Douglas Mercer
March 10 2025
Purim is a very important festival for the Jews, especially now that that they consider themselves to be under siege. The festival is taken from the fictional tale of Esther and it involves a Jew named Mordecai who refuses to bow to a counselor of the King because a Jew only bows to God. The counselor is angry at this lack of genuflection so he convinces the King to (what else?) exterminate the Jews. Luckily for the Jews Esther has become a concubine to the King and she uses her feminine wiles to persuade the King to execute the counselor which he does; then she convinces the King that it’s a good idea to let the Jews themselves committee genocide. So you can see why at this particular point in time the Jews exalt this obscure holiday to pride of place. It’s essentially a Jewish folk tale which is the blueprint for their aim of global domination. And Queen Esther is their heroine who shows them the way.
In The Forward the Jews are celebrating Esther in many forms. They posted an article of how John Irving is set to publish a novel called Queen Esther.
“Irving visited Israel last year for the first time since his 1981 trip and made an appearance in Jerusalem in which he explained why so many of his books have Jewish characters. I’m not Jewish, but I’ve always been pro-Israel, and I’ve always been pro-Jewish, he said. My earliest exposure to Jews were the wrestling teammates I had. And they had a hard time too. But we were all doing the same thing together, so it was natural, or it seemed natural to me, that I sort of stayed with them.”
We got another article about how Esther was the star in the age of Rembrandt.
“It’s almost like she’s just ever present in the 17th century Netherlands, said Abigail Rapoport, the curator of Judaica at the Jewish Museum in Manhattan. Esther, whose name shares a root with the Hebrew word hidden, was everywhere.
They certainly are not hiding their veneration of Esther and what she represents. This proliferation of articles shows just how important this myth is to the Jews. And on March 5 2025 there was another article by Benyamin Cohen titled: Why Are Christians Obsessed With Queen Esther?
“Dehavilland Ford, a Texas pastor, has long felt a kinship with Queen Esther. This fall, just ahead of the presidential election, she helped organize An Esther Call To The Mall, a march in Washington, D.C., that drew tens of thousands of like-minded Christian women. At the event, the ancient Jewish queen’s story was recast as a modern symbol of moral bravery.”
The Evangelical Christians are of course the among the most stout and stalwart defenders of the Jews in the world. The Jews are to them the elder brothers of the faith and they are bound up in their story of the End Times. And so these Christians rally to the defense o of the Jews in their time of need, and what better way to do this than exalt the plucky Queen who had such courage?
“The Heritage Foundation, the influential conservative think tank launched Project Esther to combat antisemitism. It was drafted largely by evangelical organizations. At the same time, Texas schools recently adopted a Bible-based curriculum that gives Esther a starring role in lessons about historical courage alongside figures like Jackie Robinson and Rosa Parks.”
Recently Robert Kennedy announced that anti-semitism is a public health crisis, and likened it’s lethality to the great plagues of the past. Equally the musty old line think tank The Heritage Foundation came up what a project to combat anti-semitism and for this Esther was their icon. And in the Texas schools Esther has been conscripted to assist in the celebration of human rights. In this way the ancient fictional queen can perform a versatile role in any cause which is near to the Jewish heart. But the cause that is most important to them is themselves.
“For Ford, the Texas pastor, Esther’s message feels particularly resonant at this moment. What’s going on with this attack on the Jewish people, she said, referencing the Hamas massacre of October 2023, which can actually happen on my watch, in my backyard. There is antisemitism in America right now. For Ford, this isn’t a distant political issue; it’s a personal one. I try to put myself into the Book of Esther: What if this happened to her? How can I, this little Black girl who grew up in New York, make an impact?”
The Jews know that worldwide the support for them is slipping. So they will do what they have always done, stick to the script that has worked for them in the past. In this endeavor Republicans and evangelicals will have their back and will extol the old story right on cue. The Pastor will shriek that genocide of the Jews can happen right here and right now. But anyone who follows events knows that this is just time worn sophistry and hyperbole. That is Queen Esther might have saved the day for the Jews in their ancient imaginations; but the story is one that will have diminishing returns for them. Because people are getting wise to their tall tales and it’s a sober assessment that Queen Esther’s day is done.
A Shopworn Myth
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Douglas Mercer
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Re: A Shopworn Myth
Pastor Dehavilland Ford speaks at the Esther Call to the Mall event in October 2024 in Washington, D.C
