Purim is one of the more obscure Jewish holidays. It commemorates the deliverance of the Jews from a genocidal plot, as recorded in the Book of Esther (known in Hebrew as the Megillah). The Megillah ...

If Mordechai and Esther saw what 2018 had done to Purim, I like to think they’d be satisfied. The day is commemorated across Jewish denominations with celebration, exchanging of gifts, donations to ...

Purim, which commemorates the Jewish people’s deliverance from near destruction in ancient Persia, is celebrated from sundown Feb. 25 to sundown on the 26th. It’s a joyous holiday celebrated with ...

The Biblical Book of Esther tells of Queen Vashti, wife of King Xerxes of Persia. At the height of a grand banquet filled with drunken nobles and courtiers, the king ordered Vashti to appear before ...

Call it the “Esther/Vashti Complex” — the perennial Purim impulse to define Esther and Vashti against each other as foils, opposites, rivals, or enemies. They were none of these. This false dichotomy ...

ENCINO, Calif., Feb. 18 (JTA) — “Vashti’s the only one in the Purim story who should be congratulated,” my son Danny, 12, says. You may recall that King Ahasuerus, who had been sumptuously drinking ...

“Is Vashti the evil queen of the Purim story?” my daughter asked me after a recent Hebrew school class. Vashti, of course, was the erstwhile queen of Persia, according to the Bible’s Book of Esther.

This weekend marks the Jewish celebration of Purim. And with Purim the biblical book of Esther comes to mind. This Cinderella-like story tells how a beautiful Jewish orphan girl named Esther is chosen ...

“Vashti’s the only one in the Purim story who should be congratulated,” my son Danny, 12, says. You may recall that King Ahasuerus, who had been sumptuously drinking and feasting with his Shushan ...