Purim

From a shadowed queen in the third-century synagogue frescoes of Dura-Europos to a defiant heroine recast in the shadow of the Holocaust, Esther’s image has never stood still. Across centuries of Jewish art—medieval manuscripts, early modern megillot, linocuts, mosaics, and mystical modern paintings—artists have reshaped her image from demure beauty to decisive leader. Each generation paints the Esther it needs.

Socrates of Constantinople’s account of Syrian Jews crucifying a Christian boy (ca. 415–419), likely during Purim, may have stemmed from a misunderstanding of an enactment of hanging Haman’s effigy. The story went largely unnoticed until the 18^th century, when it began circulating in lists of murder allegations against Jews, most notoriously in Julius Streicher’s list in the May 1934 edition of his tabloid, Der Stürmer.