In what is believed to be a first since a Roman siege almost 2,000 years ago laid waste to the mountaintop fortress of Masada, Jews gathered in the ancient ruins to hear a Chabad-Lubavitch rabbinical student read from the biblical Scroll of Esther.

Amid cloudbursts and cracks of thunder, Levi Mendelzohn read aloud from the scroll as attendees, some of them hotel guests from the nearby Ein Bokek beach front abutting the Dead Sea, readied their traditional noisemakers. The Sunday morning event, occurring on the annual holiday of Purim, led members of the crowd – drawn by the historic nature of the location and reading – to brave a late winter thunderstorm to celebrate high above Israel’s Judean Desert.

Even non-Jewish bystanders, when hearing the celebrants make noise at every mention of Haman – the Persian official whose attempts to wipe out his country’s Jews were thwarted by Queen Esther – decided to join in.

“During the reading, many tourists showed up and peeked in to see what was happening,” said Rabbi Shimon Elharar, director of Chabad of the Dead Sea, who is leading a campaign with Masada National Park director Eitan Campbell to bring Jewish life back to Masada’s ancient synagogue. “They were curious about what we were doing there, and the tour guide told them to stamp out Haman.”