and resiliance in the month of joy: Purim at Grinnell

By Claire Giannosa giannosa@grinnell.edu

Chaverim, Grinnell College’s Jewish student association, hosted their first Purim party last Monday, March 6, from 6-9 p.m. in the Harris Center. Purim is a Jewish holiday that celebrates the survival of the Jews in Persia from the evil plot of Haman, an advisor to the Persian king. The holiday began Monday evening and lasted until Tuesday evening, March 7.

The celebration started with the tradition of reading from the Megillah, or the Book of Esther, which tells of the story of Queen Esther, who helped save the Jews from Haman. Some students read from the scroll in Hebrew on stage, and audience members would boo and make noise with groggers (noisemakers) when they read Haman’s name.

Rabbi Sarah Brammer-Shlay said that the Book of Esther is “a book where I think we learn a lot about power and responsibility and what it means to fight for justice and freedom — to be able to find joy and silliness in our work, and to know that that’s actually a part of our resilience.”

As an associate chaplain and rabbi at the Center for Religion, Spirituality and Social Justice, Brammer-Shlay worked with Chaverim by “supporting the students in dreaming up what they wanted this [the Purim party] to be,” she said. She emphasized the importance of a holiday like Purim, which “is an opportunity to lean into that silliness and joy, which can be hard sometimes, as students, when you have a lot going on.”

Following the reading, Jewish students performed a spiel, or skit, retelling the story of the Book of Esther. E.J. Schwartz `23, who wrote the spiel, said, “even though it was short and goofy, I like to think that I did have motifs of family running throughout. To me, that is a lot of what religion is — part of my connection to being Jewish is comedy.” ing up in costume. “It’s a reminder to not take yourself too seriously, and at this school, that’s pretty important.”

A key aspect of Purim is Jewish resilience and celebration of survival. “You might have cut us, you might have hurt us, you might have done whatever, but we’re still alive,” Schwartz said.

After the spiel, the event continued with games, snacks, costumes, cotton candy and inflatables. Attendees could also donate money to Grinnell Community Meal, an organization that serves meals to the community, as they hope to start up again in April. Among the food offerings was Hamantaschen, which Schwartz explained to be a triangular shaped cookie often filled with apricot, poppyseed and chocolate fillings, representing the hat and ears of Haman.

As president, Goffman said she is “a very logistical person,” helping to plan and organize events. “I’m the person people come to if they have an idea that they want to see become reality, and I’m like, ‘let’s do it. Let’s go.’”

For the first Purim celebration at Grinnell, Goffman said the members of Chaverim “dreamt big and envisioned what they wanted the party to look like. And then the Rabbi and I kind of helped see that we could actually make a reality.” Even though it was the first one at Grinnell, Goffman said it was “one of hopefully many.”

“I definitely think there’s some things that we learned when we go to plan it for next year,” Goffman said. “I think attendance was really good. I think everyone had a lot of fun. I’m excited to see how it grows within the next 5 to 10 years.”

“I really believe it’s important to have opportunities for Jewish students to live in Jewish time,” Brammer-Shlay said about the importance of having a Purim celebration at Grinnell. “I think it’s a really fun holiday to bring non-Jewish students into as well.”

Purim is celebrated during the Jewish month of Adar, a month that signifies joy. “We’re told that as soon as the month of Adar begins, our joy increases,” Brammer-Shlay said.

Some students who celebrated Purim said that they found joy within the traditions of the holiday. Marisa Goffman `24, president of Chaverim, said her favorite tradition was baking Hamantaschen. “I think it’s a really fun community event to experiment with the different fillings and bond over the food.” She also liked dress-

“I heard from a lot of Jewish students, and non-Jewish students, that having a Purim celebration at Grinnell was really awesome,” Goffman said. “[It] felt really meaningful to them to have a Jewish event at that scale.”

Overall, Purim is a holiday about celebration and finding joy in life. According to Goffman, “Purim is a really good time to recognize that the Jews didn’t die, take a break from the seriousness of winter, raise up your joy and have a really good, fun time with your community.”

By Eleanor Corbin corbinel@grinnell.edu

Grinnell High School (GHS) ran performances of “Crimes of the Heart” on March 2, 3 and 4, marking the directorial debut of Steph Nefzger. The play was partly sponsored by Grinnell College.

