Eytan Graubart excitedly walked about the main lobby of the Weinstein JCC, with shaving cream covering his hair and face. He didn’t seem to mind being the recipient of a pie in the face because it was all for a good cause.

Purim, a Jewish holiday, is Tuesday. Services and celebrations are scheduled throughout the Richmond area. The story of Purim, in the book of Esther in the Bible, is read each year at this time. It begins in Persia when King Ahasuerus was ruler. He fell in love with a beautiful woman named Esther and made her his queen. Not long after they married, his chief adviser, Haman, decided in anger to have all Jews in the land killed because one of them—Mordecai—refused to bow before him. Mordecai, Esther’s uncle, learned of the plot and asked Esther to intervene. After much soul-searching, she asked the king to intercede. The king, who reversed the order, recognized Haman as a wicked person and had him put to death.