PURIM GROGGERS—Celebrants at Congregation Neveh Shalom’s Purim Party made groggers out of pots and pans to drown out the name of Haman (played by Charlie Solomon, right) as Cantor Linda Shivers (dressed as Queen Esther above) read the Megillah. The groggers were then donated to Oregon Community Warehouse where they will find new life as kitchen utensils for low-income families and individuals recovering from crisis.
Neveh Shalom puts groggers to use
By Jewish Review
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What do pots and pans, ladles and salad spinners, apple corers and can openers have to do with the celebration of Purim? Well, nothing and everything.
Some weeks ago Roz Babener, volunteer founder of the Oregon Community Warehouse, and JoAnn Bezodis, Congregation Neveh Shalom program director, came up with an idea to instill yet greater meaning into Neveh Shalom’s celebration of Purim.
Attendees were encouraged to create their own groggers out of new common kitchen supplies. During the reading of the Megillah they used them in the traditional way, to drown out the mention of Haman’s name, and then donated them to the Community Warehouse.
Clients at the Warehouse are largely either new immigrants to our community or previously homeless people, who having found someplace permanent to live need the basics for setting up house. Kitchen supplies are often the most essential and not available in sufficient supply.
CNS Rabbi Daniel Isaak said the program was more than just a community service project.
“Added on to the celebration of Purim is the injunction right in the Book of Esther, chapter 9, verse 22, that instructs us to send portions to one another (Mishloach Manot) and to give gifts to the indigent (Matanot l’Evyonim) as a way of offering thanks for our successful deliverance from Haman’s devious scheme to destroy all of the Jews of Persia,” said Isaak.
“At both the early celebration for our youngest celebrants and at the later reading of Megilat Esther, young and old brought sauce pans and soup pots, wooden spoons and measuring cups, trays and hot plates,” he said. “We filled two barrels full of supplies that we hope will help others in our community begin a new life. And so yet another tradition has been added to our Purim rejoicing.”