Decade-themed parties are not just about celebrating the fashion, the hair styles, the hit songs, and the most popular TV shows. They are also about celebrating the history of that decade.
This year’s annual Purim party, whose theme is “We ♥ the 80s”, will do exactly that — showcasing the popular culture of the time, but also recalling the redemption of the Jews of the Former Soviet Union.
• The Young Leadership Department (YLD), Shalom Milwaukee, and the Israel Center of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, plus the Jewish Museum Milwaukee, Young Jewish Adults of Milwaukee (YJAM), and JNFuture are partnering to sponsor this year’s party.
• Cover charge is $20 per person, which includes two drink tickets.
Purim, as we all know, is the celebration of the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire from royal minister Haman’s plot to murder all the Jews in the empire, as recorded in the Book of Esther.
A similar deliverance occurred in the 80s. On Dec. 6, 1987, more than 450 Wisconsinites joined 250,000 Americans on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to demand that the Soviet Union “Let My People Go.”
Their call was heard. More than a million Jews left the Soviet Union, found new homes in free countries, and began to make contributions that touched the lives of millions more. Read more about the movement at www.freedom25.net.
The story of Isaak Lerner, Purim Party committee member and Milwaukee resident, brings the Purim-80s connection close to home. He and his family left the FSU in 1989 as political refugees.
Lerner was 6 years old at the time; and while “I certainly understood what anti-Semitism was,” he said, “[I] didn’t understand the mechanics of what had happened politically and historically that led to my family being able to escape the Soviet Union.”
Later, he learned about “The personal sacrifices of Soviet Jews like Natan Sharansky and the rest of the Refuseniks, along with American Jewry’s monumental push to free Soviet Jews that led to the Jackson-Vanik Amendment which placed intense political pressure on the USSR to allow its Jews to immigrate to the U.S. and Israel.”
“Russian Jews have assimilated quickly and seamlessly into the greater American Jewish community,” Lerner said. “Many of us are members of local synagogues throughout all denominations who actively participate in Jewish life, send our kids to Jewish schools and are overall very successful professionally.
“As an adult, I understand how dramatically different my life would have turned out if my family were not given the opportunity to leave the Former Soviet Union. I think this pivotal event in recent history perfectly ties the 80s as the decade of modern redemption and exodus for a huge proportion of global Jewry.”
Our Milwaukee Jewish community supported the movement to liberate or deliver the Soviet Jews. The Milwaukee Jewish Federation (MJF) and its partner agencies were there in the 80s to assist Jews from the FSU in resettling when they arrived in Milwaukee.
MJF continues to support this population today not only in providing essential services, but also in providing opportunities of community.
Isaak Lerner and his wife’s first connection to the young Milwaukee Jewish community came at last year’s Purim party, he said.
“[I have a] long held opinion that the 80s are a decade of modern Jewish redemption just like the Purim story is an example of Persian Jewish redemption,” said Isaak Lerner.
If you need more information or have any questions about “We ♥ the 80s”, call 414-390-5730 or email programs@jewishmuseummilwaukee.org.
Melissa Taylor is marketing assistant at the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.
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