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March 14, 2025

The Purim Libel Returns, This Time from the Pens of Jews

Fetishizing powerlessness.

In 1946, Julius Streicher, a high-ranking SS-officer and a chief Nazi propagandist, was sentenced to death at Nuremberg. Just before he was executed, he called out “Heil Hitler!” and the odd phrase “Purimfest, 1946!” It seems the his hanging alongside that of his fellow convicts put him in mind of the hanging of Haman and his ten sons described in the book of Esther. As Emmanuel Bloch and Zvi Ron wrote in 2022:

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March 14, 2025

  1. The Purim Libel Returns, This Time from the Pens of Jews

    Fetishizing powerlessness.

  2. When the Portuguese Haman Threatened the Jews of Brazil

    A Purim-themed poem from the first rabbi of the New World.

  3. The Exquisite Artwork, Jewish and Gentile, Inspired by the Book of Esther

    Esther in the Age of Rembrandt.

  4. 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.”

  5. Rare Purim Photos from the Land of Israel in the 1920s

    A sailor, a citrus tree, and other costumes.