Tamuz: Purim of Verona
Some Jewish communities preferred to live within the confines of the ghetto for a good reason: the entrance gate was locked every night, which meant the Jews could hopefully sleep in peace. Yet because the keys to the gate were usually held by the non-Jewish authorities—and they were the ones who could open and close the gate at will—the Jews weren’t entirely free from the fear of attack, false accusations of blood libels and the like. Therefore, when the Jews of Verona received the keys to their ghetto on the 18th of Tamuz, 1607, they declared the day a Purim, and it was observed until Napoleon abolished the ghetto in 1797.
Av: Oran Purim
The first Jews to settle in this Algerian seaport were refugees from Spain who fled to Oran in 1391 to escape the pogroms that had erupted throughout the Iberian Peninsula. Our story takes place later, during the early 1800s. Both the Turks and the French were fighting for control of the area and the Jews sided with the pro-French Algerian ruler. In 1830, the Turks responded with a plot to massacre the city’s Jewish community, but it was thwarted by the French on the 6th of Av. The kehillah decided to commemorate the event every year on the Shabbat before Tisha B’Av.
Elul: Purim of the Bandits
When 5,000 mountain brigands attacked the Turkish town of Gumedljina in 1786, the Jews were nearly all massacred. Things didn’t improve after the Turkish soldiers successfully fought off the marauders, since the Turkish governor accused the Jews of conspiring with the bandits. Fortunately, the Jews were able to prove their innocence, and this double salvation was commemorated on the 22nd of Elul.
Tishrei: Purim of Ancona
Ancona, an Italian port city, is another town that had several special Purims. The Purim celebrated on the 15th of Tishrei marked the saving of the shul from destruction when a fire broke out in 1741.
Cheshvan: Purim Edom
Spain’s King Charles V tried to invade Algiers in 1541, but his fleet was destroyed during a storm—an event that the Jews attributed to the prayers of Rabi Shlomo Duran, grandson of the famed Rabi Shlomo ben Shimon Duran. The kehillah, which included former anusim who had returned to Judaism, designated the 4th of Cheshvan as a day to give thanks to Hashem for being spared from the terrors of the Spanish Inquisition.
Kislev: The Window Purim of Chevron
The year was 1824. The Pasha needed money, and he knew where to get it. He told the Jews of Chevron that if they didn’t come up with 50,000 grushim fast—a tremendous sum of money—he would burn half of the kehillah at the stake and sell the other half into slavery. The Jews fasted and prayed, and they even sent a delegation to Ma’aras HaMachpelah to beg the Avos for help.
Meanwhile the Pasha, who had gone to bed, awoke with a start. Standing in his bedchamber were three elderly men, who told him to give them 50,000 grushim or he would be put to death. The Pasha hastily filled a leather pouch with gold coins. When he ran out of coins he threw in one of his wife’s gold necklaces. The men took the pouch and disappeared.
The next morning, the Pasha regretted the loss of his money. He told his guards to go the Jews and demand that they pay their tax of 50,000 grushim at once. The Jewish gatekeeper heard the soldiers coming and ran to the gate. To his surprise, he saw a leather pouch sitting on the ground, below a small window. The pouch was filled with gold coins!
