Pop culture peps up Purim parties in Scranton
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Mar. 4—SCRANTON — Pop culture meets Purim in some local celebrations of the joyous Jewish holiday.
Temple Hesed on East Mountain injected some Dr. Seuss characters into its Purim party Saturday, while the Jewish Community Center of Scranton in the Hill Section will hold a Star Wars-themed carnival Sunday.
While Jewish holidays often are serious, Purim is lighthearted and features carnivals, feasts and plays called spiels.
"Almost every Jewish celebration — when you think about Hanukkah, Passover, Purim — it's at the end of a really bad thing," Temple Hesed Rabbi Daniel Swartz said. "So first comes the really bad thing, and then comes getting out of it, and then comes the celebration. Purim, I think, is the most lighthearted of the three because the bad thing almost happened," but was prevented.
Purim, which begins Monday at sunset, commemorates the saving of Jewish people from massacre in ancient Persia, as told in the biblical Book of Esther.
Temple Hesed's Purim festivities featured a Dr. Seuss-themed play titled, "The Cat in the Hat Presents: The Dr. Seuss Purr-im Shpiel," with Esther figures recast as Seuss characters.
The celebration also included kids crafts and candy making, kosher wine tasting for adults, a Purim pizza diner, a Singalong Purim Musical and the Great Hamantashen Bake Off.
Katheryne and Mike Hassett of Sweet Valley and their three children came to Temple Hesed for Purim dressed in old Halloween costumes as zebras, a slice of pizza, a swamp monster and a leprechaun.
"Purim is my favorite holiday. I love dressing up" and the reading of the story of Purim, said Katheryne, who, along with her daughter, Autumn, 16, wore zebra attire.
Unrecognizable as a head-to-toe swamp creature, Mikey Hassett, 11, also likes dressing in costume for Purim and hearing the story. His brother, Logan, 14, enjoys booing Haman, the xenophobic adviser to an ancient Persian king, loudly and often during the retelling of the story. The boys also like the hamantaschen, a triangular pastry that pokes fun at Haman's similarly shaped hat.
The force will be with the Jewish Community Center of Scranton's Star Wars-themed Purim Carnival on Sunday from 1-4 p.m. at the center at 601 Jefferson Ave.
A free carnival compares the Jews overcoming Haman to the Rebellion battling the Empire in Star Wars, JCC Executive Director Dan Cardonick said.
The JCC's celebrations will include games, food, music, a costume contest, noisemaker and mask making, bumper cars and hamantaschen.
FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY, staff writer, contributed to this report.
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jlockwood@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5185;
@jlockwoodTT on Twitter.
