Once a year, something remarkable happens across Israel. Superheroes stride through supermarket aisles. Queens and pirates negotiate business deals. Children dressed as lions and butterflies flood school corridors. The streets of Tel Aviv erupt in open-air parties that last until sunrise. This is Purim, the most exuberant, carnivalesque, and joyfully chaotic holiday in the Jewish calendar, and in Israel, it is celebrated with an energy and scale unlike anywhere else on Earth.
The Story Behind the Celebration
Purim commemorates one of the most dramatic stories in the Hebrew Bible, told in the Book of Esther. Set in the ancient Persian city of Shushan, believed to be modern-day Susa in present-day Iran, the tale unfolds in the court of King Ahasuerus (widely identified with Xerxes I).
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The king’s chief minister, Haman, harbours a violent hatred of the Jews and, after the Jewish man Mordecai refuses to bow before him, persuades the king to issue a royal decree ordering the massacre of all Jews in the empire. The date of this planned annihilation is determined by the casting of lots, in Hebrew, Purim, which gives the festival its name.
But Haman’s plot is foiled by an unlikely heroine. Esther, a young Jewish woman who has been chosen as queen without revealing her heritage, is urged by her cousin Mordecai to use her position to intercede. At great personal risk, approaching the king uninvited was punishable by death, Esther reveals her identity, exposes Haman’s scheme, and saves her people. Haman is hanged on the very gallows he had built for Mordecai, and the Jews are permitted to defend themselves against their enemies.
It is a story of courage, hidden identity, timely intervention, and the reversal of fate. It is also notably one of only two books in the Hebrew Bible in which God is never explicitly mentioned, making Purim a festival that celebrates human agency, community solidarity, and the power of speaking up in the face of injustice.
The Four Commandments of Purim
Jewish law prescribes four central obligations for Purim, and in Israel, all four are observed with tremendous enthusiasm.
The first is the public reading of the Megillah, the Scroll of Esther, which is chanted aloud in synagogues on both the eve and the morning of Purim. Congregants are not passive listeners. Every time Haman’s name is read, the room erupts in noise: graggers (noisemakers) are spun, feet stamp, voices boo and hiss. Children, and many adults, come in full costume. The atmosphere is less solemn religious service and more joyful theatrical event.
The second obligation is Mishloach Manot, the sending of food gifts to friends and family. Beautifully packaged baskets of food, hamantaschen (the iconic triangular pastries filled with poppy seeds, jam, or chocolate), wine, fruits, and sweets are exchanged across neighbourhoods. In Israel, this tradition is taken seriously and creatively, with families and offices competing to assemble the most elaborate, themed, or humorous gift baskets.
The third is Matanot La’evyonim, giving charitable gifts to those in need. Purim, despite its festive character, carries a strong social conscience. The obligation to give to at least two poor people on the day of Purim ensures that joy is shared across all segments of society.
The fourth, and perhaps the most enthusiastically observed, is the Purim Seudah, a festive meal, typically held in the afternoon, accompanied by wine, singing, and celebration. The Talmud famously states that on Purim, a person is obligated to drink until they cannot distinguish between “Blessed is Mordecai” and “Cursed is Haman.” In practice, this has long served as a license, especially in Israel, for a rare spirit of uninhibited communal celebration.
Israel’s Purim: A National Carnival
Purim in Israel is not merely a religious observance; it is a full-scale national party. Because the vast majority of the population is Jewish, Purim here has a public, civic dimension that it lacks in the diaspora. Schools close. Offices empty. The streets belong to the costumed masses.
Tel Aviv, Israel’s most cosmopolitan city, throws what is arguably the biggest Purim party in the world. The Florentin and Rothschild Boulevard neighbourhoods transform into open-air venues, with DJ sets, live music, and dancing crowds stretching through the night. The city’s famous LGBTQ+ community has long embraced Purim as its own, and the festival’s tradition of cross-dressing and costume, already deeply embedded in Purim’s history, makes it a natural and joyous expression of identity.
Jerusalem celebrates Purim with a different character, deeper, more traditional, and infused with the city’s layered history. The ultra-Orthodox neighbourhoods of Mea Shearim see elaborate, days-long celebrations with singing, dancing, and Chassidic storytelling. The Old City’s narrow alleyways fill with costumed children, and synagogues host readings that resonate with particular meaning in a city that has known its own share of existential threats and miraculous survivals.
In Holon, just south of Tel Aviv, the Adloyada Purim parade, one of Israel’s oldest and most beloved, draws hundreds of thousands of spectators each year. Colourful floats, marching bands, giant puppet figures, and performers in elaborate costumes wind through the city in a spectacle that has been a fixture of Israeli civic life since the early days of the state.
Purim in Different Jewish Communities
Israel’s population reflects the full tapestry of the Jewish world, and Purim traditions vary beautifully across its communities.
Sephardic Jews, those with roots in Spain, North Africa, and the Middle East, often observe additional customs, including the La Fiesta de la Torah (in some Moroccan communities) and special liturgical poems. Yemenite Jewish communities have their own distinct Megillah melodies and food traditions. Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe bring the boisterous, theatrical Purim shpiel, comedic theatrical skits, often performed by students and communities, that parody biblical stories and, in Israel, frequently lampoon current political figures.
The Purim shpiel in Israel has become a beloved national institution in its own right, with television shows, newspapers, and public institutions participating in elaborate satirical performances that can be sharply, hilariously irreverent.
A Special Case: Shushan Purim
The city of Jerusalem observes Purim one day later than the rest of Israel and the world, on the 15th of Adar rather than the 14th. This observance, known as Shushan Purim, applies to all cities that were walled in the time of Joshua, of which Jerusalem is the most prominent. The extra day gives Jerusalem its own distinct Purim rhythm, and in years when the two days fall on weekdays, the celebrations effectively stretch across the entire country for two consecutive days.
The Deeper Resonance
For many Israelis and Jews around the world, Purim carries a meaning that transcends costume and carnival. The story of Esther, a hidden people facing existential threat, saved by courage, solidarity, and the reversal of fortune, has spoken to Jewish communities across millennia of persecution and survival. Celebrated in the aftermath of the Holocaust, during the years of Israel’s founding, and through every subsequent chapter of a turbulent national story, Purim’s message of survival and resilience remains deeply alive.
There is a saying in Hebrew: “V’nahafoch hu”, “and it was reversed.” These words from the Book of Esther, describing the moment when the decree against the Jews was overturned, have become a kind of philosophical touchstone. The idea that fate can turn, that the powerless can find their voice, that darkness can be transformed into light, this is what Purim, at its heart, is truly about.
And yet it is also, gloriously, about hamantaschen, noisemakers, outrageous costumes, and dancing in the streets until morning. In Israel, perhaps more than anywhere, both truths are held at once, the ancient weight of history and the exuberant, irrepressible joy of still being here.
Purim 2025 falls on the evening of 13th March and the day of 14th March (with Jerusalem celebrating on 15th March). In Israel, it remains one of the most anticipated dates in the national calendar, a day when the whole country, for one glorious, glittering night, chooses joy.
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