It’s slim pickings for Fun Friday this week — even The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have been reruns — so I’ll take this opportunity to preview Purim, by far the funnest of Jewish holidays. (When else can you see Orthodox rabbis don rainbow-colored wigs, clown noses and gypsy skirts, with party themes ranging from Disney to Italy?)

The bawdy festivities, which begin at sundown March 19 this year, commemorate the courage of the pageant-winning Queen Esther, who revealed herself as a closeted Jew to save her people from a a proposed genocide in ancient Persia. (A few years ago, I wrote about how some LGBT Jews celebrate this as “gay Jewish Halloween!”) 

Here are some more recent links:

• Modern Flavors Transform a Jewish Tradition (NYT)
• What’s so special about Purim? (Jerusalem Post)
• Turning Purim on its head with social action instead of drunkenness (JTA)

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