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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.
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US and Iran Agree to Friday Talks in Oman but Still at Odds Over Agenda
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 1, 2026. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
The US and Iran have agreed to hold talks in Oman on Friday, officials for both sides said, even as they remained at odds over Washington’s insistence that negotiations include Tehran’s missile arsenal and Iran’s vow to discuss only its nuclear program.
The delicate diplomatic effort comes amid heightened tensions as the US builds up forces in the Middle East and regional players seek to avoid a military confrontation that many fear could escalate into a wider war.
Differences in recent days over the scope and venue for the talks have raised doubts whether the meeting would take place, leaving open the possibility that US President Donald Trump could carry out his threat to strike Iran.
Asked on Wednesday whether Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei should be worried, Trump told NBC News: “I would say he should be very worried. Yeah, he should be.” He added that “they’re negotiating with us” but did not elaborate.
After Trump spoke, US and Iranian officials said the two sides had agreed to shift the talks’ location to Muscat after initially accepting Istanbul.
But there was no indication they had found common ground on the agenda.
Iran has pushed to restrict the negotiations to discussing its long-running nuclear dispute with Western countries.
But US Secretary of State Marco Rubio presented a different view on Wednesday. “If the Iranians want to meet, we’re ready,” Rubio told reporters. But he added that talks would have to include the range of Iran’s ballistic missiles, its support for armed proxy groups around the Middle East, and its treatment of its own people, besides nuclear issues.
A senior Iranian official said, however, that Iran’s missile program was “off the table.” A second senior Iranian official said Tehran would welcome negotiations over the nuclear dispute but that US insistence on dealing with non-nuclear issues could jeopardize the talks.
Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was due to take part in the talks, along with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, officials said.
CHANGE OF VENUE
While the talks were originally slated for Turkey, Iran wanted the meeting to take place in Oman as a continuation of previous talks held in the Gulf Arab country that had focused strictly on Tehran’s nuclear program, a regional official said.
Iran says its nuclear activities are meant for peaceful, not military purposes, while the US and Israel have accused it of past efforts to develop nuclear weapons.
A Gulf official said the talks could be mediated by several countries, though Iran has indicated that it wants a two-way format limited to Washington and Tehran.
The diplomatic efforts follow Trump’s threats of military action against Iran during its bloody crackdown on protesters last month and the deployment of more naval power to the Gulf.
The US has sent thousands of troops to the Middle East since Trump threatened Iran last month – including an aircraft carrier, other warships, fighter jets, spy planes, and air refueling tankers.
After Israel and the United States bombed the Islamic Republic last summer, renewed friction has kindled fears among regional states of a major conflagration that could rebound on them or cause long-term chaos in Iran.
Trump has continued to weigh the option of strikes on Iran, sources say. Oil prices have risen on the tension.
NUCLEAR DISPUTE
Trump has warned that “bad things” would probably happen if a deal could not be reached, ratcheting up pressure on the Islamic Republic in a standoff that has led to mutual threats of airstrikes.
Iran’s leadership is increasingly worried a US strike could break its grip on power by driving an already enraged public back onto the streets, according to six current and former Iranian officials.
Trump, who stopped short of carrying out threats to intervene during last month’s crackdown, has since demanded nuclear concessions from Iran, sending a flotilla to its coast.
Iran also hopes for an agreement that could help lift Western sanctions over its nuclear program that have ravaged its economy – a major driver of last month’s unrest.
BALLISTIC MISSILE STOCKPILE
Iranian sources told Reuters last week that Trump had demanded three conditions for the resumption of talks: zero enrichment of uranium in Iran, limits on Tehran’s ballistic missile program, and an end to its support for regional proxies.
Iran has long said all three demands are unacceptable infringements of its sovereignty, but two Iranian officials told Reuters its clerical rulers saw the ballistic missile program, rather than uranium enrichment, as the bigger obstacle.
An Iranian official said there should not be preconditions for talks and that Iran was ready to show flexibility on uranium enrichment, which it says is for peaceful, not military purposes.
Since the US strikes in June, Tehran has said its uranium enrichment work has stopped.
In June, the United States struck Iranian nuclear targets, joining in at the close of a 12-day Israeli bombing campaign and Iran struck back at Israel with missiles and drones.
Iran said it replenished its missile stockpile after the war with Israel last year, warning it would unleash its missiles if its security is under threat.
Adding to tensions, on Tuesday the US military shot down an Iranian drone that “aggressively” approached the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, the US military said, in an incident first reported by Reuters.
In another incident in the Strait of Hormuz, the US Central Command said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had approached a US-flagged tanker at speed and threatened to board and seize it.
