The Chicago Jewish Alliance on Esther and the Spring Festival of Purim 

The biblical story of Queen Esther is one of defiance and resilience—a refusal to be silenced. Alessandro Stradella’s oratorio Ester, liberatrice del popolo ebreo (Esther, liberator of the Hebrew people), celebrates themes of faith, divine providence, and justice, culminating in the triumphant deliverance of the Jewish people. 

With its upcoming concert performance of this oratorio on March 28, Haymarket Opera Company honors the legacy of bringing Jewish stories to the forefront and reinforcing the strength of Chicago’s Jewish community. Members of the Chicago Jewish Alliance (CJA) share reflections below on Purim’s themes, continuing the tradition of speaking up, just as Esther once did.

About Purim

The Jewish holiday of Purim is celebrated on the fourteenth day of the Hebrew month of Adar, which places the festival in March according to the Gregorian calendar. The story centers the Jews of ancient Persia under the rule of King Ahasuerus (more commonly known as Xerxes I) in the city of Shushan, circa 496-465 BCE. Mordecai, a distinguished Jewish elder, refused to bow before Haman, the king’s most trusted advisor. Mordecai cited adherence to Jewish law, which forbids prostration before anyone except God. Infuriated, Haman became obsessed with the Jewish people, their commitment to their laws and customs, and their refusal to fully assimilate and abandon their culture. Haman manipulated the king into signing a death decree, encouraging the non-Jews of Persia to rise up and exterminate their Jewish cohabitants. He cast lots (purim, in Hebrew) to decide the date on which the killing would begin and prepared a gallows on which to hang Mordecai.

Meanwhile, King Ahasuerus had just banished his wife Vashti for refusing to exhibit herself before his men. He subsequently held a pageant to select a new wife for himself from among the most beautiful women in Persia. Mordecai convinced his cousin Esther to enter the competition but to keep her Jewish identity secret. After winning and becoming the king’s wife, Esther quickly learned of Haman’s vicious plot to destroy her people. She knew she must act quickly or that she too would be killed by her husband’s royal decree. She invited Ahasuerus and Haman to a banquet, where she revealed her Jewish identity to the king along with the truth about Haman’s wicked plot, to the horror of her husband the king. To further complicate matters, his royal decrees, ratified with his signet ring, could not cannot be revoked. Ahasuerus’s solution was to immediately sign a counter-decree allowing the Jews of Persia to defend themselves. What Haman plotted as a day of mass slaughter became a day of preparation and self-defense for the Jews, a day on which the Jews of Persia preserved their identities in the face of an unspeakable evil determined to eliminate them. In the end, the Jews were saved by Esther’s courage and their own fortitude, and Haman was hanged on the gallows he designed for Mordecai on the very date he selected. That date would become the festival of Purim.

As a result, the holiday is a celebration! Jewish communities around the world celebrate Purim by reading the Megillah, or the Book of Esther. Congregants are encouraged to drown out Haman’s name with noise makers during the reading and to host lavish parties. Kids dress up as the characters from the story and engage in dramatic retellings of the Megillah called spiels. Gifts of food baskets, called mishloach manot, are exchanged. My personal favorite from these is the Hamantaschen (literally, “Haman pockets” in German), triangular jam-filled cookies designed to evoke Haman’s ears or his hat. Above all, it is a day of community, family, and festivity that emphasizes Jewish survival and the commitment to Jewish self-preservation. 

–Zach Glick, Conductor & Chicago Jewish Alliance Director of Campus Engagement & Advocacy

Reflections on Purim

Written by members of the Chicago Jewish Alliance

Thank you to Haymarket Opera Company for introducing me to Alessandro Stradella’s oratorio Ester, liberatrice del popolo ebreo (Esther, Liberator of the Hebrew People). In learning about this fascinating work, the question occurred to me: What makes Stradella’s Ester oratorio different from the “Purim spiel” (Purim play)—both of which recount the Megillat Esther (Scroll of Esther) story—and why should we care? 

