Purim up the Wazoo!
Purim 24/7 is a comprehensive resource dedicated to the Jewish holiday of Purim, supporting the study and development of Jewish culture and scholarly studies of… nah, I'm just messin' with you. It's a collection of videos, recordings, scripts, and sheet music from Purimspiels that we put on at the Worship and Study Minyan of Harvard Hillel. We, meaning Jim Leffert and Dave Rosenthal, by and large.
Videos
Shpiel to Live (2022)
Purim: The True Story (2023)
Adloyada: The Purim Menace (2024)
Purim in Massachusetts: The Sunday Schmooze (2025)
Scripts and Videos
Here is a list of the Purim Shpiels that we have produced since 2012. This site is a work in progress, and to date we have only posted material for a selection of these; we hope to unearth, organize, and post more material in the future.
- Help Wanted (2012)With the rabbi's retirement, the minyan, for the first time, has to choose a new rabbi from unfamiliar candidates. One after another, three candidates present themselves for interviews.
Songs include: I am the Very Model of Advisorship Rabbinical, Like a Surgeon
- Disturbing Changes (2013)When the new Rabbi and new Gabbaim introduce innovations, these changes don't sit well with some members.
Songs: We are Old, Shoyn Nishto Kayn Nekhtn (Rabbi Gold's drinking song)
- Minyan Mad Men (2014)When the minyan runs into a problem recruiting someone to take over the key role of Gabbai, they hire veteran adman Don Draper to mount a recruitment campaign. Various twists and turns ensue.
Songs include: The Gabbai's Wife's Lament, Achasveros!, Please Won't You Be Our Gabbai
- Peabody's Improbable Purim History (2015)In 2015, inspiration arrived from a beloved childhood source: Rocky and Bullwinkle's time-travel segment, Peabody's Improbable History. Peabody and Sherman take the Wayback Machine back to 5th century BCE Shushan, only to find that major events in the Book of Esther are not happening!
Songs include: As Long As He Calls Me, You've Gotta Be Bold!
- The Purim Primaries (2016)With Presidential election fever in full swing, the major characters in the Purim story are all running. Our coverage includes an affectionate nod to former NPR host Ray Suarez.
Songs include: Ahashveros! (reprise), Haman Reveals His Campaign Strategy
- The Plot Against Persia (2017)Haman is now the most powerful man in Persia and he has persuaded the King to order the extermination of the Jews. Who will stop him?
Song: Finale: If Each of Us Just Lends a Spark
- The Last Haman (2018)For decades, the minyan has been unable to agree on a new prayer book. Now, one inventive member tries to break the impasse using mystical incantations. Alas, his intervention produces unexpected, potentially irreversible consequences.
Songs include: Don't Monkey with our Minyan!, Here Am I, Hundredth Haman, Gal Gadot Sets Them Straight
- Purim in the Multiverse (2019)The protagonist in this shpiel has had enough with our mortal coil, and yearns to travel to a parallel universe where things will be better. He gets his wish, but lands in topsy-turvy Purim world.
Songs include: I Know There's a Place Out There, Thanks to Haman, There's a Middle Way
- Impeachment in Persia (2020)When word of the King's decree to exterminate the Jews reaches a town in a remote corner of the Persian empire, the townspeople balk at carrying it out. However, one local man claims royal authority to "ensure that the King's decree is diligently implemented."
Songs include: We Live a Simple Life, Nune Nune, Rely on Your Brains (Instead of Your Brawn), Finale: Take Your Chisels, Write It Down
- COVID in Chelm (2021)The pandemic brings unprecedented challenges. The wise citizens of Chelm struggle at first but learn to cope in their own inimitable way!
Songs include: I'm The Wisest Man in Chelm—110 Percent!, Life's a Narrow Band, Uncle Ephraim Inspires a Solution
- Shpiel to Live (2022)Attorney Barry Gitlitz argues with the Angel of Death and wangles a postponement—on condition that he put on a Purim Shpiel. This turns out to be a tougher assignment than he anticipated!
Songs include: Take Back Your Dumb Decision, Put Down Your Scythe, Malka Mavet!, Shpiel! (Finale)
- Purim: The True Story (2023)How do we know that the account in the Book of Esther is what actually happened? In this shpiel, we present an equally plausible alternative version.
