Jews and Halloween: From 'Purim Is the Jewish Halloween' to Synagogue Vigilantes

Facts from the original

• During the 2008 election campaign, Republican candidate John McCain stated during a visit to Israel that 'Purim is the Jewish Halloween.'
• Senator Joe Lieberman corrected McCain on the remark and took the fall for it, telling MSNBC it was his fault he told McCain this was the Israeli version of Halloween, since kids dress up, it's a happy holiday, and sweets are important to both holidays.
• A correspondent for the Jewish Daily News, an Orthodox Jewish publication, in 1926 expressed surprise at being invited to two Halloween parties held by Jewish institutions, surmising that people fancied the holiday 'a sort of pre-election affair.'
• The 1926 correspondent wrote that Halloween was formerly a pagan holiday, that ancient Druid priests lit fires on the evening of October 31st for the dead spirits, and that the custom was later utilized by the Christian Church after the pagans' conversion, after which the day was recognized as All Hallows or All Saints' Day, when mass is said for the martyrs and saints.
• In 1999, Jane Ulman wrote a lengthy Op-Ed piece expounding on the history of Halloween, arguing the holiday is no more or less complex than other American holidays.
• Ulman wrote: 'Today Halloween has as much relevance to Samhain and All Hallows Eve as Mother's Day celebrates incest, revenge and the Christian Church.'
• Ulman noted that Mother's Day, according to many sources, can be traced to an ancient Greek holiday honoring Rhea, mother of the gods, who married her brother the Titan Cronos and plotted revenge to save her children, and later honored the mothers of England and, in Europe, the Roman Church.
• Ulman asked whether Jews should boycott Mother's Day because of its pagan and Christian origins.
• The author remembers feeling slightly on edge at age 4 during a preschool trick-or-treating event, partly because fewer candies sported a kosher stamp at the time and also because his mom associated Halloween with being egged while getting off the bus.
• For some Jews, Halloween is associated with anti-Semitic hooliganism.
• A Kansas City synagogue was vandalized in 1927.
• A New York City synagogue was vandalized by vandals under cover of Halloween pranks in 1960.
• A firebomb was reported in 1968.
• In Boston, a group of 18 Jewish youths were arrested and released in January 1951 after setting out to avenge a pre-Halloween beating at Hecht House, a Jewish community center; seven other youths in the case had their cases continued because a revolver was found in the car they traveled in.
• As a young adult, the author's dad watched Jewish youth form civilian patrols to stand watch outside synagogues, waiting for Halloween revelers to shout slurs or throw rocks.
• In 1983, two young adults briefly faced felony charges after they confronted three teens who entered a Brooklyn synagogue on Halloween; the charges were dismissed by the district attorney, citing lack of proof.
• In 1985, the late journalist William Saphire wrote about a vigilante group called the Jewish Defense Organization, whose founder claimed that 10 JDO members gave a lesson 'in Jewish justice' to six teen-age vandals found desecrating Washington Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery on the borderline between Boro Park and Midwood, on October 31; asked what constituted 'Jewish justice,' he said 'beating up and worse.'
• Ulman's 1999 Op-Ed said McCain's 'Jewish Halloween' also told a tale of retribution, noting the Megillah tells that in averting the decree to murder the Jews, 75,000 anti-Semites in the province were massacred, along with several hundred in the city.