Special Purims

Just as Jews throughout the world celebrate the festival of Purim in commemoration of their ancestors having been saved from a hostile decree condemning them to death, so many individual Jewish communities ordained their own Purims, each in its own way, to commemorate their deliverance from various calamities. For example, the Padua Purim, celebrated on 11 Sivan, commemorates the Jews' deliverance from a major fire in 1795; the Florence Purim (27 Sivan) marks the rescue of the Jews from a mob in 1790 by the intercession of the local bishop; the Avignon Purim (24 Tammuz) was celebrated each year, although details of the deliverance had long been forgotten; the Baghdad Purim (11 Av) celebrates the conquest of the city by the Arabs and the defeat of the Persians, who were persecuting the Jews; the "Snow Purim" (24 Tevet) was celebrated by the Jews of Tunis after a major snowstorm wreaked havoc in the country but left the Jewish quarter untouched; the Kovno Purim (7 Adar II) was instituted when the Jews of Kovno were granted numerous rights in 1783 by King Poniatowski (a special scroll was written, documenting the troubles suffered by the Jews and their deliverance by the king's edicts); and, most recently, the "Hitler Purim" of Casablanca was celebrated on 2 Kislev (11 November 1943), when the city was saved from falling into German hands. Here, a "Hitler Scroll" was written, paraphrasing the traditional one, including the words "cursed be Hitler, cursed be Mussolini," and naming many of the other Nazi and Fascist leaders.

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