Purim Play Disaster

Purim Play Disaster

Teaching kids about anti-semitism

My daughter loves being Jewish so much that when we decided to send her to public school for Kindergarden she got angry with us for denying her a Jewish day school experience. So we were shocked when, after a Purim play, she declared that she was done being Jewish. 

For those who don't know, a Purim play is a traditional reenactment of the Biblical story of Esther. In it, an evil advisor named Haman persuades the king to kill all of the Jews in his kingdom. The king agrees until he finds out that his favorite wife, Esther, is Jewish at which point he rescinds the order and the Jewish community is saved. Our daughter was so horrified at the idea that people were mean to Jews that she declared herself "not-Jewish." Interestingly, Purim is a happy, silly holiday. It is one of the few occasions when Jewish adults traditionally get drunk. For the children, there are Purim carnivals and costumes to look forward to, but our daughter fixated on the cruelty rather than on the fun.   

 

As you can imagine, we were terrified by her potential reaction to Passover's detailed description of the Exodus, but she didn't get upset. So what was it about Purim? I think it was the casual attitude. Passover deals dramatically with anti-semitism while Purim addresses it with humor. I wonder if this isn't by design. In both cases the emphasis is on overcoming adversity and maintaining our Jewish community, but the approach is different.