Purim Passed but Not Forgotten Nor is Queen Esther With Murfin Verse

 

                                    Queen Esther and the King.

Note--Oops! Somehow, I let the joyous Jewish festival of Purim slip by un-noticed earlier this week.  But it is not too late to admire the resourceful Queen Esther and her inspiration for modern feminists.  Thanks to the wandering Jewish calendar in 2012 Purim coincided with International Women's Day.

Purim is one of my favorites of all religious celebrations.  As a Rabbi who spoke at the Peace and Unity Prayer Vigil at Islamic Foundation North in Waukegan a few years ago said. “Purim is a holy day when we are commanded to have fun.” 

To familiarize folks with her story and the joyous festival which commemorates how a Jewish concubine in a royal court saved her people—I’m talking to my fellow Goyim—we review just what the hell went on.

A young girl, Esther, was picked by a drunken Persian king to be his new bride.  She kept her Jewish identity a secret.  Meanwhile her protector and cousin Mordecai discovered a plot to kill the king and by informing saved his life. 

A Purim greeting card.

The King appointed the vain and treacherous Haman as his new Vizier.  Haman was offended when Mordecai was insufficiently obsequious to him in public.  Miffed, he plotted to have not just Mordecai, but all the Jews of kingdom killed.  He got the king, who had been participating in public drinking festivals for six months and was perhaps a tad addled, to sign such a decree.

After sending words to the Jews of the kingdom to join in three days fast and prayer Esther got the king drunk yet again at a royal drinking festival that she hosted with Haman among the guests.  After the first night of debauchery Esther read to the King the annals of Mordecai’s lifesaving service.

She then asked Haman what boon the King should give to a man who has done him great service.  Vainly thinking she means him, Haman said the honoree should be dressed in the royal robes and paraded before the people on the king’s own horse.

Mordecai is glorified.

The king astounded Haman by bestowing the boon on Mordecai and ordered him to see that the command was carried out.

On the second night of the Festival Esther revealed that she is Jewish as was her cousin and that by the edict the king himself had signed all of her people, and she herself were marked for death.  Outraged, the king ordered Haman hung on the gallows built for Mordecai and named the Jew as his new Vizier.

Esther denounce Haman to the drunken King.

But he could not revoke his own edict.  Instead, he issued another which allowed Jews to arm themselves and slay their attackers.  On the 13th Day of Adar, the planned attacks were launched but the Jews slaid their attackers by the hundreds and thousands, including all seven sons of Haman.

The Jewish people were saved and flourished for a while as never before in exile. 

Purim celebrates the deliverance exuberantly with costumed recreations of the story, noise makers meant to drown out Haman’s name whenever it is read in the telling of the story, special foods, and of course plenty of drinking and merrymaking. 

Children have fun celebrating Purim at a Boston Synagogue.

Fourteen years ago, in 2012 the celebration coincided with International Women’s Day on March 8.  

Back then I was intrigued because at the center of Purim is one of the few women of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament to take a leading role in the story.  The lovely Queen Esther always struck me as wonderfully subversive and feminist.  The story of Esther, heroine and savior of her People, resonates with women whether Jewish or Gentile.

So, I wrote her a poem imagining her sitting down with some contemporary sisters. 

Queen Esther Revealing Her Identity from a stunning series of contemporary mosaics of the Purim story by Lilian Borca. 

Purim/International Women’s Day

14th day of Adar 5772/March 8, 2012

 

Queen Esther tossed her head,

            gleaming black hair

            tumbling to those lovely shoulders

            that had enticed a lecher King.

                        She laughed.

 

Her people, the Women of another age,

            leaned toward her

            waiting her word.

 

She cast her blazing eyes upon them,

            laughed again

            and spoke at last.

 

“So many Hamans.  Where shall we begin?”

