Purim is celebrated during the month of Adar, but because this is a leap year in the Jewish calendar, Purim is celebrated in Adar II (beginning this coming Saturday night). When that happens, a minor holiday called Purim Katan (Little Purim) is celebrated in the first month of Adar (February 22-23 this year). There are other Little Purim celebrations around the world, commemorating events that could have been tragic for local Jewish communities, but which were averted. Some of these are named after their location (eg, Purim Narbonne and Purim Rhodes), while others are named after the oppressor in the story (eg, Purim Sebastiano and Purim Burghul). These holidays are generally celebrated with the reading of a Megillah which describes the event, along with festive meals and giving to charity. For example, Purim de los Ladrones (Purim of the Bandits) is celebrated in Gumeldjina, a small city in the Ottoman Empire whose Jewish community was blamed for an attack by rebels from the nearby mountains. Ultimately the Jews proved their innocence and the community was spared. Another Purim Katan celebration is Purim Vinz, which is celebrated with the reading of the Vincent Megillah. What does that holiday commemorate?

Rembrandt - School of - The Feast of Esther Haman’s Disgrace, 1580 by Rembrandt is in the public domain via Wikimedia Commons

A. Cardinal Vincenzo Vannutelli praised Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in 1923, saying that “for his energy and devotion to the country he was chosen to save the nation and restore her fortune.” He was criticized by many for supporting the fascist leader, but his words also prompted some to riot against the Roman Jewish community. Pope Pius XI denounced the Cardinal, however, leading Jewish leaders to declare a Purim Katan at which they thanked the Pope and read the Vincent Megillah.

B. A German-Jewish art collector, Paul Cassirer, presented the first showing of Vincent Van Gogh’s works in Berlin in 1901. The show was vandalized, however, with antisemitic graffiti written on the window of the gallery and paint splashed on some of the artworks. The German leader, Kaiser Wilhelm, was close to the Jews at that time (he later blamed them for his election loss in 1918) and he had the perpetrators arrested. The local Jewish community proclaimed a Purim Katan and wrote a Megillah which they named after the artist.

C. Vincent Ferrer was a Dominican friar in Valencia in the late 1300’s to early 1400’s. During his lifetime, Valencia (and much of Europe) was still recovering from the Black Death, the epidemic of bubonic plague which killed more than 25 million people. An outbreak of violent antisemitism arose in Valencia as those who were still suffering from hunger and economic problems attacked local Jewish residents, destroying businesses and synagogues. Friar Vincent defended the Jewish community, preaching from his church against the hatred and reaching out to King James II of Aragon, who put down the revolt and restored peace and order to the Jewish community. A Purim Katan was declared, with the Vincent Megillah written to thank Friar Vincent for his efforts.

D. In 1614, Vincent Fettmilch, an antisemitic leader of Frankfurt’s bakers guild, led a rebellion against the local city council over financial concerns. The revolt, known as the Fettmilch Uprising, included attacks on the local Jewish community, who the attackers blamed for much of the financial problems. Despite some deaths and the destruction of synagogues and Torah scrolls, Holy Roman Emperor Matthias eventually restored order, leading to the celebration of a Purim Katan with the reading of a Megillah about the event, the Vincent Megillah.

E. A Bensonhurst Jewish community was being oppressed by a local gang called the Sweathogs, under the leadership of a thug named Vincent Barbarino. Because they honored hogs, they did not like the Jews who considered pigs unclean. Barbarino threatened a local Jew, Juan Luis Pedro Felipo de Huevos Epstein, saying “Up your Nose with a Rubber Hose!” This led the leader of the Jewish community, the Kotter Rebbe, to plead with the local authorities for protection, resulting in Mr. Woodman giving Vincent Barbarino a detention, thus saving the Jewish community. The Jews now celebrate Purim Vinz by reading the Vincent Megillah and drawing lots to decide when to hang Vincent Barbarino in effigy, while singing, “Yeah, we’re drawing some lots/Cause we think we’re gonna plotz/Hamentash. Hamentash, Hamentash, Hamentash.”

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The mikveh is the ritual bath that is utilized by Jews to achieve a state of purity. Most typically women go to the mikveh at the end of their monthly period, though mikvehs are also used for other purposes, including as part of the conversion ceremony. A group of Orthodox women are participating in a “mikveh strike” for what reason?

Mikvah Mei Chaya Mushka in Crown Heights by Mk17b is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED via Wikimedia Commons

A. Women in Williamsburg are protesting the conditions at a local mikveh. They say that they have been unable to get the owners to sufficiently clean the facility, and as a result they have called for a “mikveh strike” until the men who are in charge of this mikveh commit to providing a clean and hygienic facility.

