On February 28 in the Taraz House of Friendship, there was a very cheerful and noisy party as Purim should be. This holiday has a long history.

The Chairwoman of the Jewish Ethno-cultural Organization opened the event. She congratulated all members of the community with the end of the fast and beginning of Purim. Then she gave floor to one of the eldest members of the community, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Khayuna Fishelevna Grinberg, who was speaking in Yiddish. Then the floor was given to the Head of the Secretariat of the Peoples’ Assembly of Kazakhstan in Zhambyl Oblast, Nadezhda Nesterova, "The House of Friendship is our mutual home, its doors are always open for representatives of different ethnical groups. Today we are happy to see here leaders of various ethno-cultural organizations, war veterans, highly respected people, and our children who will continue our traditions."

Nadezhda Nesterova, on behalf of the Assembly, and Lyudmila Kornilina, on behalf of the Jewish Ethno-cultural Organization, congratulated one of the eldest members of the Jewish Community, veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Yevsey Davydovich Urshanskiy, and a younger member of the community, Dmitriy Dmitriyevich Ilichev, on their birthdays. Lots of presents, flowers, and smiles were just the beginning of the feast.

The party started with a story told by Mikhail Bunin about the day when Akhashveron became a king of Persia. The audience listened with great interest about the king’s Counselor’s scheming, he planned to annihilate all Jews on the night of adar 13, and about how Ester patience and Mordechai’s wisdom saved the Jewish people.

Comic mini-performances, Purimshpils, are an integral part of Purim. The viewers saw imposing Akhashveron, modest Ester, and cunning Aman performed by school children and participated in the performance by playing rattles whenever the hateful name of Aman was pronounced. The performance was even more successful because of beautiful, embroidered with golden threads costumes, which were provided by the Assembly.

We were happy to see our guests from other ethno-cultural centers. Nursultan Sharapadinov skillfully played a song on dombra. Vladik Ten sang the songs "The Bird of Happiness" and "I am the Happiest Person on Earth". We were pleased to listen to poems recited by the little children from the Jewish Ethno-cultural Center, Alexandra Shulgina, Maxim Galkin, Artur Gavrielov, and pupils from the school #41 and the Center of Extracurricular Work and Children’s Creativity, dancing group "Tamir" of the Jewish charity organization, Hesed.

To examine the knowledge of traditions, we organized quizzes, games, riddles. Purim ended with testing traditional desert - "ears" of Aman and other sweet things. All children and party participants received souvenirs and presents. The party went wonderfully well!

Natalya Perfilyeva