On this day in 1684, a mob attack on the ghetto of Padua led to the establishment of Buda Purim, celebrated long thereafter by the Jews of Padua on the 10th of Elul each year.
In the midst of the war between Venice and Turkey, the Jewish community of Padua gathered for prayer on Tisha B’Av. However, their Christian neighbors accused them of praying for the welfare of the Turkish armies under siege by imperial troops in Buda (the right bank of the Danube, across the Danube from Pest). When news arrived of the Turks’ defeat nearly one month later, a mob began to attack the Padua ghetto. When the inhabitants sent a messenger to beseech the doge of Venice for assistance, thousands of rioters poured into the ghetto, looting and destroying what they could lay their hands on. Ultimately, the Venetian government proclaimed that death awaited anyone who continued to attack the Jews, leading to the first Buda Purim celebration.
Though an oddly distressing episode from our People’s history, the willingness of the Paduan Jewish community to memorialize its history through ritual seems eerily absent from contemporary Jewish practice. However, as we strive to make meaning through the traditions of our ancestors, finding ways to ritualize our part of the Jewish People’s story may represent a meaningful path toward the future.
— Rabbi Josh Knobel