The PR outreach continues with a video (see below) by Lakewood Neighbors explaining Lakewood's 2500 year old Purim party followed up by a report in the Asbury park Press on a Purim party in Lakewood.
APP: LAKEWOOD - They poured out of school buses and minivans and stretched-out Hummer limousines.
For hours into early Thursday morning, these young men – dressed as Santa Claus and a watermelon and a bright yellow Minion and you name it – danced danced danced and jumped jumped jumped inside Lakewood's synagogues and homes, celebrating the Jewish holiday of Purim.
A deafening live band – thump thump thump – provided the metronome fueling the frenetic atmosphere overnight inside synagogue Kollel Ner Avrohom, tucked behind Georgian Court University on Arbutus Drive. Take a look inside the party in the video at the top of this story.
Richard Roberts, a former pharmaceutical company executive and political donor famous for his philanthropy, handed out checks and vouchers from a police guarded-table in a corner of the synagogue, which he supports, occasionally taking a break to dance dance dance along with the thump thump thump, too.
The holiday, often equated to Halloween or dubbed "Jewish Mardi Gras," is
marked by donning costumes, giving and receiving charity and food gifts, fasting and feasting. It's a 2,500-year-old tradition that celebrates the salvation of the Jews from a plot to annihilate them in ancient Persia.
"God commanded us to give to charity," Roberts said. "On Purim, we give to Jewish causes and Jewish charities, but Jews give to everyone throughout the year."
Groups of young men, often in matching costumes, made multiple stops Wednesday night collecting donations that can bring in tens of thousands of dollars for their schools and synagogues. About 2,300 Purim partiers passed through Kollel Ner Avrohom, just one example of the festivities in Orthodox Jewish communities around the world. Read more at APP.com
dressed as santa claus?
ReplyDelete