“Crimes of the Heart” follows three sisters as they come together in the wake of their mother’s suicide, learning how to be around one another after many years apart. Nefzger said that the themes of found family

By Conrad Dahm dahmconr@grinnell.edu

Located on 5th Ave., Vonda’s Flowers and Gifts, an independently owned flower shop, brings joy and creativity to the Grinnell community. Inside, there are not just flowers but also handcrafted art pieces and décor, all made by owner Vonda Earnhart.

Earnhart said she owned three flower shops before moving to Grinnell and opening her current store in April 2015. She said one of her inspirations for opening this store was her love of creativity. “I’ve been creating and making things since I was probably two years old. I just love making people happy,” said Earnhart.

Earnhart said that she provides flowers for weddings, funerals, proms and any other occasion where one might need flowers. She said that flowers are a powerful thing to help bring out emotions. For these events, Earnhart asks what the customer wants, and then she makes a design that speaks to the individuality of the person.

Earnhart said she gets fresh flowers from many different wholesalers, and she often creates the designs the day she receives the flowers. She offers deliveries to Grinnell and the surrounding communities including Newton. All the flowers arrive fresh, regardless of whether a customer has them delivered or picked up in the store, said Earnhart.

One occasion that stuck out to Earnhart was when Grinnell College asked her to provide flowers for the inauguration of new College President Anne Harris. Earnhart said, “They [the College] came to me and asked me to do the flowers on the stage. They let me be creative, and they got the most beautiful experi- drew her towards the show. ence for her inauguration.”

“What this show kind of champions is understanding that your normal doesn’t have to be everybody else’s definition of normal,” she said.

Prior to her current role as GHS play director and Grinnell Middle School (GMS) 5th grade special education teacher, Nefzger coached speech at GHS and three other Iowa high schools.

When a position opened up to direct at GHS, Nefzger said that she was excited to showcase her skills in theater.

Earnhart said she also remembers when people send messages post-event expressing their love of the designs and of the flowers in general.

Along with providing flowers, Earnhart offers other products to her customers. “I have candy bouquets.

My daughter does tie-dye shirts. I’m an artist, I have drawings that I custom draw for people,” Earnhart said.

Along with these items, there are handmade designs from her husband that include bottles from local businesses turned into vases and other containers.

All of the products offered by Earnhart are handmade and designed by her and her family. She said she does not belong to any national flower organization which uses pre-made designs. “I don’t do cookie-cutter designs. I let them [the customers] tell me what they’re looking for. Every design is individually designed for that person, even if it’s only one flower,” said Earnhart.

“I sell sentiment. Flowers can say so much, and they make many people happy,” said Earnhart. “Flowers can represent many different things to different people. I like it to be something that’s very meaningful, and it represents what the customer is wanting,” she said.

Overall, Vonda’s Flowers and Gifts is a great example of what the Grinnell community has to offer. By selling more than just flowers, Earnhart has created a business that offers joy and creativity to all people in the community.

The store is located at 811 5th Ave. and is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturday. Earnhart accepts orders for a multitude of occasions.

“I have just a very deep love for theater and a deep passion for sharing that love of theater with other people, specifically students,” Nefzger said. “I just had a really positive experience growing up, myself, in theater settings.”

Just over 200 tickets were sold for the 3 performances, and Nefzger said that she saw a wide variety of community members attend the performances. 10 of those tickets were purchased and reserved for Grinnell College students as part of the College’s sponsorship of the production.

Grinnell College has been making contributions to GHS plays since the College and the high school became partners in education, said Donnette Ellis, community relations and grant coordinator at the College. The donation, this year around $250, went towards general funds to be used as seen fit by the production. Ellis said that this donation is not regular in the sense that it does not happen at a set period of time. Rather, whenever someone from GHS reaches out to the Grinnell College Office of Community Partnerships, Planning and Research to ask for a donation, the College provides one.

Previous GHS play director, Liz Hansen, who currently works as the program director at the office of community partnerships, planning and research, connected Nefzger to the correct channels to coordinate the sponsorship.

In return for the contribution, the College asked for 10 tickets to raffle off to the student body. An acknowledgement in the playbill read, “Thank you! … Donnette Ellis and Grinnell College for the generous donations.” Ellis noted that she, individually, is not typically included in the thank-you.

Beyond monetary contributions, Nefzger said that Kate Baumgartner `15, technical director for theatre, dance and performance studies, provided them with College resources, allowing GHS to use props and set pieces.“It really made for a collaborative process that really created a