Title: Purim in Costume
By: Sharon Abeles
Kodesh Press
Purim in Costume, an uplifting photography book by renowned fine art photographer and art and play therapist, Sharon Abeles, was released on February 27, to readers celebrate the festive holiday. The book describes Queen Esther’s story in dramatic detail; it sounds like a fairy tale, except it’s more fascinating because it’s real, and its descriptive, fast-paced account accompanied by colorful and expressive photographs is sure to appeal to all ages.
It’s also a story about how mysteries are revealed through biblical wisdom. Abeles states, “Above all of these characters is G-d, masked and omnipresent…. The name Esther means ‘hidden,’ and though the events in the book of Esther are seemingly random, it is G-d’s hidden hand guiding the outcome of the Purim story.”
Forwards are written by Nissan Perez, PhD, founder and former curator of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem; Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller-Gottlieb, a Torah educator; and Rabbi Berel Wein, international Jewish historian. Wein optimistically writes that Purim is not just a story from long ago, but “our current story…the joy of survival, of the ultimate downfall of the wicked, of a better tomorrow in physical, spiritual, and global terms.”
Abeles, who is deeply religious, grew up in Woodmere, N.Y., and made aliyah in 1987. After traveling the world, she took over 1,000 photographs of children and adults joyously expressing themselves by dressing up in imaginative Purim costumes on the streets of Orthodox neighborhoods in Israel. One hundred and seventy-three of those photographs, such as a woman wearing a challah hat who happens to be standing in front of a door with a hamantaschen-like pattern on it, one person in a hilarious Big Bird costume, and a toddler dressed up like a gray-haired grandma, were chosen for the book.
She writes, “I love the immediacy of photographing people in the streets, in
natural light, as they hurry to or from synagogue or their Purim seu’dot, give charity, or deliver edible treats to family and friends. I was captivated by the old-fashioned sweetness of the hand-sewn costumes in the Ramat Beit Shemesh and Jerusalem neighborhoods where I live and work.”
Purim in Costume transports the readers to The Holy Land, where biblical history and modern-day life are always intangibly intermingling. The background of Israel is an integral part of the story of every photograph – the Kotel, the Hebrew storefront of a bakery, and older apartment buildings still clinging on to their historical charm are behind people who are posing in costumes. Except for their natural habitat, nothing is as it seems.
Abeles spent 12 years spontaneously capturing people who had transformed into someone else for the day. Characters from the Book of Esther, like a young boy with a squiggly mustache dressed up as Mordechai in a blue satin outfit who tries not to break character and laugh as his picture is taken. Princesses, IDF soldiers, warriors, rabbis, pirates, and even a cupcake and a popcorn vendor, happily pose in front of desert plants and ancient stone walls. The photographs of people are so animated and full of life, it feels like we are right there, celebrating with them.
Abeles speculates in her book that perhaps introverts become extroverts during Purim. She describes how a girl dressed up as a jellyfish spontaneously “began swishing her tentacles when I aimed the camera at her,” and she writes about how there is a “mix of drama and fantasy, frivolity and seriousness woven into this holiday of secrets and revelation.”
Abeles relays how Purim connects her to her ancestors and to Jewish history, and she feels a familial connection to the holiday because her mother and eldest and youngest daughters were born during the month of Adar. She describes how her maternal grandfather’s sister, Esther Beim, always had compassion for orphans, and concludes, “Her name seemed to sensitize her to the orphaned heroine of the Megillah.”
A black and white photograph of mostly somber looking children in Purim costumes from the Łódź Ghetto in Poland circa 1940-42 lies in stark contrast with the vibrant pictures in Abeles’ book. Abeles writes, “I hold in my memory the 1.5 million Jewish children who were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust and am grateful to be able to photograph Israeli children celebrating Purim in the freedom of our Jewish homeland.”
Purim is a hopeful and mysterious time of victory over our enemies, and there is something triumphant about how Abeles captures the people in her photographs, like a young girl in a lavender dress who became Queen Esther, holding a scepter up in the sunlight.
Abeles notes that a girl proudly dressed up as a bird shown on the cover and back of Purim in Costume is one of her favorite subjects. Abeles relays how when she photographed her, “she spontaneously turned around and flapped her wings.” She writes that she believes the two sides of the bird are symbolic of the miraculous turn of events in the Megillah; “They fly above the laws of nature, defying extinction and setting a new course to freedom.”
This is always how it’s been for Jewish people – we have defied all odds throughout history through the present day, and there’s never been a war we haven’t won.
Purim in Costume is available at the Judaica Plus bookstore in Cedarhurst, New York and can be ordered through Sharon Abeles’ website: www.sharonabelesfineartphotography.com/purim-in-costume
