Related Blog Posts on Purim

Royal Fashion: Esther Edition

Rabbi Sari Laufer
February 22, 2023
Clothes may not make the woman, but there is no doubt that there are times when the clothes we wear make a difference. Clothes can help define us; think of a doctor donning their long white coat for the first time. Clothes can also help others identify us; a firefighter or an EMT arriving in uniform tells me that help has arrived. Sometimes, the clothes we wear help us imagine a different future for ourselves. Organizations that provide people with affordable business attire for interviews, such as Bottomless Closet or Dress for Success, have long understood that first impressions matter.

When the Queen Says No

Rabbi Leah R. Berkowitz
March 4, 2022
I had been wanting to write about Queen Vashti for a while. A big part of my rabbinate and my writing focuses on uplifting the stories of women in the biblical narrative, especially those who do not get enough attention.

This Purim, Make Noise to Protest Modern-Day Hamans

Rabbi David Wirtschafter
February 22, 2021
We know that religious freedom is not a lesson from ancient stories, but an ongoing quest even today. While many of us are fighting antisemitism in our home countries, we are also in solidarity with the Rohingya people, who have been persecuted for decades.

Book of Esther: A Poem

Stacey Zisook Robinson, z"l
March 12, 2019

Reform Jewish poet Stacey Z. Robinson wrote this original poem for Purim, painting a much different picture of Esther than we knew as children.