How Russian-speaking Jews in Brooklyn celebrated and voted

In the Brooklyn community of Rabbi-Odessa Ashera Altshula gathered over 150 people. The company was very uneven, but friendly and fun. Joy is no less effective and efficient mechanism in dealing with God than moaning and pleading, explained Rabbi Asher Altshul, opening the celebration Purima.

At first everyone listened carefully to the reading of the Scroll of Esther. For forty minutes even the children sat in silence. Of course, they could be taken to another floor, but this would be contrary to Jewish tradition. Children should spin around their parents and, albeit unconsciously, but absorb the sacred text. Therefore, they were seated not far from the pulpit where they read the scroll, and they were attached to them a handsome giant with a huge box with treats. That metal sweets for children, like a real juggler, provided a reverent silence, which was interrupted several times only by the tramp of a threat to Aman.

Then the adults drank and ate, the children danced.

In Purim, it is customary to make performances - Purimshpili. At first, these were the performances of the story that took place in Shushan (for more details, see the certificate on the history of the holiday below). Over time, the Purimshpils also became make fun of the rich and the rabbis. In Soviet times, these performances were written and played underground. Often, in some small-sized “two-room apartment” in a residential area, up to fifty people were crammed, and as many were languishing in the stairwell, waiting for the second run.

They don’t play purimspils in Brooklyn—there’s no time. “In Russia, both before and now, people have time to write, stage, and rehearse purimshpils. In America, people work very hard, and they have neither time nor energy left for such labor-intensive entertainment,” Rabbi Asher Altshul explained to the Forum..

However, not only children, but also adults came in masquerade costumes. Applause was ripped off by one of the parishioners, who appeared in a cap, completely covered with Soviet badges with portraits of Lenin.

Jewish center "Heritage of Zion" (Jewish Center Nachalat Zion) for eleven years now, it was created at the request of parishioners by Rabbi Asher Altshul, together with his wife, an Odessa native like himself. There is a community funded by parishioners, which is not typical for the Russian-speaking community.

Immediately at the end of the reading of the scroll, the rabbi was demanded to take part in a masquerade - and he immediately appeared in public wearing an ambulance doctor. And he drank with everyone, finding a special word for everyone. This rabbi here is clearly loved and respected.

Asher was born in Odessa, and a schoolboy suddenly became an observant Jew. Then the family went to Israel, where he learned to be a rabbi and served in the army in the intelligence of the central district, was in charge of a computer laboratory. In America, he came on vacation with his wife, received a job offer and stayed, and eventually he devoted himself completely already creating a community in brooklyn. It is for the sake of the Jewish Center Heritage of Zion that the Rabbi seeks to become a delegate to the World Zionist Congress.

«Due to our upbringing in the Soviet Union, we Russian-speaking Jews often try to remain apolitical and distance ourselves from social structures,” he says. “However, the World Zionist Congress is not a party or a political organization, but a forum of representatives of all our people. And in this forum we must have a proper place.”

Since you can go to Purim on the Internet and fill out ballots (which is strictly forbidden on most Jewish holidays), an electoral movement booth was located right next to the bar here American Forum for Israel. ATEveryone could vote for their favorite rabbi. “Can I be sure that I am casting my vote for you?” incredulous parishioners kept asking Asher Altshul, and he explained over and over again how voting works.

You can read about the elections and the World Zionist Congress in Russian here. On the same site, you can also vote online for the American Forum of Russian-speaking Jewry.

About the history of Purim

Once upon a time in a certain kingdom, a certain state, or more precisely: “And it was in the days of Ahashverosh — this is Ahashverosh that reigned from one hundred to twenty-seven provinces from Ode to Kush. At that time, when King Ahasuaros sat on his royal throne, in the Shushan fortress ... ”

Thus begins The Scroll of Esther, the gripping tale of the Jews' rescue from physical destruction by the villainous courtier Haman in the Persian city of Shushan in the 4th century BC. The Jews owed their salvation not to courageous warriors, but to the palace intrigues of the Jew Mordechai and his niece Esther. All Jews are commanded to read the Scroll of Esther in the morning and evening of the holiday of Purim.

“Pur” in Hebrew means “lot”. Haman cast lots to choose the day of the extermination of the Jews. But he fell to Haman himself and his family. Since then, many generations of Jews have celebrated their salvation. Like every Jew in all generations “visited” Egyptian slavery and on the night of Pesach says “We (and not they) were slaves of Pharaoh,” so every Jew rejoices every year in saving his people from the villain Haman.

Many believe that since then miracles in Purim continue to happen. So, the most bloody dictator Joseph Stalin suffered a stroke in Purim 1953 of the year, which, as many Jews are convinced, was salvation. In 1991, in Purim, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein announced a ceasefire in the Gulf War, respectively, and stopped the shelling of Israel.

The main prescription in Purim is to rejoice and reckless fun. It is almost the only Jewish holiday, not burdened by prohibitions. You can turn on the light, talk on the phone, drive a car, surf the Internet and do a lot of all sorts of things that the Jewish tradition recognizes as work and forbids doing it on Saturdays and holidays.