The Purim Libel Returns, This Time from the Pens of Jews
Fetishizing powerlessness.
March 14, 2025
The Poetic Art of the Purim Shpil
“Our heads are full to the brim with our thinking/ Just as the King runneth over with drinking.”
In the Ashkenazi world, Jews had rich traditions of the Purim play, or shpil. Its proper form, writes Miriam Udel, involved “retelling the story of the megillah — often with outrageously funny distortions—in rhyming verse (gramen).” While most of these were works of folk art, they were also written by outstanding literary figures, including the great Yiddish modernist poet Itsik Manger. Udel writes:
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Login or SubscribeMarch 14, 2025
When the Portuguese Haman Threatened the Jews of Brazil
A Purim-themed poem from the first rabbi of the New World.
The Exquisite Artwork, Jewish and Gentile, Inspired by the Book of Esther
Esther in the Age of Rembrandt.
The Poetic Art of the Purim Shpil
“Our heads are full to the brim with our thinking/ Just as the King runneth over with drinking.”
Rare Purim Photos from the Land of Israel in the 1920s
A sailor, a citrus tree, and other costumes.