So today we had our big Purim party at the Ulpan. I walked in this morning to see everybody wearing funny hats that our teacher had passed out. We had studied for a bit and she explained some stuff in the context of Purim. Then, as we approached our first break, a three-member klezmer band playing Purim songs interrupted our class. The entire school emptied out in to the courtyard to dance, and I made time to taste the assorted Homentaschen that had been laid out for us. I also made sure to make a few L’Chaims with some people from my class with perhaps the worst sweet kosher wine I’ve ever tasted. Being the idiot that I am, I left my camera at home so I’m linking to my classmate Martha’s flickr site where I noticed she posted some pics.
I’ve really been looking forward to Purim here because I’ve heard that it’s a real good time. At any rate I’m curious and that makes everything seem more interesting. So far the costumes people have been wearing seem to be outlandish combinations of wigs and hats and strange clothing. They don’t seem to be dressing up as anything specific, rather instead they just put together as many clashing colors and accessories as possible. I’m not sure if Israeli’s enjoy dressing up as political figures but if they do I’m sure I’d see a lot of Esterina Tartmans.
Tartman is a Yisrael Beiteinu MK who was recently appointed Tourism Minister. She has been featured all over the Israeli media recently and has been labeled a racist for comments she made about an Arab MK and for the fact that she is part of Yisrael Bietienu. YB is not highly regarded in Israel’s media and this hasn’t helped Tartman much. The fact the she apparently lied on her CV and invented both a BA and an MA from Bar-Ilan isn’t helping her much either.
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