As a self-described “failed screenwriter,” when Mark Raffman wrote the first draft of his synagogue’s 2026 Purim spiel, he had a vision of Princess Leia landing on an alien planet.
He began noting similarities between “Star Wars” and the story of the Book of Esther. So the popular space opera franchise became the theme of Beth Chaverim Reform Congregation’s Purim spiel this year.
“There’s definitely similarities: the plucky underdogs facing overwhelming odds and requiring a certain degree of courage from every person to overcome the forces of evil,” said Raffman, a member and past president of BCRC. “I think the parallels are not far below the surface.”
In the spiel, “Six-Pointed Star Wars,” Princess Leia represents Esther, who travels to the planet “Shushan” and meets Mort Chaiwalker — Mordechai. Princess Leia is being hunted by Colonel Haman and Darth Vader, so she’s not too keen on attending King Ahashverosh’s pageant.
“The characters are who they are,” Raffman said. “The king is a buffoon, Haman is an evil, evil person, and often, evil manifests in the idea of, ‘I’m powerful, so I can do what I want.’ And Mordechai’s archetype is courageous but naive in some respects. Esther is thrust into a very difficult situation and comes through in the end, although we switched it up a bit.”
Raffman’s 33-page script is rife with jokes, pop culture references, song parodies and political undertones, while attempting to stay true to the iconic “Star Wars” cast.
“I love that there’s always humor in it because the [Purim] story is very dark,” said Ariel Shumaker, the director of BCRC’s Purim spiel and vice president of education. “You’re reading about it in its essence at the Friday night service, where you’re reading the megillah. It is a dark, dark story.”
“Six-Pointed Star Wars” features 12 adult actors, including the annually recurring “Grandma” and “Grandpa” — longtime BCRC members David and Barbara Mendelsohn — who set the scene and close out the spiel.
“There’s always some lesson that you take from the script that Grandma and Grandpa get to make explicit at the end,” Raffman said. “I think it’s important to just have that one minute of reflection because honestly, the script itself is full of topsy-turvy craziness and over-the-top humor and irreverence.”
Every year around December, a group of members gathers to brainstorm for the upcoming year’s Purim spiel. Past years’ themes have included “High School Musical,” “Barbie,” the ’90s and “Mission Impossible: Spy Edition.”
“Generally speaking, we find that adding an element of pop culture to the Purim story and telling it a different way each year keeps it fresh,” Raffman said. “It’s delightful for our members to see it told in a different way, so we try to come up with a different theme each year.”
The theme can be virtually anything as long as it lends opportunities for fun songs to parody.
“The songs have to be awesomely entertaining,” Raffman said. “And we have a really great group of performers who deliver these songs with a lot of gusto.”
This year, the planning committee decided to include songs from a variety of decades in order to draw in a multigenerational audience. The musical theme is space and “stars from today and yesterday.”
“We’ve always had a group of pretty creative folks. We’ve been doing these spiels for a lot longer than I’ve been writing them,” Raffman said, estimating that this year’s spiel is the congregation’s ninth or 10th. “So it just grew out of the group of grownups who wanted to write and perform song parodies in the context of the Purim experience.”
Shumaker said that in the BCRC Purim spiel’s early days, the audience was largely made up of older adults.
“So we started to make it less about [making it] the best show in the entire world and more about, ‘Let’s have fun,’” she said.
Lately, the spiels have expanded to appeal to millennials and members of Generation X. For the 2025 production of “Mission Impossible,” Shumaker called down a list of members she thought might be interested in playing a part on stage or behind the scenes.
“I went to them to make it just a fun club to be in, because it’s not just your grandparents,” Shumaker said. “It’s now all your friends who you could be sitting [with], having a beer at their house, but instead you’re sitting here doing Purim spiel, so why not?”
She also appreciates that this year’s theme is well known to many.
“People of all ages can identify with ‘Star Wars,’ regardless of whether that’s ‘[The] Mandalorian’ or whether that’s ‘Young Jedi,’ like my son watches, or my parents, who watched the original ‘Star Wars’ [movies] when they came out,” Shumaker said. “So even if you’re not a ‘Star Wars’ person, you can appreciate it, understand it enough to be able to enjoy the performance.”
Why do Raffman, Shumaker and countless other members go to the effort every year to create original productions with musical scores? “The easy answer: I really love it,” Raffman said.
