“Everything gets turned on its head,” said Rabbi Peter Levi of Temple Beth El of South Orange County. “On one level, (Purim) is a story of genocide. On the other side it’s farcical. Purim is the ...

The Purim spiel here is a bawdy affair. Cross-dressing Jewish community officials with gold teeth and uneven breasts, solicit young King Ahasuerus — who, predictably, chooses Esther. A Nazi-costumed ...

Get your party on; Purim is almost here! The holiday is one of the most joyous and fun on the Jewish calendar, complete with everything from feasts to costumes to wine, all in honor of Queen Esther ...

The fun that goes along with the celebration of Purim can't be overstated, The Associated Press reports. The tale behind the festival — which was celebrated between sunset on Wednesday and nightfall ...

Dr. Paul Brody (left) and Head of School Rabbi Jeffrey Kobrin (right) are surrounded by students. (Photos by Daniel Aghalarian) North Shore Hebrew Academy (NSHA) middle schoolers will celebrate a ...

As Rabbi Nochum Kurinsky read the entire biblical book of Esther in Hebrew, a room full of adults and children followed along. Each had a copy of the book written in Hebrew and English, and a slide ...

As a child, Idit Klein celebrated Purim by wearing homemade gowns and tiaras to play the beautiful Queen Esther. She fantasized about how she, like the heroine who bravely confessed her faith to save ...

After the Jews defend themselves and killed the 10 sons of Haman, Esther asks the king, "If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews … to do tomorrow also as this day, and have the bodies of ...

It would make sense to start the Jewish year on Rosh Hashanah, literally the “head of the year,” but that’s not how it goes in the Bible. There, just as we are about to leave Egypt, with great signs ...

It all started with a party. Achashverosh, the king of Persia in the mid-300s B.C., got drunk and ordered his wife Vashti, renowned for her beauty and a direct descendant of Nebuchadnezzar, to show up ...

Purim, one of the most joyous holidays on the Jewish calendar, celebrates a time when the Jewish people living in Persia were saved from extermination by a beautiful young woman named Esther with the ...