Purim: Celebrating Victory Over Prejudice and Hatred
By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman
February 21, 2023
As the holiday of Purim approaches, many of us are busy planning and preparing: There are Purim spiels to write and rehearse; funny and elaborate costumes to create (or purchase); hamantaschen to bake; baskets of goodies to assemble for friends and neighbors; and donations to be made to the needy in our communities. These are only some of the mitzvahs associated with this rich and immensely popular holiday.
The masks we wear on Purim add to the fun and revelry, but they also serve another, more serious function. They remind us that what lies hidden behind all this exuberance and celebration is, in reality, not at all funny
The common saying is, they tried to kill us, they failed, let’s eat. But this condensed version of Jewish history hides much behind the few words. How many times did they not fail to kill us? The hated Haman’s words echo still today, as they have throughout our journeys all over the world, throughout time. It’s Jewish greed that anti-Semites most often point to: “It’s all about the Benjamins,” as US Representative Ilhan Omar declared a few years ago. It’s the dual loyalty—to the host country, yes, but not as much as to ourselves, to other Jews, and to the State of Israel. It’s the excessive power and control that Jews supposedly have in politics, the economy, entertainment and just about every other aspect of life.
There’s hardly a day when we Jews don’t encounter anti-Semitism. And it isn’t only the synagogue massacres and attacks which garner global attention. It’s the daily incidents: the threats; the anti-Semitic myths and propaganda that circulate on the social media; the vile flyers distributed in Jewish neighborhoods and Jewish venues; the ostracizing of Jewish students and desecration of Jewish symbols on college campuses—most recently, in our own backyard, on the campus of the University of Denver. It’s the bullying of children in middle- and high schools, and the physical attacks—the punching, pushing and kicking of visibly identifiable Jews, in broad daylight, on open and public city streets.
The increasing anxiety and fear felt by Jews in the US today represents a reality that most of us have managed to forget or suppress behind ritualized commemorations like Yom Ha-Shoah or International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Yet what we Jews sense today represents not something that belongs in the past, but rather is a real and present danger.
Hatred does not come from nowhere. Anti-Semitism is as old as Judaism itself. We can surmise that from Abraham’s flight from his homeland of Haran; we remain witnesses to the slavery and genocide that Pharaoh and the ancient Egyptians carried out. We are reminded of it when we read the Biblical story of Esther. In our own day, though few survivors of the Holocaust still remain, their children and grandchildren still carry the emotional and psychological scars. And we also find these baseless and contemptible accusations in their newest guise: anti-Zionism. Told and retold in story and myth, in theater and the movies, even in seemingly harmless jokes, the Jew has always been equated with evil itself.
That’s not to say that anti-Semitism is a separate hatred in our culture, just one among others. It’s often related to other prejudices, based on nationality, race, color, religion, gender and other lines of separation. That’s why one of the first steps in our struggle against anti-Semitism should be to take a strong stance against any form of hatred and bigotry. As we did during the Civil Rights era of the 60’s, so today too we must present a united front, reaching across all other divides to stand together against all the hate mongers, be they from the right-wing White Supremacists to the so-called Liberal Left.
Because fear and hate don’t stop with us. Directed at anyone who might look or act different, they are symptoms of a pathogen that attacks not only others, but its host as well.
We must never be silent bystanders to hate. There are many organizations that we can turn to for help, from school boards when we realize that our children’s textbooks are filled with misrepresentation of Jewish character or history; to the local police and other, major organizations such as the ADL and the FBI.
Free speech is guaranteed in America, so hate speech per se can’t be censored—but it must not be ignored either. Remaining silent is not an option because words can all all-too-easily turn into violence. Confronting hate speech and engaging all legal means to stop threats and acts of violence are the chief tools we can and must use in our fight against anti-Semitism.
Last month I attended a conference convened by StandWithUs, an organization founded in 2001, in the midst of the Arab murderous wave of terrorism known as the Intifada, as a response to the lies and misinformation that were being spread against Israel and Jews all over the world. I was tremendously impressed by the work this organization does, particularly in the fields of education and law. Its legal staff is thoroughly familiar with everything happening today—not only in our own courts, but also in the United Nations and the International Court of Justice. Its educational work on behalf of global acceptance of the IHRA Working Definition of anti-Semitism has seen great success in universities as well as other national and international institutions. Over the past two decades, StandWithUs has grown and taken on the tough task of fighting anti-Semitism wherever it appears: in the classroom or the workplace, in personal conversation or on social media, on playgrounds or in school hallways.
Anti-Semitism is the oldest hatred and, along with slavery, the bloodiest and most evil crime against humanity. It’s possible, and quite probable, that anti-Semitism will never disappear. In the Biblical story of Esther, even the king is powerless to change the order he himself had previously issued, to kill all Jews—men, women and children. However, what we do have is the power to stand up and defend ourselves. That is our basic human right, and we must never lose sight of this fact and truth. And that is the deeper lesson of the holiday of Purim.
In the Jewish calendar, we are now in the month of Adar, the month of Purim. The ancient rabbis encouraged us to rejoice during these days. But along with the celebrations, we must also always remember the constant danger that the rejoicing masks. We must never forget that the miracle of our survival is the result of human, not only divine, intervention. It was Mordechai’s teaching, no less than Esther’s conversion from fear to heroism, from naïveté to responsibility, that have made this joyful holiday possible. May Mordechai and Esther always be the model for our own behavior and our own actions in the face of the vile scourge of anti-Semitism, and may our holidays always be a source only of blessings, festivities and joy.
© 2023 by Boaz D. Heilman
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