This is an article from the February 26, 1942 edition of The Sentinel, a newspaper serving the Jewish community of Chicago. The article is addressed to young people and explains the holiday of Purim and its relevance in their lives. The author, Judith Ish-Kishor, explains that it was because Ahasuerus didn’t know any Jews that he believed the terrible things that Haman said about them. As Ahasuerus began to meet Jews, such as Mordechai and Esther, he saw that Haman had been telling him lies. Due to his new understanding and appreciation of Jews, Ahasuerus protects the Jews and kills Haman. The author write that many people believed anti-Semitic lies exactly because they didn’t know any Jews, and she gives the example of William Shakespeare who “didn’t know Jews and proved it by making his bloodthirsty money-lender in the ‘Merchant of Venice’ a Jew.”
Ish-Kishor tells her young readers that they should act in such a way as to prove to non-Jews that Jews are “good people and fine citizens” and thus prevent anti-Semitism. She provides some ideas of ways to be a good citizen: saving wastepaper, joining the scouts, saving pennies for “Defense Stamps” or even knitting for the Red Cross. These were all things that even young children could do to participate in the war effort.
The article was written under the shadow of World War II and the Holocaust and reflects the thinking of some members of the Jewish community at that time, namely, that being a good American would prevent racism and anti-Semitism. This view that might not be so acceptable today does not reflect the fact that a minority has the right to be protected and should not be persecuted. Rather, it reflects a belief that if the Jews prove that they are a good people, they will not be harmed, almost as if the Jews could be held responsible for anti-Semitism.
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Purim - Purim is celebrated on the 14 Adar as the day the Jewish people were saved from destruction during the fourth century BCE. The heroine of the Purim story, Queen Esther, worked together with her uncle, Mordechai, to reverse the decree of genocide issued against the Jewish people by Haman, the vizier of Persia. It is the tradition on Purim to dress up in costumes, distribute small food packages known as mishloach manot, give charity, and listen to the reading of the Megilla – the Book of Esther.
The Chicago Sentinel - The Chicago Sentinel, a weekly newspaper for the Chicago Jewish community, was one of the longest continuously published Jewish weeklies in the United States. The first issue of the Sentinel was published on February 4, 1911. The newspaper focused on cultural events and included many eye-catching illustrations and photographs. It also published short stories and reports about events in the various Jewish communities. The Sentinel differed from many other English-language, often highbrow, Jewish weeklies, because it reached out to the Zionist immigrants who preferred to read in English and not Yiddish. The Sentinel is a treasure trove for social, cultural, and religious historians who are interested in American Jewish life outside of New York during the twentieth century.