First, in researching my question, it appears that Stradella’s Ester oratorio (dating from the 17th century) was written during a time of proliferating Jewish ghettos across the Italian peninsula, and when the Roman Catholic Church was engaged in a Counter-Reformation movement against nascent Protestantism. It remains a mystery why Stradella chose to set to music a story about the liberation of the Jewish people. Nonetheless, in contrast to a Purim spiel, Stradella’s oratorio was likely not written with a Jewish audience in mind.

Second, Stradella’s oratorio is a serious work to which the composer added his own allegorical figure, Speranza Celeste (Celestial Voice), who is not in the Megillah telling but who, in the libretto, delivers messages of hope and faith to the Jewish people and encourages trust in God (of whom no mention is made in the Megillah). In contrast to the gravity of the oratorio, the Purim spiel (which evolved in the 1500s from Jewish carnivals in Germany, Northern Italy, and Poland and is considered to be among the first Yiddish theater productions) is typically a humorous parody that features characters’ changing appearance, disguising self-identity, and irregular behavior. The customs of the Purim spiel are grounded in the conceptual foundation from two words in the Megillah that mean “turned about.” This reference is to the idea that on Purim, certain behavior is permitted that is not allowed during the rest of the year. In other words, whereas the audience for Stradella’s oratorio would receive a religious and spiritual message, the audience for the Purim spiel would receive an opportunity to escape from traditional strict Jewish religious and moral life, and explore a type of freedom that comes from anonymity and disguise.

These distinctions fascinate me because they prompt further questions about the role of Esther as a disguised or assimilated person, who becomes a liberator and protector of the Jewish people only when she sheds her disguise, reveals her Jewish identity to the king, and embraces her true identity. The distinctions also encourage exploration of the role of Jewish people in recounting and receiving their own history, rather than having their stories told by and for others. Esther serves as a role model and inspiration for other Jews who seek to embrace their own heritage, culture, and religion, and to promote security and liberation for themselves and others through introspection, courage, and leadership. In addition, a performance of Stradella’s oratorio and the contrast between this piece and the Purim spiel prompts us to consider how the Purim spiel may experience a rebirth in today’s climate. As scholar Laura Gutmark has noted, “The Purim spiel came to an end for most Jewish communities with the extermination of the European Jews, the industrial revolution, and the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel.” (Blog, Feb. 10, 2022) As Haymarket Opera Company has unearthed Stradella’s intriguing and rarely performed Ester oratorio, perhaps more Jews will rediscover the Purim spiel as an artistic custom of the Purim holiday and explore what this unique parody genre means to us as part of Jewish culture, self-identity, and storytelling.

–Alexandra Newman

Growing up, my sisters and I dressed as Queen Esther for our synagogue’s Purim carnival. Even as a teenager, I stayed involved, running the same Purim booths I loved as a kid. Then when I became a mother, I got to share those same traditions with my son, watching him experience the joy of Purim just like I did. Now, as a volunteer for Chicago Jewish Alliance (CJA), I’ve had the privilege to host a Purim Book Fair, creating a space for young children and families to come together in the spirit of the holiday.

It was a full-circle moment being a curator of the same joy I felt as a child. As much as Purim has always meant to me personally, it’s just as important to ensure the next generation experiences that same excitement, pride, and sense of community.

And beyond the fun, Purim is not just recalling a victory of the past. We are declaring, in this moment, that we are still here. That joy itself is an act of defiance. The traditions we pass down are more than memories. They are our strength, our resilience, and our legacy.

–Sarah Munson, VP of Marketing & Events

Purim has always felt like more than just a holiday to me. It’s a reminder—one we seem to need over and over again—that history doesn’t live just in the past. The story of Esther isn’t some distant, ancient tale; it’s a reflection of something we’ve seen play out too many times. There has always been a Haman. There has always been someone so consumed with hate that they dream of a world without Jews. And yet, time and again, we are still here. Not just surviving, but living. Holding on. Refusing to be erased.

I think about my grandparents a lot this time of year. They survived the Holocaust, a time when the latest Haman wasn’t just a character in a scroll but a real man with armies and death camps and a world willing to look the other way. They didn’t survive because someone else saved them—they survived because they fought to exist. Because, like Esther, they understood that there is no waiting for someone else to step in. There is only the choice: speak up, act, resist—or risk being erased.

