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Americans think 30% of the country is Jewish, Pittsburgh rabbi alleges sexual abuse, anti-Zionist activist pushed out of Google job, and the secret Jewish history of Batman.
A FESTIVAL AMID WAR Jews gathered for a Megillah reading in Romania Wednesday night. (Larry Cohler-Esses) Our correspondent Larry Cohler-Esses is spending Purim in Bucharest, which is flooded with Ukrainian refugees. But on this holiday where up is down and down is up, the only refugee among the throngs in the city’s majestic Choral Synagogue on Wednesday evening was a Moroccan from Marrakesh.
What he – and Larry – saw was a spectacle of Vaudeville-like Purim performances. There was a merciless satire of ideologues from the country’s Communist era. There was a reading by Romania’s queen of television and film, Maia Morgenstern (pictured above), of a Yiddish ghetto song. Morgenstern is known in the United States for her portrayal of the Virgin Mary in Mel Gibson’s controversial film “The Passion of the Christ.”
Yes, it’s Purim again.
The full story of Larry’s Purim in Bucharest will appear on our website later today.
More Purim stories Akedah Fulcher-Eze (right) and a colleague at Rikers in the 1990s. A Rikers Island Purim story | Finding God behind the gates: Being a Black, Orthodox woman working in a prison comes with many challenges. But perhaps the most surreal experience for Akedah Fulcher-Eze occurred when she was assigned the night shift on Purim, and feared she’d miss the reading of the Megillah. So she and a rabbi hatched a plan. They tracked down all the Jewish inmates (and a few others) and hosted what became the first of an annual tradition: the reading of the Book of Esther behind bars. Read her story ➤
Opinion | Queen Vashti is the feminist icon we need right now: Avoiding your drunken husband? Standing up for yourself, demanding respect and refusing to be objectified, even if the consequences are dire? These are the attributes of Vashti, the king’s first wife in the Purim story – and precisely the advice therapists and domestic-violence shelters give to women today. “Vashti’s emergence as a model in recent years represents something I adore about our Torah and our people,” writes Scott Huler. “It’s not Vashti who’s changed — we’ve changed.” Read his essay ➤
Opinion | Getting drunk on Purim is dangerous, and not a mitzvah:We’ve all heard the Talmudic commentary that on Purim, we are “commanded” to get so intoxicated we can no longer distinguish between Mordechai and Haman. But Rabbi Seth Winberg of Brandeis University Hillel says that this is a fringe minority opinion. And that it has created a toxic culture of intoxication around Purim on campus. “When we use alcohol as a draw to Jewish community,” Winberg writes, “we need to remember that we’re putting some students in harm’s way, and pushing others away.” Read his essay ➤
‘Free the gays’ | Orthodox high schoolers, led by rabbi, put on offensive Purim skit: The Yeshiva University High School in Los Angeles mocked its crosstown rival, Shalhevet, for its students’ stances on racial and gender equality. Rabbi Arye Sufrin, the head of school, apologized in an email to the community. “Today, our pillars, especially that of character development, was compromised by highly inappropriate and insensitive behavior that was unfortunately disguised as a poor attempt at humor,” he wrote. Read the story ➤
More Purim party favors… In Zelenskyy’s Mordechai-like Purim plea, President Biden is as uneasy as Esther, writes our PJ Grisar. Remember that time “Saturday Night Live” celebrated Purim and St. Patrick’s Day? Here’s the video. Watch the Book of Esther read in Yiddish and then watch our Rukhl Schaechter break down all the holiday-themed Yiddish phrases you’ll need to sound like the smartest chochem at your Purim party today.ALSO FROM THE FORWARD Every Jewish thing you need to know about Batman (and there’s a lot of it): For the second week in a row, “The Batman” is the No. 1 movie in America. His mythology is particularly relevant during the season of Purim – a holiday of costumes and masks, celebrating what may be the earliest case in literature of a heroic secret identity. Roy Schwartz, author of “Is Superman Circumcised,” now uncovers the caped crusader’s Jewish roots and themes – including an oft-forgotten comic that featured Batman’s cousin celebrating Hanukkah. Read the story ➤
