Israeli teenagers dressing up as Klansmen for Purim

[Kahane-Was-Right BT]

I think many people here don't really understand why we dress up on Purim. It really doesn't matter what you dress up as... Even dressing as hissler and kkk are ok, according to my understanding. Aside from upsetting those who don't know what Purim represents the fact that one dresses up as a enemy of the Jews is completely acceptable.

Purim represents the Jews special relationship with Hashem no matter what evil exists in the world. This is why some dress as Haman, and Romans and Greeks, and other enemies of the Jews. I see Nazis and KKK as enemies of the Jews and thus these costumes are acceptable.

I don't see how you can equate these things.

Did Haman have a specific uniform everyone recognizes instantly?

Did haman succeed?

Did haman murder 6 million Jews?

It's completely different.   When we poke fun at Purim, we are celebrating a great victory, a great miracle.

The Shoah was anything but that.   It was a tragedy on immense scale, the memories are fresh, even survivors are still living, and it only invokes memories/feelings of sadness and remorse in any sane Jew that sees reminders of it.   So I can't see in what bizarro world you or the other people in this thread equate these things.

As I said above... The reason people dress as enemies of the Jewish people is because it is a part of Purim to see everything which happens, both the good and the bad, as coming from Hashem. I am sure you are aware that Hamans plans were far more hideous than Hitlers. Haman and Achashveros planned to exterminate all Jews in the entire world. Haman had the ability to carry out his plan.

I dont understand what having uniforms for Haman has to do with this. The issue is what is acceptable as a costume for Purim. As I also said above it is surely in bad taste to wear such a costume where one may offend the feelings of a survivor. But on face value I see it as the Jews survived WWII and the Nazis are dead, like the Persians are dead. I see the miracle of the creation of the state of Israel in the ashes of WWII as the result of the suffering of the Jews at the hands of the nazis....

PS: I am not suggesting that it is a wise thing to dress in such a costume. I am just saying that I am not upset about such a thing. Also I was initially referring to the topic of the thread, dressing as KKK...

If you see someone wearing a nazi uniform you're not upset by such a thing?
Purim is about VICTORY and the massive kiddush Hashem when God (in hidden ways) foiled the plans of an antisemite who wanted to annihilate the Jews and who instead the antisemite himself hung on the gallows with his sons, while we freely massacred hordes of his followers/supporters and ideological brethren.

The shoah was not a victory, it was a massive tragedy.  There is nothing to celebrate about it.  A third of our people was wiped out.   


You cite the miracle of the formation of the state of Israel.  Surely the formation of Israel could have happened sooner and been even more dramatic if 6 million of our brothers were not murdered just beforehand and were allowed to freely immigrate to safety into our homeland.   But alas the plans of Hitler were not foiled.  As difficult as that is for us, that is the reality.   It was not like Purim.  Would that every story would turn out like Purim (including today's Muslim nazis, achmedinejad etc)... but not all of them do.  So why would we pretend that they are all like purim?   

[muman613]

One last take on this issue:

I have heard Rabbi Bentzion Shaffier refer to this story. It relates the Holocaust to the story of Purim...


http://ohr.edu/yhiy/article.php/3440
On 1 October 1946, after 216 court sessions, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg delivered its verdicts sentencing the leaders of the Nazi party to death by hanging. The author of the following account, Kingsbury Smith of the International News Service, was chosen by lot to represent the American press at the execution of ten of those leaders.

NurembergGaol, Germany
16 October 1946
International News Service

    …Julius Streicher made his melodramatic appearance at 2:12 a.m.

    While his manacles were being removed and his bare hands bound, this ugly, dwarfish little man, wearing a threadbare suit and a well-worn bluish shirt buttoned to the neck but without a tie (he was notorious during his days of power for his flashy dress), glanced at the three wooden scaffolds rising menacingly in front of him. Then he glanced around the room, his eyes resting momentarily upon the small group of witnesses. By this time, his hands were tied securely behind his back. Two guards, one on each arm, directed him to Number One gallows on the left of the entrance. He walked steadily the six feet to the first wooden step but his face was twitching.

    As the guards stopped him at the bottom of the steps for identification formality he uttered his piercing scream: 'Heil Hitler!'

    The shriek sent a shiver down my back.

    As its echo died away an American colonel standing by the steps said sharply, 'Ask the man his name.' In response to the interpreter's query Streicher shouted, 'You know my name well.'

    The interpreter repeated his request and the condemned man yelled, 'Julius Streicher.'