Purim is loud. It’s celebratory. We dress up, we drink, we laugh. And underneath all of it is something deeper. It’s a declaration. A defiant, joyous, powerful refusal to disappear. Because every generation has its Haman. And every generation must find its Esther.

–Daniel Schwartz, President and Co-Founder

Invariably, every Jewish woman has her Queen Esther moment— - a moment in which she’s an Upstander, a moment filled with steadfast courage and unwavering purpose, a moment of risk taking for the greater good. 

1n 1944, after almost two years of barely clinging to life, my mother Cipora Fuchs Katz, at the tender age of six, emerged from beneath the cold damp earth of the potato silo in which she was hidden.

Upon liberation she, and the few family members with whom she was hidden, learned that those who did not escape the ghetto in Siemiatycze, Poland (including her mother and seven- year-old sister), were transported to and gassed at the Treblinka death camp. 

Several months later, Cipora and her relatives began to make their way to a distant land where the taste of sweet dates would dance on her tongue and the warmth of the desert sun and the scent of the salty sea would give her HOPE; where the friendships formed on the kibbutz would serve to strengthen her. 

This little girl, who had emerged from beneath the earth, clutching her blanket, covered in lice and bloated from starvation, miraculously retained emerged with an unrelenting hope for humanity. And, as the years unfurled, Cipora vowed that nothing unjust was ever going to happen on her watch. The very essence of the entire life of this Eshet Chayil (Woman of Valor) was composed of Queen Esther moments. 

– Simona Citron, VP of Partnerships and Alliances

The rich stories of our ancestors and the legendary figures of our ancient texts provide Jewish tradition with valuable lessons that inform how we live our lives today. As we read the Megillah on Purim each year, we are reminded of Esther’s heroism in the face of wicked forces who wished to eradicate the Jewish people in ancient Persia. As the present-day rise in antisemitism parallels the circumstances facing Queen Esther, we Jews find ourselves revisiting our history for guidance.

Upon learning of Haman’s despicable plot to manipulate King Ahasuerus to greenlight the genocide of Persian Jewry, Queen Esther was confronted with a harrowing choice. She could have resolved to keep her Jewish identity hidden, perhaps hoping to flee the country with her cousin Mordecai in order to keep her own head, regardless of the fate of her Jewish compatriots. In revealing her identity as a Jewish woman and exposing Haman’s plot to her husband, however, she put her own life on the line and risked it all in order to save her people.

Esther’s story teaches us an important lesson. We can choose to hide in the face of adversity, hoping other members of our community might stand up to the threats that we might otherwise hope pass us by. Or we can summon the courage to pursue justice, even at the cost of our own comfort or safety.

Each of us at the Chicago Jewish Alliance has had to make this decision since the horrors that struck our global and local community on October 7, 2023, not to mention the ensuing onslaught of antisemitism and anti-Zionism. We are, after all, a team of volunteers, balancing our advocacy with our personal and professional lives. At every step of our work, we are confronted with the reality that our status as an extraordinarily small Jewish minority in a diverse and colossal world means there will be far more opposition to our work than support and that our next move might cost us relationships, jeopardize our livelihoods, or even threaten our safety. At the end of the day, we continue our work because we recognize a kinship with Queen Esther and the righteousness associated with putting the collective good above one’s personal ambitions.

–Zach Glick, Director of Campus Engagement & Advocacy

Learn more about the Chicago Jewish Alliance and Haymarket’s performance of Stradella’s Ester.

About the authors

Haymarket is proud to collaborate with members of the Chicago Jewish Alliance (CJA) for these reflections on Esther and Purim ahead of Hayamrket’s March 28th performance of Alessandro Stradella’s Ester, liberatrice del popolo ebreo. CJA is a local grassroots mobilization organization and 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to amplifying Jewish voices and strengthening Jewish life in Chicago. At a time when antisemitism seeks to silence and erase, CJA works to ensure that Jewish culture isn’t just preserved, but empowered—through advocacy, community action, and cultural engagement.

About The Haymarket Review: This new digital publication including thoughts about  the work produced by Haymarket is designed to deepen our connection to audiences, nurture and feed audience curiosity about historical performance, offer critical opinions and thoughtful reflections on our performances, and provide a forum for Haymarket and its audience to connect through sharing insights, opinions, learning, and expertise.