Feb 7 2013
By Deborah Kolben at 4:55 pm
Yes, that’s a young Mayim BIalik all dressed up for Purim.
We really love any excuse to show off this photo of young Mayim sporting a homemade kimono for Purim. If you’re looking for some fun DIY ideas that won’t cost you an arm and a leg, take a look at Mayim’s 6 tips for making your own outfits at home. Also, she reveals some of her own childhood costumes which included a gypsy, a 1950′s “Greaser” (more than once), and ballet recital costumes. And then there was the year she simply went in her Brownie uniform. Ain’t nothing wrong with that. Read on…
Feb 6 2013
By Kveller at 3:29 pm
The centerpiece of Purim is a big feast, a seudah, to be eaten with one’s family and friends during the day of Purim. This feast harkens back to the banquet that Esther held with King Ahaseurus and Haman as her honored guests. Also on Purim day, it’s customary to deliver packages of treats to friends, family, and the poor.
Basically, that means lots of delicious food on Purim. Here at Kveller we’ve got your back with lots of excellent Purim recipes. Read the rest of this entry →
Feb 5 2013
By Kveller at 4:20 pm
Last month, we co-sponsored the launch of The Purim Superhero by Elizabeth Kushner, winner of Keshet’s National Book-Writing Contest. The picture book is the first ever LGBT-inclusive Jewish kids’ book published in English, and it tells the super cute story of a little boy named Nate.
Nate has a Purim dilemma. He loves aliens and really wants to wear an alien costume for Purim, but his friends are all dressing as superheroes and he wants to fit in. What will he do? With the help of his two dads he makes a surprising decision. Read the rest of this entry →
Feb 4 2013
By Kveller at 5:01 pm
Let’s not beat around the bush: Purim is the craziest Jewish holiday of the year. There’s carnivals and parades, cookies and noisemakers, religion-sanctioned drunkenness, and of course, the costumes.
Many consider Purim to be the Jewish Halloween, and your kids certainly won’t mind getting into the spirit of the holiday by dressing up as whatever they want! Purim comes early this year, starting at sundown on Saturday, February 23rd, so if you don’t already have a costume in place, now’s the time to start looking. The internet’s cup runneth over with all kinds of costumes, but we’ve searched through the endless choices and found our favorites just for you. From cutesy to Jewishy to just plain weird, here they are. Read the rest of this entry →
Jan 17 2013
By Avital Norman Nathman at 11:45 am
Yesterday, we announced the launch of The Purim Superhero, the first LGBT-inclusive Jewish children’s book in English. Today, one mother reflects on initial reactions to the book.
The other day, Kveller’s partner site MyJewishLearning.com posted on their Facebook page about a new children’s book coming out that focuses on Purim. According to the write-up, Elisabeth Kushner’s The Purim Superhero is “the sweet story of a boy named Nate who has a Purim dilemma: he loves aliens and really wants to wear an alien costume for Purim, but his friends are all dressing as superheroes, and he wants to fit in. With the help of his two dads, he makes a surprising decision.” Read the rest of this entry →
Jan 16 2013
By Kveller at 9:50 am
As you may have guessed, we’re huge fans of Jewish children’s books, which is why we were very excited to co-sponsor the launch of The Purim Superhero, the first LGBT-inclusive Jewish children’s book in English!
This book, written by Elisabeth Kushner and illustrated by Mike Byrne, was the winner of Keshet’s National Book-Writing Contest, and we couldn’t be happier to finally see it released from Kar-Ben Publishing.
So what’s it all about? Read the rest of this entry →
Mar 23 2012
By Kveller at 10:14 am
This was our second year of collecting adorable photos of your kids in Purim costumes, and man, we love it! Thanks to all of you who sent in photos–and feel free to send more and we’ll add them (just email info@kveller.com).
And now that we’re done with Purim, it’s on to Passover. Don’t forget to take those cute shots of kids eating matzah!
Mar 9 2012
By Kveller at 1:46 pm
Some of last year's adorable Purim costumes.
If your kids love dressing up as much as ours do, they’re probably pretty depressed that Purim is over. Combine that with the sugar-low from having already eaten all of the hamantaschen, and man, there’s a tantrum headed your way soon.
But if you’re still not done staring at the adorable pictures of your kids dressed up as animals, clowns, kings, queens, hamantaschen, and more–send them in to us! That’s right folks–it’s our Second Annual Purim Costume Contest. Last year we attempted to pick winners, but that was WAY hard. How do you decide the cutest of cute kids dressed in costumes? Impossible. This year, we’ll be doing a photo slideshow–so if you get your photos in by Wednesday, March 14 at 5 pm, your kids will be live on Kveller before you know it!
Just send your photos to info@kveller.com to share the cuteness. We can’t wait to see them!
Mar 7 2012
By Kveller at 5:01 pm
Festive or frightening? You decide.
As sunset approaches here in New York, we’d like to wish everybody a very happy Purim! Eat a bunch of cookies, put on wacky costumes, make lots of noise, and have yourself a drink (or not). Oh, and take pictures! We always love to see those babies in costumes.
Our office is closed tomorrow, but we’ll be back Friday with some fun surprises in store, so don’t get so drunk that you can’t remember where to find us.
By Renee Septimus at 4:31 pm
On Monday, I taught my weekly Jewish Thought and Culture class to adults at the 92nd Street Y. My subject was, predictably, Purim. We explored the historical context, the story, the celebration. But mostly, I used the Purim story as an example of Jewish oppression over the ages. How a personal antipathy (in this case, Haman’s towards Mordechai) can generalize to become public policy towards an entire group (the massacre of the Jewish population of the Persian Empire.)
We have many examples of how antipathy towards one or a small group of Jews takes on a life of its own resulting in prejudice, intolerance, and violence. Mordechai and Dreyfus, Jewish radicals and Communists, and the “Jewish liberal media,” all had profound effects on the entire Jewish population. We were lucky if we just got bad PR and didn’t get killed.
I was thinking about this a lot when one of my students asked me about the recent memoir by Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox. Read the rest of this entry →
