Uncategorized
Sarajevo Jews celebrate a second Purim. For centuries, they weren’t alone.
(JTA) — Starting tonight, many Jews around the world will celebrate Purim in the same ways: by reading the story of the heroic Queen Esther, dressing in festive costumes and drinking alcohol.
For many of the 900 or so Jews in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it will be the first of two annual Purim celebrations.
Since 1820, locals have also observed the Purim de Saray (Saray being a root of the word Sarajevo) early in the Hebrew calendar month of Cheshvan, which usually falls in October or November of the Gregorian calendar.
In that year, the story goes, a local dervish was murdered, prompting the corrupt Ottoman pasha of Sarajevo, a high-ranking official, to kidnap 11 prominent Jews, including the community’s chief rabbi, a kabbalist named Moshe Danon. The pasha accused them of the murder of the dervish — who had converted from Judaism to Islam — and held them for ransom, demanding 50,000 groschen of silver from the Jewish community.
But the pasha, who was a transplant from elsewhere in the Ottoman empire, deeply offended the multiethnic populace of Sarajevo, who considered the Jewish community — then around one-fifth of the city’s entire population — an essential part of their home. So local Jews, Muslims and Christians rebelled together, storming the pasha’s palace and freeing the imprisoned community leaders.
Ever since, Bosnian Jews have celebrated that story by visiting the grave of the Sarajevan Jewish historian Zeki Effendi, who was the first to document it. Dozens also take part in a pilgrimage every summer to the grave of Rabbi Danon, who is buried in the south of Bosnia, not far from the Croatian border, where he died on his way to what was then Ottoman-controlled Palestine.
For centuries, several other Jewish communities around the world observed their own versions of Purim based on stories of local resistance to antisemitism, inspired by Esther and her uncle Mordecai, who in the original holiday story save all of Persia’s Jews from execution in the 5th century BCE.
Here are the stories behind some of those traditions.
Ancona, Italy
An aerial view of Ancona in 2006. (Wikimedia Commons)
Jews settled in and around Ancona on Italy’s Adriatic coast in the 10th century, and by the 13th century they had established a flourishing community, which included figures such as the Jewish traveler Jacob of Ancona — who may have beaten Marco Polo to China — and famed poet Immanuel the Roman, who despite his title was born in a town just south of Ancona.
Though the city’s Jewish community was largely spared by the Holocaust, it has slowly declined over the years and is believed to have fewer than 100 members today. What it is not short on, however, are local Purim stories — the city is known for multiple celebrations that were established over the centuries.
The first, marked on the 21st of the Hebrew month of Tevet (usually in January) was established at the end of the 17th century and marks an earthquake that nearly destroyed the city.
“On the 21st of Teveth, Friday evening, of the year 5451 (1690), at 8 and a quarter, there was a powerful earthquake. The doors of the temple were immediately opened and in a few moments it was filled with men, women and children, still half-naked and barefoot, who came to pray to the Eternal in front of the Holy Ark. A true miracle then took place in the Temple: there was only one light, which remained lit until it was possible to provide for it,” wrote Venetian Rabbi Yosef Fiammetta in 1741, in his text “Or Boqer,” meaning “the light of the morning.”
Other Ancona Purims were established a half and three-quarters of a century later, respectively. The story for the first commemorates fires that nearly destroyed the local synagogue but miraculously did not, and the next tells of a pogrom that nearly destroyed the community as Napoleon marched through Italy during the French Revolutionary Wars.
Today, these stories have largely faded into memory. But a few centuries ago, Italy had a high concentration of communities that celebrated local Purims — including in Casale Monferrato, Ferrara, Florence, Livorno, Padua, Senigallia, Trieste, Urbino, Verona and Turin — some into the 20th century.
“It would be hoped that the local Purims are not forgotten or that they are restored in the communities that have not completely died out,” the late Italian Rabbi Yehuda Nello Pavoncello once wrote, according to the Turin Jewish Community, “so that the memory of the events reconnects us to the infinite links of the chain of the generations that have preceded us, who have suffered.”
North Africa
An illustration shows King Sebastian of Portugal being fatally wounded at a battle in Morocco in 1578. (Bettmann/Getty Images)
The extra Purim phenomenon was not confined to Europe.
In Tripoli, Libya, local Jews established the so-called Purim Barghul after the deposition of a local tyrant in the late 18th century. Ali Burghul, an Ottoman officer who was installed after the downfall of the Qaramanli dynasty, ruled the region brutally for two years, treating minorities particularly harshly. After factions of the Qaramanlis were reconciled, Burghul was driven out. Jews would go on to celebrate that day, the 29th of Tevet (usually in January).