 

—Patrick Murfin

Charlottesville When the Alt Right Lit a Fuse—Murfin Verse

The united right in Charlottesville five years ago included Neo-Nazis, Klansmen, groups from the so-called Alt-Right, and militia members, some of them armed--the same groups that were the spear point of the January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol and who are now calling for civil war because their Godfather is being "persecuted" for crimes he most certainly committed.

The fifth anniversary of the White Riot known as the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia came and went on Thursday August 11 with remarkably little fanfare.  Strange because violent rampage was the introduction of an empowered white nationalist movement openly hoping to become a spark to a new civil war.  Many of the players at the January 6, 2021 attempted coup at the Capitol in Washington were on hand for the preview—neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klansmen, 2 Percenters, Oathkeepers, and assorted self-proclaimed militia groups.  The Proud Boys rose to prominence there still masquerading as a “European Heritage civil rights group” and decked out in preppy khakis and polo shirts instead of the camo and body armor that they wore to the Siege of the Capitol.  And it was all approved with a wink-and-a-nod by former Cheeto-in-Charge himself.  “Very fine people, he said.

Previous attempts to unite for a public display of power had largely fizzled when faced with organized opposition and sectarian feuding between leaders each of whom saw himself as a potential Führer.  But the call to defend a “noble heritage” by protesting the removal of Confederate Monuments, especially a Robert E. Lee equestrian monument in a central park.

A young Black woman fearlessly challenged hood wearing Klansmen,  Could we do the same?

In response to the threat local leaders, Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter groups, religious leaders, progressives and radicals spanning the Antifa movement, socialists and social democrats, Marxists, anarchists and members of my old union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) rallied as counter-protesters, many vowing to prevent a planned march from reaching its announced goal, the Lee monument.

32 year old anti-fascist activist Heather Heyer gave he life in the struggle.  She will not be the last.

Carrying tiki torches and shouting slogans like “We will not be replaced!”  The right wingers taunted and attacked peaceful counter protestors and avowed black clad Antifa fought back.  Police either stood aside or sometimes seemed to cooperate with the thugs.  Scores were injured in street fighting, and 32 year old Heather Heyer was killed when a car rammed through a crowd of anti-racists trying to block the path of the white nationalist marchers.

Anarchists, antifa, and members of the Industrial Workers of the World, (IWW) defended and protected clergy attempting to block White nationalist from their rallying point around a statue of Robert E. Lee.  The Black public intellectual Cornel West--seen upper right in the suit and sunglasses--bluntly reported that the Anti-fa "saved our lives."

The day after the Charlottesville confrontations, I spoke at a hastily called community vigil at the Tree of Life Unitarian Universalist Congregation in McHenry.  After remembering the blood sacrifice of anti-fascist hero Heather Heyer, I said that it fell to me to be the voice of anger and outrage.  I was not there to lead a chorus of Kumbaya.  I recalled that earlier in the day I had read remarks by Black scholar and activist Cornel West who was with religious leaders on both Friday night when the marching Nazis threatened a church where they gathered and on Saturday when they placed themselves around the scheduled park rallying point to block access to the Unite the Right marchers.  The ministers were confronted and menaced with imminent attack unprotected by police who had withdrawn. “The antifascists, and then, crucial, the anarchists, because they saved our lives, actually. We would have been completely crushed, and I’ll never forget that.”  West said.  These are the same anti-fascists that the Cheeto-in-Charge and far too much of the media held to be equally guilty for the violence.

The Old Man at the roadside candlelight vigil following the rally on the ground of the Tree of Life UU Congregation in McHenry where more than 200 gathered on short notice.

Then I read this:

Munich and Charlottesville

August 13, 2017

 

So is this how it felt on the streets of Munich

            when the strutting Brown Shirts

            in their polished jackboots,

            Sam Browne belts, and scarlet arm bands

            faced the scruffy Commies

            in their cloth caps

            and shirtsleeves rolled up

            and battled in the beerhalls,

            parks and streets.

