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The book of Esther, read during Purim, has a special place in American history. Though some have argued that the unifying biblical story for Americans is the account of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt, the courage of the eponymous heroine of the book of Esther has also been a source of succor and moral inspiration in America since the days of the colonies.
In the biblical story, Esther, after being taken to the palace of King Xerxes to be his queen, heroically risks her life for her people. At the urging of her cousin Mordecai, she acts to save her fellow Jews from the plot of the king’s wicked adviser, Haman.
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How Queen Esther Became an American Hero Left: Queen Esther in America. Right: The author, Rabbi Stu Halpern
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This interview first appeared in the Jewish Week.
Ivanka Trump and Monica Lewinsky were both compared to Queen Esther. Hillary Clinton called the star of the Purim story her favorite biblical heroine. In 1862, an abolitionist minister quoted the Book of Esther in calling on President Lincoln to free the slaves.
Those are just a few of the ways the Book of Esther has been deployed in American political and cultural life. Ministers, rabbis, politicians, activists, feminists, anti-feminists and more have drawn on the story of the Jewish queen in the court of the Persian King Ahasuerus, finding lessons in how she intervenes to prevent the king’s evil minister Haman from killing the kingdom’s Jews.
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