(Centuries later, in 1970, dictator Muammar Gaddafi established his own holiday, the Day of Revenge, which celebrated the expulsion of Italian officials from Libya; some say it also celebrated the exodus of Jews since the formation of the state of Israel. Within a few years after Gaddafi’s decree, Libya’s Jewish community had dwindled to less than two dozen, effectively ending the nearly 3,000-year history of Jews there.)
In northern Morocco, Jews commemorated the defeat of a Portuguese king, Don Sebastian, who attempted to take over parts of the country but was defeated in a battle in August 1578. Jews had believed that Sebastian would have tried to convert them to Christianity if he had prevailed.
Today only around 2,000 Jews remain in Morocco, but some Moroccan communities marked the day into the 21st century.
Saragossa
A view of an 11th-century palace in Zaragoza, Spain. The Purim of Saragossa story is set in either Zaragoza or Syracuse, Italy. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Scholars still debate which city was the origin of the Purim of Saragossa story — it could have been Zaragoza in Spain or Syracuse in southern Sicily, which was often referred to in the medieval era as Siragusa. Both cities were part of the Spanish empire in 1492 and were depopulated of Jews following the Inquisition.
Either way, Sephardic descendants in places around the world, including Israel and the Turkish city of Izmir, observed their own Purim story by fasting on the 16th of the Hebrew month of Shevat — generally in February — and feasting on the 17th.
The story tells of an apostate named Marcus who slandered the Jewish community to a non-Jewish king, putting their status in jeopardy. But at the last minute, Marcus’ deception is revealed, and he is executed while the community is saved.
The story could have been entirely fabricated. According to Jewish historian Elliot Horowitz, the establishment of this second Purim story may have been a way for the descendants of Saragossan Jews, whether they are originally Spanish or Sicilian, to maintain a unique identity in the larger Sephardic diaspora.
“The Jewish communities of the eastern Mediterranean in the early modern period were often composed of émigré subcommunities, each of which was distinguished by the customs and liturgy of its place of origin,” he wrote in his 2006 book “Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence.” “The ‘Purim of Saragossa,’ the earliest manuscript evidence for which dates only from the mid-eighteenth century, may well have been ‘invented’ by former ‘Saragossans’ eager to maintain their distinct identity in the multicultural Sephardi Diaspora of the eastern Mediterranean.”
Regardless of its origins, the Megillah of Saragossa text continued to be published through at least the end of the 19th century. It was well known enough that an American Reform rabbi from New York would publish a stage play based off of it in the 1940s.
—
The post Sarajevo Jews celebrate a second Purim. For centuries, they weren’t alone. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Uncategorized
Advocates decry ‘pogrom on the playground’ after Jewish children targeted in Chicago suburb on Oct. 7
(JTA) — A heavily Jewish suburb of Chicago has condemned antisemitism after an investigation confirmed reports that a group of Jewish children were attacked with pellet guns and subjected to antisemitic rhetoric in a public park earlier this month.
The incident took place on Oct. 7, the first day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot and the second anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, in Shawnee Park, which is located blocks from a number of the town’s Orthodox synagogues.
It occurred when five children between the ages of 8 and 13, were approached by another group of children who asked if they were Jewish, according to the Chicago Jewish Alliance, an advocacy group that has taken an aggressive stance against antisemitism in Chicagoland.
When the children replied that they were Jewish, the group of roughly 20 assailants, who were between the ages of 12 and 14, then allegedly shouted “f—k Israel” and “you are baby killers so we are going to kill you” at the children and shot gel gun pellets from a recreational gun at them, according to a Facebook post by Daniel and Robyn Burgher Ackerman, the parents of a 13-year-old girl who was among the victims.
The Ackermans posted what they said was their first public account of the incident on Thursday, after an investigation by the town was completed. The Village of Skokie said this week that police had responded to the scene on Oct. 7, where the children alleged to have participated in the incident were identified and interviewed and a police report was filed.
The case was “closed” following the investigation’s conclusion, according to the Village of Skokie. It did not name any actions it was taking in response but said the incident had been documented and shared with the Human Relations Commission, which would later issue a recommendation based on its findings.