    As he reached the platform Streicher cried out, 'Now it goes to G-d.' He was pushed the last two steps to the mortal spot beneath the hangman's rope. The rope was being held back against a wooden rail by the hangman.

    Streicher was swung suddenly to face the witnesses and glared at them. Suddenly he screamed, 'Purim Fest 1946.' [Purim is a Jewish holiday celebrated in the spring, commemorating the execution of Haman, ancient persecutor of the Jews described in The Tanach]…

Streicher had been a Nazi since early in the movement’s history. He was the editor and publisher of the anti-Semitic newspaper "Das Strummer." In May of 1924 Streicher wrote and published an article on Purim titled "Das Purimfest" (The Festival of Purim). In order to publish his vitriolic attack Streicher must have had a good deal of knowledge about Jewish thought and practice. However we can only speculate to what extent he was aware of the remarkable parallels between Haman and his own execution. However, they are indeed striking:

“And the king said to Esther the queen, ‘The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the capital, and the ten sons of Haman...Now whatever your petition, it shall be granted; whatever your request further, it shall be done.’

Then said Esther, ‘If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews that are in Shushan to do tomorrow also as this day, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows.’ ” (Esther 9:12-14)

If Haman’s ten sons had already been killed, how could they hanged?

Our Sages comment on the word “tomorrow" in Esther's request: "There is a tomorrow that is now, and a tomorrow which is later." (Tanchuma, Bo 13 and Rashi, Shemot 13:14).

In the Megilla, the names of Haman’s ten sons are written very large and in two columns. This is in distinct contrast to the style of the rest of the Megilla. The left-hand column contains the word v'et (and) ten times. According to our Sages the word v'et is used to denote replication. The inference is that another ten people were hanged in addition to Haman's ten sons.

If we examine the list of Haman's sons three letters are written smaller: the taf of Parshandata, the shin of Parmashta and the zayin of Vizata.

Those three letters together form taf-shin-zayin, the Jewish year 5707, which corresponds to the secular year 1946, the year that those ten Nazi criminals were executed.

The Nuremberg trials were a military tribunal and thus the method of execution was usually by firing squad. The court, however, prescribed hanging. Esther’s request "Let Haman's ten sons be hanged" echoes down the ages,

Equally uncanny is that the date of the execution (October 16, 1946) fell on "Hoshana Rabba" (21 Tishrei), the day on which G-d seals the verdicts of Rosh Hashana for the coming year.

As the Megilla recounts, a decree that the king has sealed cannot be rescinded, and thus Achashverosh had to promulgate a second decree to allow the Jewish People to defend themselves. In other words, that first decree was never nullified.

Our Sages teach us that eventually the Jewish People will return to G-d either voluntarily, or if not, G-d will raise up another despot whose decrees will be “as severe as Haman” (Sanhedrin 97b).

When we look toward the place of our original encounter with Haman and see the rise of a fanatic whose rhetoric rivals our most vicious enemies, we should remember that history most often repeats itself for those who fail to learn its lessons.

http://www.torah.org/learning/pirkei-avos/chapter3-23b.html
Queen Esther then approaches the King with an additional request: "...allow the Jews who are in Shushan to do tomorrow as they did today, and let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows" (Esther 9:13). It's curious that she would request the hanging of Haman's already slain sons. Nevertheless, the King complies.

Now, the Hebrew word for "tomorrow" ("machar") often refers to the distant future. Further, the Midrash states that whenever the word "king" appears in the Megillah it alludes to the King of kings as well. Thus, the verse could be understand as a request by Esther to G-d to again hang the ten sons of Haman at some point in the distant future.

Now, when the Megillah lists the ten sons Haman during their hanging (9:7- 9) there are a number of unusually-sized letters. (We have a tradition to write certain letters in the Torah larger or smaller than the standard size.) According to the most accepted tradition, there is a large 'vuv' (numerical value = 6) and a small 'tuv' (400), 'shin' (300) and 'zayin' (7). The following suggestion has been made: The large vuv refers to the sixth millennium (of the Hebrew calendar); the small letters refer to year 707 of that millennium. The meaning, then, is that G-d agreed to hang Haman's ten sons again in the year 5707 = 1946-7.

On October 1, 1946, a few days before Yom Kippur, the first of the major Nuremberg trials was concluded. Ten of the chief Nazi masterminds and instigators were sentenced to hanging. (The actual number was twelve; one was sentenced in absentia and another committed suicide before his execution.) The last of them, Julius Streicher, on his way to the gallows and after his face was covered, cried out, for no apparent reason, "Purim Fest 1946!" And again, Esther's request was fulfilled.