Happy children in this and other cities of Israel celebrated Purem today with parades, dancing and singing, while special arrangements were made to include the border settlements and outlying areas in the national festivities marking the downfall of villainous Haman several thousand years ago.
A long convoy of cars and small trucks carrying Purim groups of masked children and adults wended its way from Jerusalem through various settlements in the corridor areas around the city in this city an estimated 4,000 schoolchildren paraded through the streets, singing and shouting with happiness.
The Neturei Karta, the ultra-Orthodox sect opposed the festivities and carried on a campaign designed to dampen joyous spirits. One feature of the Neturei Katra campaign was to pray for rain to interfere with this outburst of “impiety and abhorrent wickedness” Neturei Karta adherents also went about wearing sackcloth and plastered the religious quarter with posters denouncing it.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