“There is no place for hate in Skokie,” said Mayor Ann Tennes in a statement. “Our community has long been built on respect, inclusion and care for one another. The Village remains committed to standing against antisemitism and all forms of bias, and to ensuring that Skokie continues to be a safe and welcoming place for everyone.”
The Skokie Park District said it had been made aware of the incident only this week. “We do not tolerate racist remarks or acts of violence in our parks,” it said in a statement issued Thursday. “We are prepared to work with the Village of Skokie’s Human Relations Commission and the Skokie Police Department as part of a community-wide effort to address this hateful occurrence and prevent these behaviors in the future.”
The Ackermans and the Chicago Jewish Alliance say they are concerned that the incident is not being treated with the appropriate urgency, citing a lack of evidence of any disciplinary action against the children who participated.
The Skokie Police Department did not immediately respond to questions about whether charges would be filed in the case.
The Chicago Jewish Alliance is urging residents to attend the Human Relations Committee meeting on Monday and the Village of Skokie Board meeting on Nov. 3 to demand that the incident be treated as a hate crime, according to Daniel Schwartz, the group’s president.
He said that during the assault, the assailants allegedly told the victims that they would “get a real gun and kill you Jews.”
Schwartz, who referred to the incident as a “pogrom on the playground,” said the incident had “really disturbed” the local Jewish community.
“I think this hits a nerve, because it happened on Oct. 7, it happened to children, it happened to children in Skokie, Illinois, which has a very dense Jewish population, and then the municipality itself, similar to what we saw in 1940s Germany, was almost like — there was just no justice or repercussion,” said Schwartz.
He added that the parents of the victims of the attack are also seeking legal counsel over the incident.
“This was not ‘kids being kids.’ This was a targeted, violent antisemitic attack on Jewish minors- in their synagogue dresses on a Jewish holiday,” the Ackermans wrote. “The fact that it happened on October 7th—exactly two years after the October 7, 2023 massacre of Jews in Israel—makes it even more chilling.”
The post Advocates decry ‘pogrom on the playground’ after Jewish children targeted in Chicago suburb on Oct. 7 appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
Free advanced Yiddish language program in Romania
אין פֿעברואַר 2026 וועט מען אין קלויזענבערג, רומעניע, דורכפֿירן אַן אינטענסיווע ייִדישע שפּראַכפּראָגראַם פֿאַר אַוואַנסירטע ייִדיש־סטודענטן און פֿליסיקע ייִדיש־רעדער. די פּראָגראַם קאָסט אין גאַנצן נישט קיין געלט.
די פּראָגראַם, וואָס איר אפֿיציעלער נאָמען איז „די אַוואַניסרטע ייִדיש־ווינטער־שול“, וועט פֿאָרקומען אינעם באַבעש־בויעי אוניווערסיטעט.
די טעמע פֿון דער פּראָגראַם, וואָס וועט געפֿירט ווערן אין גאַנצן אויף ייִדיש, וועט זײַן „ייִדיש אין ראַטן־פֿאַרבאַנד, רומעניע און פּוילן“ און וועט אַרײַננעמען די ווײַטערדיקע קורסן:
- ווײַטהאַלטער ייִדיש־קלאַסן אויף צוויי מדרגות
- ייִדישע מאָדערניסטישע מאַניפֿעסטן
- די פּאָליטיק פֿון ייִדיש
- דער ייִדישער אַנטיפֿאַשיסטישער קאָמיטעט
- די „קולטור־ליגע“ און „ייִקוף“
- חלומות פֿון ייִדישלאַנד
- די פּוילישע ייִדישע פּרעסע נאָך דער צווייטער וועלט־מלחמה
- מיזרח־אייראָפּעיִשע ייִדישע פֿאָלקלאָר פֿונעם 20סטן יאָרהונדערט
אַכט אָנגעזעענע עקספּערטן פֿון דער ייִדישער שפּראַך, שפּראַך־געשיכטע און ליטעראַטור וועלן לערנען די קלאַסן: לייזער בורקאָ, אויגוסטאַ קאָסטיוץ־ראַדאָסאַוו, בער קאָטלערמאַן, מײַקל לוקין, אַלעקסאַנדראַ פּאָליאַן, פֿיליפּ שוואַרץ, קאַראָלינאַ שימאַניאַק און דאַריאַ ווכרושאָוואַ.
מע וועט אויך פֿירן עקסקורסיעס קיין סאַטמאַר און דעש.
