On Purim night, Sat., March 15, women prepared the Book of Esther, the Megillah, for reading at the Stanton Street Shul. At the 180 Stanton St. synagogue, men and women are separated during prayer and men lead the services. On Purim, women held their own reading downstairs, while men were in the main sanctuary. Wearing costumes is part of the holiday, which celebrates the deliverance of the Persian Jews from a plot to destroy them. Lower East Side women also participate in many other separate women-led services at the Stanton Street Shul during the year. It’s one of the last remaining tenement shuls from the more than 700 congregations that served the area’s Jews 100 years ago.
