kirsch’s book review of Rabbi Stuart Halpern’s “Esther in America,” click here.
Before masking and social distancing came to America, they dwelled in ancient Shushan. As the megillah of Esther recounts, the Jews in the kingdom of King Ahasuerus were both part of and apart from the wider society. They were active and contributing residents of the public square who nonetheless lived at constant risk of prejudice and antagonism by those who were unaccepting of their unique beliefs and practices. With their Jewish identities partially obscured, Queen Esther and her co