Heritage Foundation
PROJECT ESTHER A National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism
The Torah, in the Book of Esther (Megillat Esther), tells us that in the mid-fourth century BCE, a thriving Jewish community in ancient Persia risked extermination. Haman, Persian King Ahasuerus’s Prime Minister (Vizier), angry because Mordecai, a Jew, refused to bow to him, told the King:
There is a certain people scattered and separate among the peoples throughout all the provinces of your kingdom, and their laws differ from [those of] every people, and they do not keep the king’s laws; it is [therefore] of no use for the king to let them be. If it pleases the king, let it be written to destroy them, and I will weigh out ten thousand silver talents into the hands of those who perform the work, to bring [it] into the king’s treasuries.REF
With the King’s approval, Haman plotted to kill every Jew in Persia, drawing lots (purim) to determine the day of their execution. Unbeknownst to either the King or Haman, Ahasuerus’s new Queen Esther was a Jew and therefore marked for death. Additionally, Mordecai—the man who had so enraged Haman—was also Esther’s cousin. Mordecai encouraged her to use her position and influence to beseech the King to reverse course:
Do not imagine to yourself that you will escape in the king’s house from among all the Jews. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and rescue will arise for the Jews from elsewhere, and you and your father’s household will perish; and who knows whether at a time like this you will attain the kingdom?REF
Esther mustered the courage to oblige her cousin’s plea and convinced King Ahasuerus to reverse course. The result: Haman and his family were hanged, Mordecai replaced Haman as the King’s Vizier, » Read More
https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/report/project-esther-national-strategy-combat-antisemitism