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY Is this an accurate depiction of the population in America? (Getty) 📈 In a wild overestimate, Americans think 30% of the country is Jewish, according to a new survey. The exaggeration (it’s really 2%) is neither new nor unique to Jews – people often think minority groups are larger than they are. Another incorrect assumption from the survey? Respondents thought that 30% of the U.S. population lives in New York City. It’s actually 3%. (Forward)
💻 More than 500 Google employees have rallied behind a colleague who says she is being pushed out of her job because of her anti-Zionist activism. The employee, Ariel Koren, lobbied Google against entering a $1.2 billion contract with Israel, and says the tech giant retaliated by moving her California job to Brazil – with 17 days notice. (JTA, and read our background of this case)
🕍 A Pittsburgh rabbi alleges he was sexually abused while a student at Hebrew Union College a decade ago. Rabbi Jeremy Weisblatt of Temple Ohav Shalom said the rabbi who abused him during an internship in 2012-13 is still working at a Reform congregation; Weisblatt declined to name the alleged abuser or the synagogue where it happened, or to describe the nature of the abuse. He said that he reported the incident to the school at the time, but was told “that if I didn’t continue, I would not be ordained.” (Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle)
🏀 The Auburn University basketball team is heading into March Madness with a rare Jewish combo: Bruce Pearl, the coach, and Lior Berman, a junior guard. The duo celebrate holidays and attend synagogue together. “We share some of the same values and beliefs,” Pearl said. “We take great pride in representing a minority religion and group.” Tipoff for Auburn’s first game in the tournament is Friday at 12:40 p.m. ET. (JTA)
What else we’re reading: Purim edition ➤ Evangelical Christians are politicizing the Jewish story of Esther, writes Jane Eisner, the Forward’s former editor-in-chief … A Los Angeles doctor revives the tradition of Persian Jewish winemaking … As millions flee Ukraine, some rabbis have headed there to celebrate Purim … The Book of Esther is read, against the odds, in the ruins of the oldest Lviv synagogue.
What we’re watching ➤ We’ve all heard about President Zelenskyy’s previous career as an actor. Well, now’s your chance to see it for yourself. The first season of Zelenskyy’s political satire series, “Servant of the People,” arrived on Netflix Wednesday. In it, Zelenskyy portrays a teacher who unexpectedly becomes president after a video of him complaining about corruption goes viral. When he ran for president of Ukraine in 2019, he named his political party after the series. Watch it on Netflix here ➤
ON THE CALENDAR Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir with President Richard Nixon at the White House in 1969. (Getty) On this day in history: Golda Meir, a native of Ukraine, became the first (and, so far, only) female prime minister of Israel on March 17, 1969. When we asked our readers to share the story behind one of their favorite heirlooms, Norma Salz sent us a photo of a handwritten letter — in Yiddish! — that she received after Meir spent the night in the Salz family home in Buffalo, New York, in 1931. The warm words in Meir’s letter reveal that the young girl made quite an impression on her.Read all about it in “The night Golda Meir slept in my bed”➤
Learn about the secret Jewish history of St. Patrick’s Day.
FROM OUR ARCHIVES In 1952, New York had a beauty pageant to crown its very own Queen Esther, with contestants from colleges and youth groups from around the region. The winner was Sonia Kanciper, 22, a graduate student at Hunter College and a member of the Labor Zionist group “Farband.” She was crowned in front of a crowd of 18,000 at Madison Square Garden and, for a prize, received a free trip to Israel.
––– Play today’s Vertl puzzle (aka the Yiddish Wordle)
Thanks to Nora Berman, Larry Cohler-Esses, PJ Grisar and Chana Pollack for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected].
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