Rabbi Josh Joseph, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Orthodox Union, was one of the American Jewish leaders to connect the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, which killed the regime’s supreme leader, to the upcoming holiday of Purim.
The holiday, which begins on Monday at night, is based on the biblical book of Esther and is set in ancient Persia.
“This week, Jews around the world will celebrate the holiday of Purim. We will read the Bible’s story of Esther and Mordechai overcoming the genocidal plans of Haman, who sought to destroy the Jewish people,” Joseph said.
The Israeli and American militaries “took decisive action to silence a modern threat from the same ancestral land of Haman,” he said. “For decades, Iran’s Islamic regime has sown death and destruction including the murder of American citizens, the murder of Jews and Israelis globally and the murder of their own citizens, who dare stand up for freedom.”
Norm Coleman and Matt Brooks, national chairman and CEO respectively of the Republican Jewish Coalition, stated that the United States eliminated a “modern-day Haman” for once and for all “on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Purim.”
Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, told the U.N. Security Council that “this week, Jewish families all around the world will celebrate Purim.”
“Many Israelis will do so now in bomb shelters. The story of Purim happened more than 2,500 years ago, in ancient Persia,” when “an evil minister named Haman sought to wipe out the Jewish people,” the envoy said. “It began with words. With chants. It became a decree. It could have become a genocide, but Queen Esther refused to remain silent. She stepped forward. She spoke up. She acted before it was too late.”
