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Monroe Chabad draws 200 to 'Purim in Israel'
By Seth Mandel
March 28, 2008

The holiday of Purim offers the Jewish people a chance to joyously transport themselves to another place or time. In Monroe, that destination was Israel.

The March 21 Purim celebration at the Chabad Jewish Center of Monroe transformed the Center into modern-day Israel, to show support for the Jewish state during a tumultuous time for the nation.

"We felt that it would be important to highlight the theme of Israel, and our strong solidarity with Israel, and to kind of give people a feel of Israel," said Rabbi Eliezer Zaklikovsky of the Chabad Jewish Center.

Zaklikovsky said there are many people in the town's Jewish community that have never been to Israel, and talking about it, eating the food, and listening to Israeli music "gave people a strong sense of belonging."

During Purim, at the entrance of the Center was a large "welcome" sign in Hebrew, and when attendees signed in as they entered they received a program and brochure that was inside an El Al ticket folder. The centerpieces of the tables were photos or art depicting different Israeli locales, and all the food was Israeli food: falafel, shwarma, Israeli salads.

There was also an orange grove where the children could squeeze their own fresh Jaffa orange juice, there were Israeli candles from the Safed candle factory, and there was even a large mural of the Western Wall, in front of which some people wanted to take pictures and one person even put on tefillin.

"He really just felt the experience," Zaklikovsky said.

The room's capacity is 150 people, but the party drew almost 200.

"People just kept coming in," said Howard Hein, of Monroe. "It was a very joyous affair."

Zaklikovsky said the event drew between 30 and 35 children.

"It was overwhelming," he said. "We never had so many children at an event before."

Zaklikovksy said his wife, Chanie Zaklikovsky, presented a slide show of the Hebrew school children acting out the Purim story in full costume during the program.

"The kids loved it, and the parents were thrilled -- they saw their own kids dressed up as they were acting out Haman and Achashverosh and Esther," he said. "It really gave a very personal touch to the whole story."

Then the megillah was read, and Zaklikovsky spoke about Israel and the message of Purim, which, he said, is about being proud to display one's Judaism rather than compromising Jewish rituals to curry favor with non-Jews. He told the story of a Jew that went to a business lunch with a non-Jew and ordered something from the menu that wasn't kosher; his gentile companion rebuked him for it.

"The other guy realized that a Jew has to have certain standards, and ultimately if you do stand by your standards proudly, you'll have the respect of the other nations," Zaklikovsky said, adding that the message is contained in the megillah itself, where the other nations show honor to the Jewish people after the Jews prevail and proudly practice their religious customs.

After that, they began singing Israeli songs, and when the tempo picked up, the crowd jumped to their feet.

"And spontaneously all 200 people stood up in their places and started dancing," Zaklikovsky said. "It was incredible; you're talking about people in their 70s and 80s. The phone calls that I've gotten in the last three, four days… they're like ‘Rabbi, you pulled off something that we never believed could happen in Monroe'."

"The party was fun and the people around us -- we had a good time," Hein added.

Hein said the Israel theme, which sparked an interest among many of the attendees to visit Israel, was very well done.

"It was a very good idea," Hein said. "It worked out very well. It didn't look makeshift, it looked like it was really planned very well."