 

All of the good people, the nice people

            cowered behind closed doors

            and wished it would go away—

                        all of the liberals, the Catholics,

                        the new-bred pacifists of the Great War,

                        the professors and doctors,

                        editors and intellectuals,

                        the Social Democrats,

                        even—my God!—the Jews

                        who had not gone Red—

            a pox on both your houses they solemnly intoned.

 

Hey, buddy, in retrospect those damn Bolshies

            look pretty good,

            like heroes even.

           

Things look a little different in Charlottesville,

            in brilliant color not grainy black and white

            and the Fascists can’t agree on a

            Boy Scout uniform and array themselves

            golf shirts and khakis, rainbow Klan hoods,

            biker black and studs, and strutting camo.

 

But the smell, you know, that stench,

            is just the same.

 

The question is—do you dare be a Red today

            or will you close your doors

            and go back to your game consoles

            and cat videos.

 

Which will it be, buddy? 

—Patrick Murfin 

 

 

Protest and Pride—A Busy Weekend in McHenry County

The streets call activists and lovers of justice and inclusion this weekend in McHenry County.  On Saturday there will be a local opportunity to participate in nation-wide March for Our Lives demonstrations.  All weekend Woodstock Pride has a full schedule of events culminating with the Pride Fest and the Pride Parade in Woodstock.

Hundreds crowded Woodstock Square for the first local March for Our Lives event following the mass school shooting in Parkland Florida.  It was a raw March day in 2018.  Seen above is part of the the Tree of Life U.U. Congregation contingent. 

March for Our Lives, the student-led gun control advocacy group founded by Parkland school shooting survivors, is planning nationwide protests on Saturday June 11 including a mass march in Washington, D.C. which will begin at noon Eastern Daylight Time.  In Chicago the event will be held beginning at 12 pm at the Federal Plaza.  Locally there will be an event in Crystal Lake on June from 1 am to 3 pm at Exchange Drive and Route 14.  It will be a sidewalk vigil lining Rt. 14 outside Binney’s Beverage Depot.  Parking available in shop lots.  The event is co-sponsored by Standing up Against Racism Woodstock, McHenry County NOW, and Together We Stand McHenry County.  Members of the Tree of Life Unitarian Universalist Congregation in McHenry will be glad to lend their voices.   You are invited to personalize your gun violence message on your own signs and placards.

The Woodstock Pride Fest  schedule. 

After the Coronavirus pandemic subdued celebrations for the last two years Woodstock Pride Fest has come roaring back with a full schedule of events all weekend including the Rainbow Color Run beginning Saturday, June 11 at 10 a.m. starting at Emricson Park and a new Pride Fest Pub Crawl to many of Woodstock fine watering holes on and around the Square beginning at 6 p.m.  On both Saturday and Sunday walkers, cyclists, and drivers can follow a map to view and visit homes, businesses, churches, and agencies that are creatively decorated.

The Pride Parade route map for 2022.

The crowning events of course are the gala Pride Parade will start at 11 a.m. come down Dean Street to loop the Square to kick-of the Fest at noon.  The program from the Gazebo will include the opening featuring Grand Marshals Theo Dice, Michael Meredith of Iron and Ivory, and Shannon Mingalone, Congressman Bill Foster, other guests, and Theatre 121 ensemble; 1 p.m. Donna & Alma Brooks; 2 pm Woodstock PrideFest superstar Jayleigh; 3 p.m. Rain Bow Sinthesky. There will be an extended set every hour by a featured performer with Queens throughout and local favorite, DJ Tim Hicks of Music in Motion. 

Pride Fest on the square will feature not only the stage program but also food trucks and concessions; venders; information booths for supportive non-profit organizations, social service agencies, activist groups, and religious supporters. 

The Tree of Life info booth at the inaugural 2019 Woodstock Pride Fest.

Tree of Life UU Congregation with our long, close association with the LGBTQ community will be sharing booth space with our old friends and allies from PFLAG McHenry County.  Look for us at booth #40.

Pride Fest is co-sponsored by Woodstock Pride and the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce and several other businesses and organizations.