Jerusalem: Purim: Ultra Orthodox Jews celebrate festival of Purim

(11 Mar 2001) Natural Sound

Even with the threat of violence looming over the region, Ultra Orthodox Jews from Jerusalem celebrated the last day of the Jewish festival of Purim on Sunday.

In Mea Shearim, the main Ultra Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem, adults and children took to the streets wearing costumes and singing songs.

The holiday of Purim commemorates the deliverance of the Jews in ancient Persia from a threatened pogrom.

In synagogues, which are typically quiet, congregation members stamp their feet, blow whistles and swing rattles every time the villain of the biblical story is mentioned in the service.

Fancy dress parties are also part of the festival and practical jokes are almost always attempted.

For the Ultra-orthodox community this holiday is one of the few for which they are entitled, in fact obligated, to be happy and celebrate.

However, stores selling costumes for Purim parties reported a dramatic drop in sales as customers avoided shopping malls and other crowded places for fear of new bomb attacks.

It was during Purim in 1994 that Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish settler in the West Bank city of Hebron, killed 29 Palestinian worshippers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a shrine revered by Muslims and Jews, with an automatic rifle.

Since the 1994 attack, Islamic militant groups have carried out a series of revenge attacks during Purim and in 1996, 12 people were killed and 109 injured when a bomb went off at a shopping center in Tel Aviv and in 1997, four people were killed during Purim and 47 injured when a Palestinian set off a bomb in a Tel Aviv cafe.

Children in Purim costumes were among the dead and wounded.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"They wanted to kill us and we had a big wonder, that our big "Hasem" (god) made us that we killed them
instead that they would killing us."
SUPER CAPTION: Mr. Beker, Supporter of Festival

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We can learn the following - any enemy who dares to stand against the Jewish people, will eventually have a
downfall like Haman and his followers."
SUPER CAPTION: Mr. Cohen, Supporter of Festival

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