I do remember the biblical story from The Book of Esther. For Jews, it’s a story we hear every year on the holiday of Purim.
by Benjamin Leon
To summarise: once upon a time there was a powerful king who was easily manipulated by his entourage. His wife, the queen, refused to obey an order to appear naked in front of him at a party, so the king banished her and found a new woman to marry. This woman happened to be Jewish and her name was Esther.
The king’s chief advisor, Haman, is the story’s villain. Because Haman felt disrespected (and threatened) by Mordecai, Esther’s uncle, Haman convinced the king to destroy all the Jews — specifically, convinced the king to allow his people to kill all the Jews without fear of retribution.
Mordecai told Esther to stop this plan, but she refused because she was scared to approach the king: the king was capricious and if he didn’t like what she had to say, he would have her killed.
Mordecai replied in Esther 4:13: “Do not imagine that you, of all the Jews, will escape with your life by being in the king’s palace. On the contrary, if you keep silent in this crisis, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another quarter, while you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows, perhaps you have attained to royal position for just such a crisis.” Queen Esther went on to summon the courage, confronted the king, and exposed Haman’s evil plan. She finally got through to the king by making it clear to him that she, too, would be destroyed if Haman’s evil plan continued.
Now, more than ever, the Jewish people — as well as other minority groups — need a Queen Esther to challenge the growing demagoguery and not allow those who would commit hateful and criminal acts to feel they will not be punished. Queen Esther was in the right place at the right time to stop the madness described in the Book of Esther. Ivanka, you’re now in the right place and this is the right time. Read the Book of Esther, and step forward. The name of God is not mentioned once in this book, but there is always the hidden hand of the Almighty who preserved the Jews. Ivanka Trump married a Jewish man and converted to orthodox Judaism.
It should be noted that there is little or no anti-Semitism in Zimbabwe.
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Benjamin Leon is a member of the Jewish Community in Zimbabwe.
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