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Death of Iranian leader just before Purim revives Book of Esther parallels

JL;DR SUMMARY The surprise death of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in an Israeli airstrike on Shabbat before Purim has drawn numerous parallels to the Book of Esther where the downfall of Haman, a Persian tyrant, is commemorated. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Jewish TraditionPrime Minister NetanyahuIranPurimOrthodox UnionAgudath Israel Of AmericaAmalekBook Of EstherAli Khamenei

Places mentioned

Iran
"Today, in coordination with Prime Minister Netanyahu and the IDF, President Trump and the U.S. armed forces took defensive action to silence a modern threat from the same ancestral land of Haman, the statement read."
Israel
"Israel has been belligerent toward Israel at least since the Islamic Revolution of 1978-79, which brought clerics like Khamenei, with their frequent chant of Death to Israel, to power."
Los Angeles, California, United States
"Rabbi Nicole Guzik, senior rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, speaks about the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran and the upcoming Purim holiday in her sermon, Feb. 28, 2026."
New York, United States
"The novelist Dara Horn, speaking Sunday night at a forum on combating antisemitism at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan, said, Tomorrow night is Purim, and I think its clear to all of us now that the best way to fight antisemitism is to take out Haman with an F-15."
Beit Shemesh, Central District, Israel
"A widely circulated image from Beit Shemesh, where an Iranian missile killed nine people in a bomb shelter that also functioned as a synagogue, showed a fragment of shrapnel puncturing a Torah right on the passage that had been read a day earlier."

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Cairo Item ID 76699
Cairo Source ID 42
Retrieved 2026-03-03 05:31:05 UTC
Curated 2026-03-03 08:30:44 UTC