Purim is a joyful festival, a time to celebrate with friends and family, a time to hear again the Megillah (scroll) of the biblical book of Esther, telling the story of one of the heroines of the Jewish people.
How much more celebration is there when b’nai mitzvah celebrations are combined with this holiday? Three Milwaukee-area families can or will be able to tell you, because they have done or are planning to do just that.
Twins Eliana and Kayla Wasserman had a Purim-themed joint bat mitzvah celebration in 2011. Their mother, Melanie Wasserman, said, “Their birthday is March 2, which typically falls around Purim, give or take a week or two. For us Purim is a very fun celebratory holiday and you can be very creative then.”
Melanie and her husband Russell “wanted our girls to read from the Megillah and this was a perfect opportunity. My girls are very artistic and they were very creative with the event itself. They encouraged people to come in costume and a lot of our guests did wear costumes.”
The evening event was held at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center on a Sunday night. The twins read parts of the Megillah which was also divided amongst family members. The congregation of Lake Park Synagogue was invited.
“What we loved about Purim is it’s a holiday which transcends all denominations of Judaism and is fun for non-Jewish friends to observe as well,” said Melanie Wasserman.
She added that every guest received shalach manot — traditional Purim gifts, usually of food — masks and groggers, the noise-making toys used for drowning out the name of the Purim story villain, Haman, when it is read during the Megillah chanting.
“The color theme, was lime green pink and orange, electric colors, very effective,” said Wasserman. “We had centerpieces of masks, balloons and groggers all in those colors.”
In fact, the idea proved so effective that it inspired another family.
The Graupe family has been planning its Purim-theme b’nai mitzvah celebrations for fraternal twins Nesya and Elan for three years. Their mother, Laura Graupe, said she got the idea from the Wassermans.
Although the Graupe fraternal twins, Nesya and Elan, actually have their birthday in February, their mother felt that it would make it special and fun to have their joint b’nai mitzvah celebration on erev Purim, which this year is March 15. (The holiday begins the evening of Saturday, March 15, and runs through Sunday evening, March 16.)
“It will be a way to celebrate both with family and friends, who will be coming from all over the country,” Laura Graupe said.
As a special connection to past Purim celebrations with the twins’ family, Laura’s uncle will be reading from a Megillah that has been in the family of her husband Menachem (“Henny”) for more than 150 years, the Megillah of Menachem’s great-great-grandfather, brought to America from Poland.
Elliana Sinykin, now almost 17, did not have her bat mitzvah celebration directly on Purim in 2010, but close to it. Even so, she enjoyed incorporating Purim into her celebration as the holiday means a lot to her personally.
Elliana’s Hebrew name is Esther, after her great-grandmother. “It was so special that I grew up having my name Esther, and I also admired the Bible Esther sticking up for herself and her people,” she said.
“Purim is my favorite holiday” and “it was beshert [destiny] that my bat mitzvah was just before Purim,” said Sinykin, the daughter of Jodi Habush Sinykin and Daniel Sinykin.
Her ceremony took place at Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun. She said that she read from the Megillah and read a special maftir (final Torah portion) that is customarily read in the synagogue on the Sabbath before Purim. “I was able to keep the tradition” and “add that aspect of Purim to my bat mitzvah,” she said.
She added that she also took part in a Holocaust remembrance program dedicated to recalling Jewish children who didn’t survive to have their own bar or bat mitzvah celebrations.
“What was so impactful about the girl that I was paired up with was that her name was also Esther, Esther Berg, and she was 8 years old when she passed away,” Sinykin said. “I mentioned her in my D’var Torah and also my grandfather and how important they were, and it all came together beautifully.”
Arlene Becker Zarmi is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in more than 40 publications nationwide. She was also the producer and host of a travel TV show for Viacom, and is a Jewish genre and portrait artist.
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