On Purim in wartime, Jews wrestle with a biblical story of retribution

The Jewish holiday of Purim is traditionally a wild and woolly festival in which costumes, noise making and drinking are encouraged — in synagogue no less — as Jews gather for a public reading of the biblical Book of Esther. The Esther story is told as a children’s tale, in which the villain Haman’s plot against the Jews is foiled by the wits of the eponymous, beautiful queen.