She was linked to the morning star, and her name was “Ishtar” – or “Esther,” as she was called in Hebrew. This is the story that inspires the Jewish holiday of Purim, which begins this ...

So what was it about the Book of Esther that not only made the rabbis include it but mandated its public reading every year both on the night of Purim and the next morning? I THINK the book serves ...

The Jewish calendar offers one answer. Thursday is Ta’anit Esther, a sunrise-to-sunset fast day that takes place every year before the Purim holiday. The fast commemorates Queen Esther’s fas ...

Interviews with some prominent folks whose names either come from the Megillah or sound like they are straight from the scroll. LOS ANGELES (JTA) — With Purim just a grogger’s turn away on ...

Purim is a Jewish festival that usually happens in February or March each year. It celebrates a story from the Jewish Bible. In the story, Queen Esther helped to save the Jewish people from an ...