Every summer, while most people are figuring out where to enjoy a late-season vacation or when to start stocking up on school supplies, the Wolowik and Geisinsky families gather to plan all of the activities that Chabad of the Five Towns, located on Long Island, N.Y, will run that year.
The planning committee includes the 18 children between them who join in the discussion for one specific holiday—Purim, which this year begins on Saturday night, March 15 and ends the evening of Sunday, March 16.
“The children choose the theme of Purim,” says Hadassah Geisinsky, Chabad of the Five Towns youth director. “Our families are very close, and the kids think they’re cousins. They are very much a part our shlichus.”
Yes, that’s right, even before the start of the High Holidays, the kids have planned the theme for the next year’s Purim—be it airplanes and flight, sports stadiums or this year’s theme, the circus.
“I think it’s really cute, and they are very good sports about it,” Geisinsky says, noting that two of the boys “have been working on a clown routine and have been practicing it every day. They will do a Sunday-night performance at the Purim seudah [meal]. They are really excited about it.”
But it’s not just the kids who get into the act.
Everyone in both families—from the rabbis right down to the babies—dresses in costume. And then the moms—Geisinsky and colleague Chanie Wolowik—plan the shalach manot food packages to match. They also come up with the creative, homemade decor that will turn an ordinary space into an airport, sports arena or big-top tent.
That planning starts two or three months ahead of the holiday. Yet they are far from alone.
Thinking Outside the Box
Across the country, creative women spend months thinking and organizing, planning and shopping, sewing and prepping, to ensure that their Purim and related food baskets are not just a hodge-podge of items thrown into a box or basket, but a coordinated, formal, cohesive endeavor. After all, it has to evoke at least a few “oohs” and “aahs” from the receiver.
“I always dressed up and made my own things” for Purim, says Chana Solomon of Chabad at Short Hills in suburban New Jersey, who is known for having made some elaborate costumes and mishloach manot over the years.
There was the edible soccer ball made from white chocolate the year she and her family dressed as soccer (“football”) fans—a nod to her British husband, Rabbi Mendel Solomon, who is a big Liverpool sports fan.
“Those shalach manot that matched our themes were a crazy amount of work,” she says. “But I enjoyed doing them. I don’t do them anymore. When you have a whole community, a family and other things going on, I just don’t allow myself to do that anymore.”
That’s not to say she takes it easy. According to her husband, she’s been scouring the marketplace trying to find just the right costume for this year’s theme: Israel.
In Stamford, Conn., Leah Shemtov’s Purim planning begins well before her colleagues. “Often, right after Purim, we start thinking about the next year,” she says. “My kids will often give us ideas as well.”
The goal, she adds, is “to draw people in and make it exciting,” noting that people will come back year after year to see what they can come up with next.
This year’s theme in Stamford will be “Purim in the Palace.”
Says Shemtov: “It will give people a chance to be princes and princesses,” noting that some 900 shalach manot packages will be made to go with that theme for members of the community.
And no, she doesn’t do the packaging herself. “Over the course of a week,” she says, “we get lots of volunteers, and people will come for packing parties.”
Given the sheer volume of purchases, Shemtov spends a lot of time scouring the Internet for vendors and manufacturers, sometimes teaming up with other Chabad Houses for bulk buys to cut down on costs.
Geisinsky is also careful when it comes to spending for Purim. “I’m making 200 [food packages], and I’m not even spending $3 on each of them. My entire shalach manot cost under a dollar. It’s not how much you spend, but how you do it and the mitzvah of doing it.”
Indeed, when it boils down to it, the message of the day is about the bravery of one young woman (Esther) against an evil man (Haman), and the miraculous events that led to the eventual saving of the Jews in Persia in the fourth-century BCE.
“We want to make the story comes alive for adults and children,” says Rabbi Mendel Solomon of Short Hills. “Each year, we choose a theme that families can identify with in terms of what is going on in the world, and how they can apply the message of what is transpiring in the world today to celebrating the miracle of the story of Purim.”
Geisinsky notes that while her theme this year is the circus, she’s using that to focus on the importance of laughter—of being happy and doing things with a smile when it comes to Judaism.
To make sure that the message and its connection to the Jewish component are clear, she always includes a short rhyming poem with her holiday packages, which this year will come in a popcorn box.
Others make sure that the four mitzvahs of the day are clearly defined during their celebrations: giving charity, listening to the reading of the Megillah (the book of Esther), passing out shalach manot and having a festive meal.
“We don’t want to get caught up in ‘Purim at the Stadium’ or ‘Purim Under the Sea,’ ” says Shemtov. Rather, the goal is to incorporate the mitzvahs of the day and give people the opportunity to partake in them while enjoying a festive meal in a creative atmosphere.
Ultimately, that’s the real message of the day, and the one that matters.
“No one should feel like they have to do a theme,” stresses Geisinksy. “The theme of Purim is Purim, and if that works for you, don’t change it.”
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