Purim begins on sundown Thursday, February 25, 2021 and ends sundown Friday February 26, 2021.
Purim is another one of those they-tried-to-kill-us-and-failed holidays. It commemorates the story of smokin’ hot Queen Esther, who won a beauty contest, but the prize was to marry the King of Persia, who was kind of an idiot. So, bummer.
As per usual, the king decided to follow the advice of his advisor, Haman, to kill all the Jews, not realizing that that included his wife. Whoops. Then Esther had to convince the King not to go through with his plan. Lucky for us, she convinced him. Phew. And instead Haman got hung in the gallows that he himself had built for the Jews.

Moral of the story: avoid messing with the Jews.

• Get your costume put together and plan to be in our virtual costume parade. You submit a video of yourself in costume and send it to us (not more than 10 seconds long). We’ll include it in our virtual costume parade to be shown at the event.

• Make a mask of any kind, or simply draw or paint one. You can enter the contest in one of three categories: under 6 years, 7-12 years and 13 and up. Everyone who makes a mask will have a chance to show it and participants will choose their favorites.

• Naomi Morse will lead us in some spirited songs and we’ll make some music and some noise (to drown out the name of you-know-who!).

• Lastly, to fulfill the mitzvot of helping others, we’ll be collecting food donations in boxes at both CoM and TBI. As an alternative, you can make monetary donations to either (or both) Loaves and Fishes (kzoolf.org) or Portage Community Center (portagecommunitycenter.org). Collections of non-food items such as soaps, shampoo, laundry detergent, diapers etc. are also welcomed and needed.