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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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Fate of Iran Peace Talks Uncertain as Deadline Approaches for End of Ceasefire
A view of Iranian-flagged cargo ship M/V Touska as the US Navy Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided missile destroyer USS Spruance conducts its interception in a location given as the north Arabian Sea, in this screen capture from a video released April 19, 2026. Photo: CENTCOM/Handout via REUTERS
Iran is considering attending peace talks with the United States in Pakistan, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday, following moves by Islamabad to end a US blockade of Iran‘s ports, a major hurdle for Tehran to rejoin peace efforts.
However, the official stressed that no decision had been made.
Adding to the uncertainty, a source told Reuters that Vice President JD Vance was still in the US, denying reports that he was already on his way to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad for talks.
With a two-week ceasefire set to expire this week, the senior Iranian official said Tehran was “positively reviewing” its participation but no final decision had been made. The comments conveyed a clear change of tone from earlier statements ruling out attendance and pledging to retaliate for US aggression.
The Iranian official said mediator Pakistan was making positive efforts to end the US blockade and ensure Iran‘s participation.
BLOCKADE POSES A PROBLEM
The ceasefire had appeared in jeopardy after the US said it had seized an Iranian cargo ship that tried to run its blockade and Tehran vowed to retaliate.
A Pakistani security source said Pakistan’s key mediator, Field Marshal Asim Munir, had told US President Donald Trump the blockade was an obstacle to talks, and that Trump had promised to consider ending it.
The US was hoping to start negotiations in Pakistan shortly before the ceasefire expires, with sweeping security preparations under way in Islamabad.
However, Iran‘s President Masoud Pezeshkian said that “unconstructive & contradictory signals from American officials carry a bitter message; they seek Iran‘s surrender.”
“Iranians do not submit to force,” he added on X.
US-IRAN CEASEFIRE SET TO EXPIRE
Trump announced the two-week ceasefire with Iran on April 7, and has not specified when precisely it ends.
A Pakistani source involved in the talks said it would expire at 8 pm ET on Wednesday, which would be midnight GMT or 3:30 am Thursday in Iran.
The US has maintained its blockade of Iranian ports, while Iran lifted and then reimposed its own blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which typically handles roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied gas supply.
Oil prices rose around 5% as traders remained fearful that the ceasefire would collapse. Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz was at a virtual standstill with just three crossings in the space of 12 hours, according to shipping data.
US MARINES BOARD IRANIAN VESSEL
The US military said it had fired on an Iranian-flagged cargo ship headed towards Iran‘s Bandar Abbas port on Sunday after a six-hour standoff, disabling its engines. US Central Command released video showing Marines descending ropes from helicopters onto the vessel.
The vessel is likely to have been carrying what Washington deems dual-use items that could be used by the military, maritime security sources said on Monday.
Iran‘s military said the ship had been traveling from China and accused the US of “armed piracy,” according to state media. They said they were ready to confront US forces over the “blatant aggression,” but were constrained by the presence of crew members’ families on board.
China, the main buyer of Iranian crude, expressed concern over the “forced interception,” and Chinese President Xi Jinping called for ships to resume passage through the strait as normal and for the conflict to be resolved through political and diplomatic channels, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Trump warned on Sunday that the US would destroy every bridge and power plant in Iran if it rejected his terms, continuing a recent pattern of such threats.
Iran has said that if the United States were to attack its civilian infrastructure, it would strike power stations and desalination plants in its Gulf Arab neighbors.
PREPARING FOR TALKS THAT MIGHT NOT HAPPEN
Pakistan geared up to host the talks despite uncertainty over whether they would go ahead. Nearly 20,000 security personnel have been deployed across the capital Islamabad, a government official and a security official said.
The US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Feb. 28, in part to prevent the regime from developing nuclear weapons.
Trump said on Monday he believed a nuclear deal the US is currently negotiating with Iran will be better than a 2015 international agreement to curb Tehran’s nuclear program.
“The DEAL that we are making with Iran will be FAR BETTER than the JCPOA, commonly referred to as ‘The Iran Nuclear Deal‘,” Trump wrote in a social media post.
During his first White House term, Trump in 2018 withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreed to by Iran, the United States and world powers, calling it “the worst deal ever.”
“I am under no pressure whatsoever, although, it will all happen, relatively quickly!” Trump added in his Truth Social post.
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The Strokes End Coachella Set With Video Montage to Denounce US, Israel Bombings in Iran, Gaza
Part of the video montage shown by The Strokes during their Coachella set on April 18, 2026. Photo: YouTube screenshot
The American rock band The Strokes ended their performance on Saturday night, during the second weekend of the Coachella music festival, by showing the audience a video montage denouncing recent bombings in the Gaza Strip by Israel and joint US-Israel military airstrikes in Iran.
Massive screens behind Coachella’s main stage displayed footage of a controlled demolition of a large building in Gaza and an accompanying caption said the structure was the “last university standing” in the enclave. The footage followed scenes of destruction in the Islamic Republic with the caption “Over 30 universities destroyed in Iran.” The video montage was not included in the band’s set during the first weekend of Coachella.
Before turning to footage from the Middle East, the montage showed images and messages that accused the CIA of being involved in overthrowing governments and assassinating leaders in foreign countries. The video mentioned the separate plane crashes in 1981 that killed Panamanian President Omar Torrijos and Ecuador’s President Jaime Rondos, as well as the overthrowing of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953, Guatemala’s President Jacob Arbenz in 1954, Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba in 1961, Chilean President Salvador Alende in 1973, and Bolivian President Juan Torres in 1976.
The video montage also promoted the conspiracy theory that the US was involved in the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. The Strokes showed his image and a caption that read: “US govt found guilty of his murder in civil trial.” The mentioned trial, King v. Jowers, took place in 1999, but in 2000, a review by the US Justice Department found no credible evidence to validate the jury’s verdict. The video also showed images of slavery in the US and Black Lives Matter protests.
The video montage was displayed as The Strokes performed their song “Oblivius” for the first time in 10 years and the second time ever in concert. As the clip played for the audience, the band’s lead singer, Julian Casablancas, kept repeating the same lyrics in the song’s chorus: “What side you standing on?”
For those not attending the set in-person, their performance was available to watch live on Coachella’s official YouTube channel. The video montage and the band’s performance of “Oblivius” was not included in the band’s Coachella weekend one performance on April 11.
The Strokes is made up of Casablancas, Nick Valensi, Albert Hammond Jr., Nikolai Fraiture, and Fabrizio Moretti. In 2021, Casablancas signed a “Musicians for Palestine” open letter that asked artists to boycot Israel and publicly express solidarity with Palestinians.
The band will begin a world tour in June, and in August, they will headline the 2026 Just Like Heaven festival in Pasadena, California. The festival is produced by Goldenvoice, which also produces Coachella.
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Trump: Israel Never Talked Me Into War With Iran
US President Donald Trump speaks about research into mental health treatments in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, April 18, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Nathan Howard
President Donald Trump said on Monday that Israel did not persuade him to attack Iran, after news reports that Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu influenced the US president’s decision and criticism from right-wing commentators.
“Israel never talked me into the war with Iran, the results of Oct. 7th, added to my lifelong opinion that IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON, did,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
Trump also said “the results in Iran will be amazing” in the post, which came as the United States prepared to resume negotiations in Pakistan although Iran was undecided.
“And if Iran’s new leaders (Regime Change!) are smart, Iran can have a great and prosperous future!” Trump wrote.