הגם די פּראָגראַם איז פֿרײַ פֿון אָפּצאָל דאַרפֿן די סטודענטן אַליין באַצאָלן פֿאַר זייערע פֿאָר־הוצאָות, געזונט־פֿאַרזיכערונג און באַהויזונג. די סטודענטן וואָס ווילן אײַנשטיין אינעם אינטערנאַט פֿונעם אוניווערסיטעט קענען דאָס באַשטעלן אין דער אַפּליקאַציע
פֿאַר יענע אַקטיוויטעטן וואָס זענען מחוץ דער פּראָגראַם, ווי די עקסקורסיעס און דער שבת־טיש, וועלן סטודענטן אויך דאַרפֿן באַצאָלן.
די „אַוואַנסירטע ייִדישע ווינטערשול“, וואָס וועט פֿאָרקומען פֿונעם 9טן ביזן 16טן פֿעברואַר, ווערט געשטיצט פֿונעם „צענטער פֿאַר ייִדיש־לימודים אויפֿן נאָמען פֿון רענאַ קאָסטער“ און דעם „אינסטיטוט פֿון העברעיִש־ און געשיכטע־לימודים“.
כּדי זיך צו פֿאַרשרײַבן אויף דער פּראָגראַם, גיט אַ קוועטש דאָ.
The post Free advanced Yiddish language program in Romania appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
Netanyahu and far-right ministers do damage control on West Bank vote and Saudi Arabia comments that angered Trump
(JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to distance himself Thursday from a Knesset vote that granted preliminary approval to a bill annexing the West Bank, after the measure drew strong condemnation from the White House.
At the same time, a far-right Israeli lawmaker apologized after making a dismissive and, some said, offensive comment about Saudi Arabia, putting him at odds with the White House’s goal of brokering relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The backtracking comes at a time when the Israelis are facing fierce pressure from President Donald Trump and his administration not to jeopardize a fragile Gaza ceasefire that took hold earlier this month.
“The Knesset vote on annexation was a deliberate political provocation by the opposition to sow discord during Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Israel,” wrote Netanyahu’s office in a post on X.
His post came soon after Vice President J.D. Vance, who departed from Israel on Thursday after a visit to “monitor” Israel’s ceasefire with Hamas, said the vote amounted to an “insult,” adding that if it was a political stunt, then “it was a very stupid political stunt.”
Trump has vowed not to allow Israel to annex the West Bank, a goal of the Israeli right that is seen as a red line for Arab states hoping to see an independent Palestinian state in the future.
“It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries,” Trump said in an interview with Time magazine published Thursday. “Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”
The exchange comes days as Israeli settlers launched a volley of attacks on Palestinian activists and olive harvesters this week, leaving one woman in the hospital, adding to growing violence in the West Bank.
Netanyahu’s distancing from the Knesset bills told only part of the story. He claimed that the “Likud party and the religious parties did not vote for these bills,” two parties from his coalition, but while it was true that his Likud Party did not back the bills, others in his coalition, including Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionists, did and represented the majority of their support. Still, the bills cannot achieve full passage without Netanyahu’s buy-in, which he said he would not give.
Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister who leads the Religious Zionists, was at the center of the other flareup on Thursday when he declared at a conference, “If Saudi Arabia tells us ‘normalization in exchange for a Palestinian state,’ friends — no thank you. Keep riding camels in the desert.”
Smotrich’s remarks were made ahead of a planned meeting between Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House next month to discuss normalization between Arab countries and Israel.
After drawing public criticism from others in Israeli politics, Smotrich later apologized for the remarks in a post on X, writing, “My statement about Saudi Arabia was definitely not successful and I regret the insult it caused.
But he said he would not retract his concern about Palestinian statehood, which the Saudis support. “However, at the same time, I expect the Saudis not to harm us and not to deny the heritage, tradition and rights of the Jewish people to their historic homeland in Judea and Samaria and to establish true peace with us,” he wrote.
Israeli Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli also appeared to criticize Smotrich’s comment in a post on X, writing, “I firmly oppose the establishment of a Palestinian State. That said, it does not mean we should insult a potential ally🇸🇦.”
He then extended an invitation of his own for a new relationship — ending the week after he brought a far-right British personality to Israel against the objections of Britain’s organized Jewish community.
“Incidentally, we’re also pleased to be hosting a unique camel race in the Negev together with the Bedouin community in just a few weeks — and we warmly invite our Saudi friends to join us,” Chikli wrote.
The post Netanyahu and far-right ministers do damage control on West Bank vote and Saudi Arabia comments that angered Trump appeared first on The Forward.