Hello, my name is Vashti: Meet a museum founder, a singer, an author and an Olympian
These modern-day Vashtis bear the name of the woman who paved the way for Purim’s Queen Esther
Vashti
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Community A Shtetl Cow Named Vashti
In Europe, my bubbe’s family owned a cow named Vashti. They were too poor to drink her milk or eat her cheese — this they sold to Jews more well-to-do than themselves — but they managed to subsist, from day to day, on the meager earnings derived from Vashti’s dairy products. It was my bubbe’s…
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Culture How Vashti Said No — And Faced The Consequences
Every time a scandal erupts around the sexual behavior of a powerful man, someone seems to ask, “Well, why didn’t she say no?” It so happens that the Book of Esther begins with the story of a woman who “says no,” and it demonstrates that the consequences of “saying no” can be severe: Queen Vashti…
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Letters Don’t Mansplain Vashti To Us
In a recent op-ed headlined “Actually, Feminists, Vashti Was The Harvey Weinstein Of Persia” published by The Forward, Rabbi Joshua Krisch attempted to sever Vashti, a character from the Book of Esther, from the men and women who love her. His argument hinged on the idea that feminists ignored the Talmudic “facts” (namely the Talmud’s…
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Opinion Vashti Was The First #MeToo Survivor
“Is Vashti the evil queen of the Purim story?” my daughter asked me after a recent Hebrew school class. Vashti, of course, was the erstwhile queen of Persia, according to the Bible’s Book of Esther. She was deposed and banned by King Ahasuerus, and then replaced by the story’s eponymous heroine, Queen Esther. “I don’t…
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Opinion Actually, Feminists, Vashti Was The Harvey Weinstein Of Persia
If Mordechai and Esther saw what 2018 had done to Purim, I like to think they’d be satisfied. The day is commemorated across Jewish denominations with celebration, exchanging of gifts, donations to the poor, and public Megillah readings—just as they requested. King Achashverosh, perhaps, would be less amused with how history remembered his reign. But…
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Life Was Vashti The First ‘#MeToo’?
(JTA) — When Meredith Jacobs was taught the Purim story as a little girl in the 1970s and ’80s, Esther was made out to be its heroine, while Queen Vashti was its “evil queen.” According to the Book of Esther, Vashti was banished by her husband, the Persian King Ahasuerus, for refusing his order to…
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Life The Modern Day Vashtis
Getty Images// Children in the Philippines protest against sex trafficking In the Purim story, Vashti’s expulsion, we know, is the result of her refusal to present herself before King Achashverosh. The text is ambiguous about the reason for her refusal, leaving much room for modern-day, feminist interpretation. Perhaps Vashti did not appreciate being summoned, did…
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