Songs include: A Better Queen than Vashti (The Courtier's Counsel), A Fair Question (Haman's Job Interview), How'd I End Up Here? (Esther's Soliloquy)
- Adloyada: The Purim Menace (2024)The Talmud mentions Adloyada—the practice of getting so blotto on Purim that you can't tell the difference between "Cursed is Haman" and "Blessed is Mordecai." Practicing Adloyada can be dangerous, as the Talmud attests, but it's especially alarming when, as in our shpiel, Adloyada escapes Purim's boundaries and infects the entire world!
Songs: The Chorus musically presents and comments on key parts of the story.
- Purim in Massachusetts: The Sunday Schmooze (2025)A Jewish resident of Massachusetts is so worried about the conflict in the Middle East that he has insomnia. He finally falls asleep, only to find himself in a dramatic nightmare involving extremists from both ends of the political spectrum and a pair of Jewish talk-show hosts.
Songs: Blot Him Out!, Golfing in Gaza, The Still Small Voice
Scripts
Notable Purim Shpiels from the 1930s
For centuries, the celebration of Purim has included skits and plays in which Jews acted out the Purim story, often with reference to contemporary events. Europe during the 1930s was a particularly fruitful time and venue for Purim Shpiel activity. Here are three notable shpiels from that era:
Itzik Manger's Purim Megillah
The Polish Jewish poet and journalist Itzik Manger wrote a cycle of poems in which he updated and retold the Purim story in a fanciful fashion, with reference to current events in Germany and Poland. His plot included the assassination of the King by a young Jew, whose girlfriend had become Queen. Was this part of the plot inspired by the assassination of Czar Alexander II in 1881, which set in motion a wave of pogroms? Or alternatively, was Manger prophesying the assassination by a young Jew of a German diplomatic official, Ernst vom Rath, in Paris, in 1938? That assassination provided the Germans with the pretext for unleashing the horrific violence of Kristallnacht.
In 1966, the Israeli composer and songwriter Dov Seltzer, "the father of original Israeli musicals," adapted Itzik Manger's Purim Megillah into a musical play. It was last seen in the United States in a production by the National Yiddish Theater – Folksbiene in 2014.
A performance of Itzik Manger's Purim Megillah can be viewed on YouTube: watch it here.
Esther of Carpentras
During the Middle Ages and afterwards, Jews in France lived a precarious existence. French kings repeatedly expelled the Jews. In 1242, 24 wagonloads of Talmuds and other Jewish texts were publicly burned in Paris. Jews were only emancipated in France in 1791.
Meanwhile, to the south, the Jews of Provence lived under better circumstances, because Provence was ruled by the Pope in Rome, not by France. The Jews flourished in four Provençal towns, and maintained their own culture, rabbinical authorities, institutions of learning, and liturgical traditions. They were not entirely free of harassment and persecution, however. For example, every year, they were required to attend a meeting where they were lectured on the virtues of Catholicism and urged to convert.
In 1938, the French Jewish composer Darius Milhaud, who came from Avignon in Provence, collaborated with his childhood friend Armand Lunel as librettist to write the opera Esther de Carpentras, which draws upon the history and culture of the Provençal Jews. The opera was premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris that same year. Carpentras, a town in Provence, still houses one of the oldest synagogues in France (built in 1367).
The plot merges the Purim story with the history of Provençal Jews. It tells of a young woman, Hadassah, who is excited that she has been chosen to portray Esther in the annual Purim play. Meanwhile, a young cardinal, the governor of Provence, seeks to regain favor with the Pope so he can return to Rome, from where he was sent away after he committed an indiscretion. The cardinal's valet suggests that he can impress the Pope by forcing the Jews of Carpentras to convert to Catholicism. So, he goes to the synagogue on the eve of Purim, when the whole community will be present, to carry out this stratagem. When he arrives, the townspeople flee, except for Hadassah, who engages in an impassioned debate with the cardinal on behalf of her community.
Here are a couple of excerpts from a 1961 performance of Esther in Carpentras:
Der Purimshpiler (The Jester)
One of many remarkable Yiddish feature films made in the 1920s, '30s, and '40s, Der Purimshpiler is a bittersweet romantic film released in Poland in 1937. The film includes a scene in which townspeople perform a Purim Shpiel.
Here is the trailer for Der Purimshpiler, which includes a glimpse of the Shpiel:
The film was restored by the National Center for Jewish Film and is available for purchase from them on DVD.
