What is Purim? What to know about the Jewish holiday that begins Saturday evening
Purim, a Jewish holiday celebrating joy and salvation, begins Saturday evening and ends Sunday evening. Among the celebrations: many Jewish children will dress up and feast on triangular sweets on Saturday evening.
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion President Andrew Rehfeld said Purim (pronounced like "poor-ihm"
surrounds a story about how Persian King Achashverosh wanted to kill all Jewish people, but the plan was thwarted when his wife Esther convinced him otherwise and executed his advisor Haman during a feast.
Hebrew studies professor at the University of Florida Yaniv Feller said most Jews in the U.S. celebrate by reading the megillah, or the book of Esther, on Saturday evening.
Feller said a tradition is growing for children to wear costumes typically of figures in the story. He added they often go to a Saturday service and use noisemakers whenever Haman's name is said.
more...
Seems redundant to post this here, but, then again, maybe not.
= new reply since forum marked as read
He was named after Theodor Herzl 
He made his stage debut in Tevye the Milkman in Tel Aviv, Israel, when he was in his teens. He later studied acting at Britain's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and made his London stage debut in 1948 and in New York in 1955. He was also a widely recognized and recorded folk singer and guitarist. In 1959, he co-founded the Newport Folk Festival, and created the role of Captain von Trapp opposite Mary Martin as Maria in the original Broadway production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The Sound of Music. In 1969, Bikel began acting and singing on stage as Tevye in the musical Fiddler on the Roof, a role he performed more often than any other actor to date. The production won nine Tony Awards, and was one of the longest-running musicals in Broadway history.
Bikel was president of the Associated Actors and Artistes of America until 2014, and was president of Actors' Equity in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He served as the chairman of the board of directors of Partners for Progressive Israel,[2] where he also lectured.
