Growing up Hasidic, my unconventional choices for Purim costumes allowed me to take on other identities
Seth Barrett Tillman is an Orthodox Jewish commodities trader turned law professor living in Dublin whose ideas were recently heard by the Supreme Court. He’s also something even more unusual: a thinker whose mind hasn’t been corrupted by politics.
Since colonial times, the Book of Esther has proved a powerful metaphor in American politics
Changing my name changed my life for the better
A 1946 Purim celebration in the Landsberg DP camp
Megillat Saragossa tells a tale that parallels the Book of Esther
The holiday’s delights aren’t only found at the bottom of a bottle
A Purim spiel on one of Judaism’s most majestic creatures
The Hebrew version we read doesn’t mention God, and avoids theology. But the ancient Greek versions of the story took a very different approach.
Jews from the former Soviet Union didn’t grow up with the ‘typical’ holiday treats—so I tried to imagine what we might have made for Purim
Extravagant parties once marked the holiday for American Jews in the late 1800s
The ongoing evolution of the Purim spiel
In Tractate Megillah, the Talmud sends us a very personal note on faith
Purim’s bloody story of vengeance is a necessary reminder about how justice really works
As a new convert, I’ve now celebrated the entire cycle of Jewish holidays for the first time—but in a way I’d never expected
What the late comedian can teach us about Purim
Rewriting the story of Vashti
Move over, hamentaschen
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