Megillah for Kibbutz Be’eri

The Oklahoma Esther was the first scroll of Esther to be written in Oklahoma and was created as a gift to Kibbutz Be’eri who lost their Megillat Esther and Torah scrolls to a fire on October 7. Over 60 Oklahomans worked on this project, making the parchment and writing the letters, to create this truly egalitarian scroll in time for the megillah to make it to Kibbutz Be’eri members by Purim.

Young man reading a parchment scroll inside a synagogue or religious meeting hall, wearing a kippah with a colorful pattern, with empty rows of blue chairs in the background.

Photos of the process.

  • A person with gray curly hair wearing a colorful kippah, writing on a small light-colored paper with a black marker at a wooden stand. Behind them, there is a large scroll with Hebrew text, pinned to a purple foam board with colored pins. There are also other papers and a pair of eyeglasses on the table.
  • A person holding a wooden sledgehammer over a long scroll of ancient Hebrew or Aramaic text, laid out on a white table. There are stacks of ornate red boxes, possibly containing scrolls or religious texts, on the table in the background.
  • Person with curly hair writing on a long ancient scroll or manuscript laid out on a white table in a room with wooden walls.
  • Two men standing in front of a decorative wooden wall, holding a large wooden scroll or book, smiling at the camera.
  • A man working on a woodworking lathe, shaping a wooden cylindrical object in a workshop filled with various tools and equipment.
  • Group of people, including a woman in a purple shirt, gathered around a seated woman reading from a book on an easel in a wood-paneled room with stained glass window.
  • An elderly woman with gray hair and a maroon patterned blouse is writing on a long sheet of parchment paper with a black marker. A young man with short dark hair, wearing a black jacket and a blue kippah, is leaning over and observing her. They are seated at a white table in a room with tan chairs and wooden wall accents.
  • Two men sitting at a table, one writing on a large scroll and the other observing. Both wearing kippahs. The setting appears to be a room with a wooden door and storage bins.

Press

Screenshot of a news article from Haaretz about the burning of a 250-year-old Yemenite Purim Megillah by Hamas terrorists, with the headline mentioning Oklahoma Esther.
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A person with gray hair and a rainbow-striped kippah reads from an ancient scroll on an easel, while a small cup of ink and a writing instrument are nearby.
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