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New York City Teen Arrested on Terrorism Charges Following Alleged Threat to ‘Rise Up and Kill All the Jews’
Illustrative: Police control the scene after a car repeatedly slammed into Chabad World Headquarters in Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. The driver was taken into custody. Photo: ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect
Police in New York City arrested an unnamed 17-year-old boy at Renaissance Charter School in Jackson Heights, Queens, following a 911 call warning of a violent threat targeting Jews sent via email to more than 300 students.
Administrators informed law enforcement that the student had allegedly sent an email at 12:30 pm which read, “At 2pm we will rise up and kill all the Jews in this school and the city. F**k the Jews.” The suspect was taken into custody at approximately 3:30 pm. The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident.
The student faces charges of making a terroristic threat and aggravated harassment as a hate crime. The date of his initial arraignment remains pending.
“A violent, antisemitic threat made today at Renaissance Charter School is deeply disturbing and unacceptable,” New York State Sen. Jessica Ramos wrote Tuesday on X. “Hate and threats of violence have no place in our schools or our community.”
Ramos stated that she was “relieved that no one was harmed and that the student is in custody. This must be fully investigated by the Hate Crimes Task Force. Our Jewish neighbors, students, and families deserve safety, dignity, and protection. We will continue working with school leaders and law enforcement to keep our community safe.”
Moshe Spern, president of United Jewish Teachers, thanked Ramos for highlighting the crime.
“Unfortunately Jew hatred doesn’t just live in NYC public schools, it lives in Charter schools as well,” Spern posted on X. “This is scary for all Jewish New Yorkers and I’m calling on Renaissance Charter Schools to invest time and money to root out Jew hatred!”
The StopAntisemitism advocacy group commented that “this is yet another example of what ‘globalize the intifada’ looks like. Yet NYC has a mayor that won’t condemn this call to violence against Jews.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist and avowed anti-Zionist who has made anti-Israel activism a cornerstone of his political career, was sworn into office on Jan. 1.
According to newly released figures from the New York City Police Department (NYPD), anti-Jewish hate crimes in the city spiked by 182 percent in January during Mamdani’s first month in office compared to the same period last year.
New York City hate crime investigators reviewed 58 incidents in January 2026, compared to 23 in January 2025, an increase of 152 percent. Of that total, there were 31 anti-Jewish hate crimes last month, which accounted for more than half of all the hate crime incidents, compared to only 11 anti-Jewish hate crimes in January 2025. Last month’s hate crimes targeted Jews more than any other group — Muslims were victimized the second most times with seven incidents.
Despite the increase in antisemitism, the NYPD reported an overall decrease in violent crime.
“The January data underscores a clear reality. Even as overall crime continues to fall, antisemitism remains the most prevalent form of hate crime in New York City, surging sharply at the outset of a new mayoral administration,” the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) said of the data.
CAM highlighted multiple examples of antisemitism in the city last month, including a description of how “in one incident, two teenagers were charged after scrawling 73 swastikas on a playground used by Jewish children. In another, a rabbi was assaulted in Queens on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Separately, a driver rammed a vehicle into an entrance of the Chabad headquarters in Brooklyn.”
Ramos wrote on Wednesday morning of another antisemitic threat at the school in Queens: “An adult caller made a violent, antisemitic threat against Renaissance Charter School this morning. This is unacceptable and will be taken seriously.”
Explaining an increase in security at the school, Ramos added that “the 115th Precinct will maintain a police presence today while the incident is investigated. Our Jewish students and families deserve safety, dignity, and peace of mind, and we will continue working with school leaders and community partners to ensure their protection.”
New York City Council Member Shekar Krishnan — who represents District 25, which includes Jackson Heights — commented on the situation.
“Antisemitism and hate have no place in New York City, especially in our schools,” Krishnan wrote Wednesday on X. “There have been two antisemitic incidents at a school in Jackson Heights this week. We are deeply concerned and are working closely with the school and the NYPD to investigate these matters.”
The incidents come amid a broader surge in antisemitic hate crimes across New York City over the last two years, following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel.
Jews were targeted in the majority (54 percent) of all hate crimes perpetrated in New York City in 2024, according to data issued by the NYPD. A recent report released in December by the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism noted that figure rose to a staggering 62 percent in the first quarter of 2025, despite Jewish New Yorkers comprising a small minority of the city’s population.
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New Coalition Forms to Protect Israeli Businesses in New York From the Mamdani Administration
New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani holds a press conference at the Unisphere in the Queens borough of New York City, US, Nov. 5, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kylie Cooper
Business groups in New York have announced a new coalition to protect Israeli and Jewish businesses amid concerns that the administration of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will unfairly target them.
