(JTA) â When she was 10 years old, Nechama Mayer-Hirsch sat down to make puppets for a Purim spiel and crafted one of the man responsible for her fatherâs murder.
The puppet version of Adolf Hitler wasnât Mayer-Hirschâs favorite from the set she produced for the Purim theater show in 1951. That designation went to Queen Esther, the heroine who foils the planned murder of Persiaâs Jews by Haman, an official who ends up getting executed by hanging by his master King Ahasuerus.
But it was the most unusual. Rather than portraying Haman with his trademark three-pointed hat, her puppet had Hitlerâs mustache and wore a brown gabardine suit.
Purim and The Risk of Isolation
(Israel Policy Forum) Purim begins tonight, and as so often tends to happen, the arrival of this unique holiday has me thinking about what the Book of Esther tells us about what we see today. Jews’ embrace of Purim in the U.S. and Israel is very different. Here, it is seen as a triumphal Diaspora story, taking place entirely outside of the Land of Israel and telling the tale of a Jewish minority at the whims of an antisemitic regime turning the tables on its oppressors. In Israel, while it has turned into something of an excuse for bacchanalian partying, the Purim story and the absence of any mention of God in the Book of Esther resonates because it shows the possibility of making one’s own miracles happen without direct divine intervention, an obvious parallel to Zionism and Israel’s creation. These are both logical readings of Esther, but the fact that they are such different readings reinforces a point about Israeli Jews and North American