Sunday, March 6, the College of William and Mary’s three Jewish organizations — Hillel, Challah for Hunger and the Jewish Fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi — hosted an extravagant Purim carnival that lit up the Sunken Garden with joy, laughter and cheer. The welcoming atmosphere was accompanied by bounce houses, delicious food, face painting, field games like cornhole and Kan Jam and live music by the band Phrases. This event was open to the community and served as an opportunity for others to learn more about and become immersed in Jewish culture.
The Purim carnival is a celebration and retelling of the Jewish holiday Purim, which falls on March 16 this year.
“Purim is celebrating when the Jews, many years ago in Persia, were able to escape being persecuted, by being killed, by the right-hand man of the current King of Ahasuerus, this guy named Haman,” Hillel Social Chair Noam Stanislawski ’23 said.
While Haman serves as the antagonist of the story, Queen Esther of the Persian Empire, along with her uncle Mordechai, serve as heroes of the story when they save the Jews from their persecution. Queen Esther, who originally concealed her identity as a Jew, spoke up and saved her people when she heard about Haman’s plan to persecute the Jews in Persia. Esther now serves as a feminist symbol, her role as a hero in this story being retold to individuals every year on Purim.
“I personally love it because it’s a feminist-based holiday because the main protagonist is a female, which you don’t often get in these more older, religious practices, but this one is very female-centered and powerful.”
“It’s a holiday that not a lot of people, other than Jews, know about but it’s a very fun holiday, and I think it’s a very accessible one to non-Jews,” Shabbat and Holiday Co-Chair of Hillel Rebekah Cohodas ’23 said. “I personally love it because it’s a feminist-based holiday because the main protagonist is a female, which you don’t often get in these more older, religious practices, but this one is very female-centered and powerful.”
Purim also involves parties and carnivals with lots of food and drinks. The carnival incorporated many of the traditions associated with the celebration of this classic Jewish holiday, such as baking a traditional Jewish dessert hamantaschen, doing charitable work and retelling the Purim story from the Book of Esther.
As part of the event, the Purim story, traditionally told in Hebrew from the Book of Esther (the Megillah), was translated in English to accommodate all students.
“One of the really cool traditions is that you’re supposed to boo out the antagonist, Haman, so whenever you say Haman’s name, you make a lot of noise, you say ‘boo,’ and you use the noisemakers — the graggers — to drown out his name,” Cohodas said. Colorful graggers were provided to all attendees, inviting them to partake in this tradition.
Inspiration for the event came from attending a Diwali celebration hosted by the South Asian Student Association and the Hindu, Sikh and Jain Students Association in Sadler months prior. This cultural celebration was open to all students and had an enormous amount of support by the campus community while also offering great food.
“We thought Hillel should be on the map; we are the only purely Jewish cultural organization on campus,” Stanislawski said. “How else would we celebrate but with a big carnival open to anyone?”
Stanislawski commented on Hillel’s mission to spread inclusivity and welcome others to experience the Jewish faith.
“The goal was just to have a big, campus-wide event where people can come and join, and whether you’re Jewish or not, there’s something for you,” Stanislawski said.
Shabbat and Holiday Co-Chair of Hillel Ike Bluestein ’23 noted that traditionally, Hillel throws a more low-key Purim event. However, this year, the organization knew they wanted to make it a larger celebration, one that was more open and accessible to the public.
“We wanted this to get out there as a bigger thing; this is a great event to have a huge celebration for,” Bluestein said. “It got a little bit bigger and bigger as we went, and we kinda added stuff on, and it became something really, really exciting.”
As planning got underway, Hillel decided to invite the other two Jewish organizations on campus, including Challah for Hunger, a nonprofit group at the College that sells Jewish baked goods for charity, and AEPi, the primary Jewish Greek organization on campus.
For Hillel, it was crucial to have students plan and host this celebration so that they could reflect on and incorporate their own experiences with Purim carnivals growing up.
“It was very important that we involved all three Jewish organizations that are on campus; that way it represented the students,” Cohodas said. “I really wanted it to represent the students and what their experiences with their Purim carnivals have been like.”
“It was very important that we involved all three Jewish organizations that are on campus; that way it represented the students,” Cohodas said. “I really wanted it to represent the students and what their experiences with their Purim carnivals have been like.”
Both Challah for Hunger and AEPi brought different philanthropic initiatives to Purim as part of their involvement.
Challah for Hunger baked hamantaschen, which are triangle-shaped pastry cookies that are traditionally filled with jam, jellies or chocolate. These desserts were a crowd favorite at the carnival and allowed attendees to sample a taste of Jewish culture.
“You make them in the shape of a triangle because it kind of mimics the hat of the antagonist of the Purim story, Haman,” Cohodas said.
Taking a more rambunctious route, AEPi hosted “Pie an AEPi Brother,” in which students could pay to smash a pie in AEPi members’ faces, and these funds went toward Jewish communities in Ukraine. This event was perhaps the most popular attraction at the Purim carnival for all students and an inexpensive way to donate to a worthwhile cause.
“Giving to charity is a big part of Purim, so AEPi is doing that with their ‘Pie a Pi’ fundraiser,” Bluestein said.
As a non-Jewish attendee, I felt so welcomed and included at this event. It was a great way to not only experience a culture that is foreign to you or that you know little about, but also build connections to other College students and become more deeply connected to the different cultures present at our school.
Attending these events that are open to all students is a great way to see and experience the diversity amongst students on this campus and is something I highly recommend. It is so important to preserve the different cultures and traditions held by each individual student at the College, and partaking in these sponsored events is a great way to grow your knowledge as well as create an inclusive environment in our community moving forward.
If you are looking for other ways to get involved, Hillel hosts weekly kosher Friday night dinners. Feel free to follow any of these three organizations on Instagram and support any of their future endeavors!
CORRECTION (2/2): A previous version of this article listed the incorrect class year of Noam Stanislawski as 2022. The article has been updated to reflect the correct class year as 2023.
