Eva Longoria Wishes You a Happy Purim

What do you get when you ask a Roman Catholic actress to describe a Jewish holiday on a children’s television show ? A complete misinterpretation of Purim. Before you role your eyes and say, “Oh jeebus, here’s one of those  ‘gentiles just don’t get it’ spiels,” I have to confess — I’m in the same religious boat as Eva. But when I sawthis clip from Sesame Street , attempting to be informative and inclusive, I felt more confused and excluded. First off, I had a hunch Purim was more than costumes, noisemakers and silliness. And of course it is. Check out the Purim story in the Biblical Book of Esther: a Persian king kills his wife because she doesn’t want him to show her off. Then, at a week-long party, the king chooses his second wife, Esther, who hides the fact that she’s Jewish. When there’s an impending extermination of the Jews, Esther steps in and sets the deliverance of her people from the Persian Empire in motion. While there’s mention of hard-core partying, disguises (in the metaphorical sense), and feasting, I wouldn’t exactly say Eva’s interpretation really nails the essence of the holiday. Second off, I kept thinking, “Why Eva? Why would Sesame Street hire aRoman Catholic to say Shalom? She’s making us gentiles look like condescending ignoramuses .” So I went to the ultimate source of knowledge, Wikipedia, to get to the bottom of my queries. Turns out, Eva might be a Crypto-Jew,someone who secretly practices Judaism, or secretly has Jewish roots while outwardly professing another faith or religious lineage. According to this hodge-podge of a wiki-article , a fellow member of Eva’s clan, when tracing back to their Spanish roots, indicates that the Longorias may have “conversos” (Crypto-Jews) for ancestors.