As joyous Purim approaches, synagogues to remember slain Fogel family
By MICHELE DARGAN
Palm Beach Daily News
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
 Eliza Tizabgar and Rebbetzin Hindel Levitin of the Palm Beach Jewish Center choose tiles for their mosaic picture frames Monday evening at the Craft Gallery. |
With the upcoming holiday of Purim around the corner, the Jewish community also is remembering a family brutally massacred in their home in the West Bank settlement of Itamar.
Rabbi Moshe Scheiner and the Palm Beach Synagogue, 120 N. County Road, will hold a memorial service at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in memory of the Fogel family. The parents and three of their children, including a 3-month-old baby, were slain Friday night, reportedly by terrorists.
“This was clearly a terrorist attack,” Scheiner said. “The whole message of Purim is that good triumphs over evil. Although many enemies have tried to annihilate the Jewish people, they’re gone and we live on and that’s because the Jewish people believe in goodness and faith in God and commitment to the values of Judaism, which sustain us and carry us through the most difficult circumstances. While our enemies try to destroy, we create and we build and we celebrate life.”
The 24-hour holiday of Purim begins at sundown Saturday. It’s themost joyous of Jewish holidays.
Purim celebrates a time when Persian Queen Esther, wife of King Ahasuerus, saved the Jewish people from extermination by the evil Haman, the king’s prime minister.
According to the (Megillah) Book of Esther, the queen hid her Jewish identity from the king until Haman hatched a plan to kill all the Jews. Esther’s cousin, Mordecai, asked her to appeal to the king and she risked her life by revealing her faith and asking the king to save the Jewish people. Angered by Haman, the king ordered him hanged, appointed Mordecai as his prime minister and gave the Jews the right to defend themselves against any enemy.
Rabbi Michael Resnick of Temple Emanu-El said he is particularly drawn to the portion of the story where Esther, a queen living in a palace, has the opportunity to intervene with the king on behalf of the Jewish people, but she hesitates — at first.
Then Mordecai reminds Esther that living in a palace would not exclude her from the same fate as the rest of the Jewish people and she has an obligation to intervene.
“That to me is the very heart of the story,” Resnick said. “In the comfort of our own lives, in the safety of our own homes, what happens in the world matters to us. We’re not immune or cut off from the major issues confronting the world just by being in the safety of our homes.
“Purim reminds us that we can’t hunker down and watch events,” Resnick said. “We need to be involved. We need to take a stand. We need to speak up on issues that are important to us. That to me is what Purim is really about. There is a serious core to the holiday that is profound and important.”
Purim is celebrated by readings of the Book of Esther, giving gifts of food and drink to friends, donating to the poor and a enjoying a celebratory meal. Other customs include drinking wine, wearing masks and costumes and public celebration.
Rebbetzin Hindel Levitin, program director of the Palm Beach Jewish Center, held a pre-Purim mosaic party for women Monday night. The ladies made picture frames decorated with mosaic tiles.
“Purim is a very celebratory holiday,” Levitin said. “So we figured we’d make a picture frame and put a fun photo from Purim in it.
Levitin served the traditional Purim treat of hamantashen (cookies), as well as a wine cake and amaretto cake, because it’s also tradition to drink alcoholic beverages to celebrate the holiday.
“We had a lot of fun,” Levitin said. “It was very interesting to see that everyone’s mosaic — the colors, designs and shapes — were very different.”
While the frame was drying, Levitin explained the customs and lessons of the holiday.
“Everything that happened to them happens now, and we have to apply it on a smaller scale,” she said. “It’s really a very simple thing: that we have to show gratitude. ... The goal is that we should appreciate and have gratitude for the little things people do for us and remember those favors.”
Levitin is asking all Jewish women to light Shabbat candles at 7:12 p.m. Friday in memory of the Fogel family.
“The word to participate in this positive deed ... has spread so fast that over 10,000 women have committed to light Shabbat candles Friday night,” Levitin said. “Let us storm the heavens with our good deeds and beg the Almighty that in merit of our unity in doing this Mitzvah ... and in encouraging our friends to join, we will bring about the ultimate redemption where the world will know no more pain.”
Rabbi Gabriel Ohayon, executive director of the New Synagogue of Palm Beach, said the murdered Israeli family will be remembered during services.
“As much as we want to mourn this family, we can’t forget there was a major miracle on this holiday and the entire nation was saved,” Ohayon said.
“We’ve had pitfalls throughout history, and we can’t always put a sensible answer to these questions. The light of hope is always there, and we strengthen our faith by learning from history that hope is always there.”