The New York-Israel Chamber of Commerce (NYICC) Coalition, announced on Monday, is a nonprofit partnership designed to protect Israeli-associated and Jewish-owned companies operating across New York State amid concerns of what organizers describe as discriminatory policies and a deteriorating security climate.
“Israeli companies bring innovation that improves the quality of life for New Yorkers and facilitates secure commerce for thousands of companies in almost every vertical industry,” Al Kinel, president of the NYICC Coalition, said in a statement. “The free enterprise system that made New York City strong and encouraged many Israeli founders to select New York City for US operations is at risk.”
Coalition leaders argue that recent municipal policy shifts, combined with an increase in antisemitic incidents, have created an environment that discourages investment and places employees and customers at risk. While Mamdani denies harboring any anti-Jewish bias, coalition members fear that Israeli-linked businesses could be disproportionately affected as his administration settles in.
Mamdani, a far-left democratic socialist who has made anti-Israel activism a cornerstone of his political career, has repeatedly accused Israel of “apartheid” and refused to recognize its right to exist as a Jewish state.
He has also been an outspoken supporter of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward its eventual elimination. Leaders of the BDS movement have repeatedly stated their goal is to destroy the world’s only Jewish state.
Such positions have raised alarm bells among not only New York’s Jewish community but also Israeli business owners and investors, who fear a hostile climate under Mamdani’s leadership.
On his first day in office, Mamdani revoked a series of executive orders enacted by his predecessor to combat antisemitism. Among the measures he nullified was an order that opposed the campaign to boycott Israel.
The NYICC Coalition’s formation comes as Israeli-founded firms play an increasingly central role in New York’s economy, particularly in the technology and innovation sectors.
A study released by the United States-Israel Business Alliance in October revealed that, based on 2024 data, 590 Israeli-founded companies directly created 27,471 jobs in New York City that year and indirectly created over 50,000 jobs when accounting for related factors, such as buying and shipping local products.
These firms generated $8.1 billion in total earnings, adding an estimated $12.4 billion in value to the city’s economy and $17.9 billion in total gross economic output.
As for the State of New York overall, the report, titled the “2025 New York – Israel Economic Impact Report,” found that 648 Israeli-founded companies generated $8.6 billion in total earnings and $19.5 billion in gross economic output, contributing a striking $13.3 billion in added value to the economy. These businesses also directly created 28,524 jobs and a total of 57,145 when accounting for related factors.
From financial tech leaders like Fireblocks to cybersecurity powerhouse Wiz, Israeli entrepreneurs have become indispensable to the city’s innovation ecosystem. The number of Israeli-founded “unicorns,” privately held companies with a valuation of at least $1 billion, operating in New York City has quadrupled since 2019, increasing from five to 20.
The NYICC Coalition includes major business such as the New York Israel Chamber of Commerce, the Business Council of New York State, the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce, and the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce, along with more than a dozen other partners.
Business leaders backing the initiative framed the effort as both economic and moral. Heather Mulligan, president and CEO of the Business Council of New York State, emphasized that New York’s prosperity depends on openness and equal treatment.
“New York City’s strength and growth have always come from its diversity and welcoming of entrepreneurs from around the world,” she said in a statement. “Like all employers, Israeli-founded businesses are an equally important part of our economy, creating jobs, leading innovation, and contributing to the economy of the communities where they operate. Prosperity and growth should be for everyone — regardless of race, gender, or creed — and there should be no place in the city or elsewhere for discrimination against any business or entrepreneur based on who they are or where they come from.”
The coalition outlined a three-part agenda focused on restoring fairness and competitiveness: advocating immediate policy corrections to protect business safety and security; promoting clear, predictable regulations that allow Israeli-founded firms to invest and grow; and providing coordinated support for Israeli tech and startup companies navigating regulatory challenges.
Mark Jaffe, president and CEO of the Greater New York Chamber and a coalition board member, warned that economic discrimination could carry long-term consequences.
“Israel is a strong friend and ally of the United States. Against all odds, Israel maintains a dynamic and capitalistic economy that provides billions of dollars and thousands of jobs here in NY,” Jaffe said.
Coalition members stressed that the initiative is not about special treatment, but about preserving New York’s reputation as a global hub for entrepreneurship. Galit Meyran, CEO of the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce and a board member, said coordinated action is necessary when political pressures translate into real-world threats.
“When political agendas lead to an economic environment where antisemitic threats and actions become the norm, immediate collective action is required,” she said.
The NYICC Coalition is inviting business owners, civic organizations, and concerned New Yorkers to join what it describes as a broader effort to restore safety to the city’s economic climate, arguing that protecting Israeli-founded businesses ultimately protects New York’s competitiveness itself.