In a first for IJC, our community joined forces with Moshe House Brussels on March 6 / Adar 13 to celebrate Purim. A solid crowd – masked, weird-hatted and some costumed – gathered at Moshe House in the city centre where the tables were set for the Megillah reading. Participants brought drinks and food to share in abundance, and while no one seemed to get into an ad-lo-yada state – not knowing the difference between cursing Haman and blessing Mordechai – we all enjoyed a heart-warming glass or two (except the drivers, of course).
IJC member Golan opened the reading of the Megillah, reciting first from an old and quite fragile ‘real’ Megillah, then we moved on to our Hebrew/English edition and shared narration and the different dramatis personae of the narrative. We made plenty of noise to drown out the name of Haman.
We were also delighted to welcome two Israeli couples who were visiting Brussels as tourists, found us on the internet, and asked to join the festivities. Their participation – in Hebrew – was nothing short of inspiring. They came from Jerusalem and Modi’in and are members of Reform and Masorti communities.
After the reading we schmoozed and enjoyed each other’s company, making new friends as we munched and sipped.
Our Moshe House hosts were very happy with this new cooperation. We can look forward to more shared events in the future.