Joyous Purim!
This year the Jewish holiday of Purim begins at sundown on March 20 and ends at sundown on March 21. Purim is a holiday that “celebrates the many times that the Jews overcame the enemies who wanted to destroy them.” The story of Purim is the Megillah of Esther and tells of the Persian King Ahasuerus’ newly crowned Queen Esther, and her courage in saving the Jewish people from the evil plot of Haman, adviser to King Ahasuerus.
In the song shown above the gragger is mentioned. This is a ratchet like noisemaker that is traditionally sounded when Haman’s name is said aloud duing the reading of the megillah.
These are images from a book titled Shalom Sings. The spiral bound book is full of Jewish holiday songs for children by Thelma Taglin and piano settings by Max Janowski. It was designed and illustrated by Kempert Quabius.
Quabius wasn’t entirely happy with the final results of the book. This is what he had to say in a letter he sent to Miss Partridge and Miss Frink on October 7, 1960,
“Well, then, here is the song book, such as it is. Before you look at it, I must explain that this was published at his cost by a Jewish printer in Milwaukee who, I found out later, had never done a book before.”
He goes on in a rather lengthy paragraph about the things he didn’t like about the production. We think it is charming and so did the people of the temple [Congregation Shalom in Milwaukee], he goes on to say “they were a bit overcome that a non-Jew would do this for them. I derived a good deal of pleasure working on it, and also learned much about Judaism, which I knew absolutely nothing about before...”
This comes from the Charlotte Russell Partridge and Miriam Frink Papers, 1862-1980 (Milw Mss 167, box 64 folder 6). Kempert Quabius obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in January 1950 from the Layton School of Art. He remained connected with the school as a teacher and administrator until 1970.
