David Moss's Purim project: Esther without Borders

• Published date: 16 March 2024
• Author: MORDECHAI BECK
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The experience of making these models was for Jimenez "unforgettable" in that it combined art and history, legend and story-telling. It was precisely the reaction that Moss was looking for and had already received from his many guest artists from around the world over the previous thirty years when he started this unique project

"In 1990, I was in Bali, Indonesia," he recalled, "searching for craftspeople for another project of mine, when I viewed the beautiful miniatures being produced by the local artists. Bali, a traditional Hindu society, is full of palaces, royalty, princes and princesses, ceremonies and rituals. All these things strongly reminded me of the story of Esther and Purim. So when I went back the second time, I asked artists from two different villages to do their take on the story. I gave them parchment and the story of Esther translated into Indonesian. I drew six small blank rectangles and I told them to imagine that this story was happening right in their village. The six scenes I asked them to envisage included Achashverus's party at the beginning of the story; the beauty contest in which Esther participates and wins; the reaching out of the scepter by the king to Esther; Haman leading Mordechai on the king's horse; the hanging of Haman's ten sons; and the writing out of the megilla to go out to all the lands of the king's massive kingdom. I didn't want them to imagine Persia or anything to do with the original story. It had to be local in their own culture and style. I waited for the responses. When I viewed the stunningly original crafted images they had produced, it gave me another thought: Perhaps I could expand this idea by seeking out folk artists from around the world willing to depict these same six scenes in their own vernacular culture and style. Thus began a fascinating, bizarre thirty-year quest I've come to call Esther without Borders," said Moss.

Esther without Borders

Although it was initially happenstance that energized the beginnings of the project, Moss's enthusiasm only grew as he encountered folk artists from around the world who responded positively to his strange request. In the course of his ongoing project, he encountered artists from Ukraine, Russia, Bali, India, Italy, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, California, New Mexico, and so on, thus echoing the megilla's Achashveros, whose kingdom spread from "Hodu to Kush" (India to Ethiopia). The original Purim has a profoundly universal flavor.

"I initially sought out...