Purim is the holiday in Israel where youth movements get even more integrated within their local communities and build camp-like structures for people of all-ages to enjoy. This past Purim, the youth movements in Israel took on months of preparation for this festive celebration. In chapters of Maccabi Tzair, the Israeli youth movement partner of BBYO, members created events for their communities to celebrate the holiday together. In this article, I’ll tell the story of the Nes Ziona chapter Purimon.

The Purimon is a big event which includes a variety of activities for all ages, and the most exciting part is seeing all structures that are built by the older teens in Maccabi. These structures resemble structures in amusement parks – this year, we built a ferris wheel, a carousel, and two wild bulls. Approximately 400 people participated in the Purimon of Maccabi Tzair Nes Ziona, whose theme this year was the movie Kung Fu Panda. The guests enjoyed 12 assorted activities, such as game booths and programming, in addition to the big structures mentioned earlier, and the whole event was decorated in the Kung Fu Panda theme.

Needless to say, such an event was quite a big production for the chapter, which includes about 50 teens between the ages 14-18. These teens, including myself, built the whole event from scratch! The ideas, meetings, and planning began over three months in advance. We divided ourselves into teams of structure building, programming, decorating, marketing, etc. Yet, once the plans were put into action, the whole chapter contributed to the Purimon and worked together, striving to achieve the best Purimon possible.

After all the hard work, this year’s Purimon was considered a success by the teens in the chapter, who enjoyed the results of their effort. Maccabi Tzair and Nes Ziona’s city youth department recognized the Purimon as probably the best Purimon of the chapter in the last decade. And of course, the Nes Ziona community was pleased to enjoy a wonderful Purimon for the whole family, and to celebrate the Purim holiday at an event full of life and cheer.

‍