Purim in Israel

How did I spend Purim in Israel?  That's a very good question.
Why do I always start my blog posts with questions?  I like to pretend people are wondering about what I do here, and maybe these are the questions they would ask.

Anyway, with regards to Purim, we celebrated two days here.  The first is for the entire world except Jerusalem, and the second is just for Jerusalem.  We started celebrating, however, on Tuesday.  Our group planned and put on a party for the kindergardeners here at Hebrew Union College.  We pre-made instruments (paper cups taped together with rice inside) and gave them to the kids to decorate with glitter and feathers.  After, we all came together and sang Purim songs and played around with the instruments and costumes.  For this day, I was Superman, wearing my Superman boxers and Naomi's Superman shirt.

The next Purim-related activity we had was Kef Madrichim, when Noa brought us materials to make plaster masks with.  They turned out really well, until we made the mistake of placing them to dry on the staircase railing, so they all fell and broke.

Next was Wednesday night.  In downtown Jerusalem there was a protest/celebration happening.  It was for woman's rights, so lots of woman stood up and read from the megillah.  Men could support the cause by dressing like a woman, which every man on Etgar did.  Of the 5 boys, 3 were wearing my clothes- Dan R wears my jeans better than I do.  We hung out downtown for a while before heading back home.  I changed into my costume, a boy.  I wore Jeff's big saggy jeans, my boxers, Josh's shirt, and Dan's hat, and finished it all off with a little eyeliner mustache.  We left, caught shirut to Tel Aviv, and were off.  After a while of walking around Tel Aviv in the approaching darkness, we finally found our destination: Florentin.  Now, if you remember (or if I ever even mentioned it), Florentin was the place I went to for New Years.  It's an area that had a lot of cheap student housing and a lot of bars, so at first people started congregating there for that.  But it grew and now on every major event there is a mass exodus for all the young people of Israel to Florentin to celebrate.  Purim was no exception.  When we got there, there was a plethora of teenagers and young adults and some older adults, all in costume with a beer in hand.
We met up with some friends and then got so excited by the Mexican food place, that a friend and I had to go bet burritos.  After eating the most delicious burritos in the world, a few of us decided to go see other parts of Tel Aviv.  We rented those green bikes and set off, alternating between being lost and having Dan talk to every single police officer on the way to ask for directions.  We found the beach and rode along the beach for a while, which was absolutely beautiful.  Eventually we stopped and docked the bikes, and walked down onto the beach.   After watching the waves and talking for a while, we got up to go back to Yafo.  We found the shuk party, and then another street party where our friends were.  We got on a shirut and went home from there.

Yesterday was Purim in Jerusalem, so we all dressed up (yet again, I went in a home-made toga for this one), and went to services at Kol Haneshama, the reform synagogue here.  The kriyat megillah was loud and crazy, with people literally shaking the building at every mention of Haman.  After, we stayed and met the Reform youth there to have pizza and then help set up for their party the next day.  From there, a group left to go to yet another party, while some of us went home to get some sleep for once.

Purim here was amazing, with costumes and singing everywhere all the time.  It's amazing to see the entire country, almost every single citizen, dressing up and getting into the spirit and celebrating our heritage.