B. A mikveh on the Upper East Side of New York has begun providing services to patrons who belong to Conservative and Reform communities. Some of their practices are not as strict as those of the Orthodox. For example, converts who want to go to the mikveh have not completed a conversion process according to Orthodox standards. Orthodox patrons of that mikveh have called a “mikveh strike” in protest of this facility allowing uses which they do not approve of.

C. A group of Orthodox women in Brooklyn are protesting against a man who will not give his wife a get, a Jewish divorce. These women have begun a “mikveh strike,” refusing to go to the mikveh at the end of their menstrual cycles, which then means that they cannot have marital relations with their husbands as would traditionally be the case at that time.

D. Men can visit a mikveh for a number of reasons. For example, some men go to the mikveh to regain purity after contact with the dead, while others routinely go before Yom Kippur. A group of Orthodox women in Monsey, New York have started a “mikveh strike” against a local mikveh, because the hours available are skewed towards the men’s needs, and not sufficiently conducive to women’s schedules (especially citing the lack of women’s hours during the day when children are at school).

E. A mikveh was recently built in the basement of a building in Crown Heights in Brooklyn. The first floor of the building happens to be the site of a bowling alley. To promote the new mikveh, the facility is offering a special wherein users who first go bowling upstairs will receive a 10% discount for each “mikveh strike” they roll during the game. Anyone bowling a perfect game earns a free mikveh visit.

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Comedian Richard Lewis died last week at the age of 76. Lewis’s comedy grew from his Jewish upbringing and identity, as he noted, “It’s so much funnier being a Jew than anything else. If we don’t find humor then we’re in deep trouble.” He was known for a self-deprecating style of comedy, as seen in many appearances on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and other late night shows, as well as sitcoms and movies, most recently as a recurring character (playing himself) on Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. He and David were born 3 days apart in the same hospital, and later attended the same summer camp, where they hated each other, only becoming best friends early in their professional lives. According to Lewis, what significant event in his life involved his father?

Richard Lewis (cropped) by Joeyjojo86 is licensed under  CC BY-SA 3.0 DEED via Wikimedia Commons

A. Lewis noted that his father “was so well loved as the cantor at our synagogue that the congregation wouldn’t let me sing at my own bar mitzvah.”

B. Lewis noted that his father “was such a successful caterer that he was booked on my bar mitzvah, and I had my party on a Tuesday.”

C. Lewis noted that his father “was so well known as a local mohel that he used to show me off in his ads as a sample of his work.”

D. Lewis noted that his father “was so well recognized as a member of the local Lubavitcher community that he insisted that I always wear black clothes.”

E. Lewis noted that his father “dropped in on Larry’s bris, which was in the hospital right after I was born. He told Larry’s father that the lox they served was ‘Prett-ay, Prett-ay, Prett-ay Good.’ ”

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Alabama Chief Justice Tom Parker ruled that frozen embryos are in fact humans, with the same rights as children. Therefore, these embryos cannot be destroyed, for according to the judge, human life “cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God, who views the destruction of His image as an affront to Himself.” While there are some areas of disagreement within the Jewish community, most agree that embryos and fetuses do not have the same rights as individuals once they are born. Therefore there is not an absolute prohibition against abortion as there is in the Catholic Church, for example. Much is written in the Talmud and in later rabbinic writings about embryos, fetuses, artificial insemination, IVF, abortion, and other related issues of pregnancy and childbirth. Which of the following is a true statement with regard to the Jewish perspective on these issues?

Ivf by DrKontogianniIVF is licensed under CC0 1.0 DEED via Wikimedia Commons

A. The fetus is not considered to be a life until the head emerges during the birth process.

B. Most Orthodox religious authorities allow for the discarding of unused fertilized embryos, but not the use of those embryos in research.

C. When a baby is conceived with a donor egg from a non-Jewish woman but carried by a Jewish woman, some rabbis say that since the egg is from a non-Jewish woman, the baby is not halakhically Jewish. Others, however, state that the source of the egg is insignificant compared to the role played by the gestational mother; therefore the child is halakhically Jewish.

D. Until the 40th day after conception, the embryo is considered to be “merely water.”

E. Judaism is opposed to freezing of embryos, based on the wisdom of my Bubby who always told me, “Oy, it’s freezing outside. Bubbele, you’ll catch your death of cold. Here. Put on a sweater.”

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