Purim is all about having joyful experiences during “dark times,” which is why Rabbi Hannah Spiro looked forward to the Hill Havurah community’s Purim party on Thursday night.
Spiro helped organize the intergenerational party that drew hundreds of community members to the Lutheran Church of the Reformation in Washington, D.C., where Hill Havurah holds most of its programming, and showed up in a costume inspired by singer-songwriter Charli XCX’s “Brat Summer.”
“I’m excited about getting to let loose together,” Spiro said. “It’s been such a strange, often really tense, challenging time in D.C.”
The annual party featured the usual abridged Megillah reading, pizza, hamantaschen, Purim spiel — this year’s theme is the classic musical “Wicked” — and holiday activities. Spiro and the Hill Havurah staff are accommodating of different community members’ food preferences.
“We always look for pizza from multiple sources, as the pizza that adults like is very different from the pizza that kids like,” Spiro said. “Grown-ups like pizza that has green stuff on it and kids typically don’t.”
The baked goods raffle is a staple of the Hill Havurah Purim party, in which attendees bring in homemade confections to benefit local advocacy work. This year, the cake and pie raffle raised money to support Everyone Home DC, continuing Hill Havurah’s decade-long work with the nonprofit organization that seeks to end homelessness.
“I feel like their work is hyperlocal to the Hill and surrounding area, and I really like that,” Spiro said. “[Everyone Home DC does] both rent service and advocacy work. … It’s a small organization, so we feel like what we’re able to do makes a big impact.”
Purim is deeply rooted in the value of tzedakah, and it is tradition to give gifts of food and charity on the holiday.
“It’s always been a mitzvah on Purim to support people in need, but I think more specific to right now, housing is getting harder and harder and it feels more dire that we not only support our unhoused neighbors with their immediate needs but also that we work together to get them out of that situation and into safe, stable, dignified homes,” Spiro said. “That’s what Everyone Home DC is trying to do.”
Bridging the Gap Through Comedy
New this year was an open bar and a show by Interfaith Comedy, the latter for teens and adults after the party.
Spiro had heard about Interfaith Comedy and noted that it sounded “really fun.” The comedians from various different faith backgrounds aim to “reduce prejudice through laughter,” according to Interfaith Comedy’s website.
“We all need a laugh right now during this time of chaos,” Spiro remarked.
She used this comedy show as an opportunity to spend quality time with neighbors from different area congregations, such as Masjid Muhammad, known as “the Nation’s Mosque,” Mount Moriah Baptist Church and the Lutheran Church of the Reformation.
“[Interfaith dialogue] has always been a passion of mine because I think connecting over religion and connecting over sacred texts allows us to go deep … [and] connect across differences,” Spiro said. “It’s a possible bridge.”
Connecting across differences is especially relevant now for Spiro.
“I feel like we often exist in our own bubbles,” she said. “For a long time, those bubbles have felt most powerful around politics in the last couple of years. Our religions often create those bubble boundaries more and more too.”
We can pop our proverbial bubbles by gathering with people of different faith backgrounds in a fun environment such as a comedy show. This sentiment resonates particularly with the Hill Havurah community, which has shared space in the Reformation church building for the past nine years.
