An opinion piece on Purim, antisemitism, diaspora, and survival as a people.

[Richard D]

Last edited Thu Mar 13, 2025, 08:54 PM - Edit history (1)

Last week, the Israeli actress Gal Gadot gave a wonderful speech about standing up against antisemitism. The interesting point she made was that, in the world today, it is considered radical to say you are Jewish.

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This leads me to the Jewish holiday that is happening this week. It is the holiday of Purim. The story goes, that King Achashverosh (Xerxes to the historians among us), a misogynistic megalomaniacal pig, wanted his wife Vashti to dance naked in front of his friends. When she refused, he sent her away and began to look for a new wife. (There of course was a harem of hundreds of women at his disposal, but this is the story.) There was a nationwide contest and he chose the beautiful woman Esther.

Now Esther’s uncle Mordecai, someone of importance in elite circles, was not supplicant to the king’s advisor Haman. So Haman decided he was going to have all the Jews in the Persian kingdom slaughtered in one big genocide. (If you think collective punishment when it comes to Jews is new, think again.) Mordecai, upon hearing of this plot, went to Esther and begged her to intercede with the King. And eventually she did. The King had Haman and his sons hanged.

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But the part of the story that people like to forget is that this was not the end. Getting rid of the leaders did not end Jew-hatred or the desire to slaughter. There ended up being a huge battle between the Jews of Persia and Haman’s acolytes. The Book of Esther says that over 70,000 of Haman’s army were killed at the battle. But the Jews secured their future. There would be no Jewish genocide in Persia.

https://open.substack.com/pub/futureofjewish/p/jews-who-dont-fight-back-dont-survive?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2r9s5y

Chag Sameach Purim!