Soldiers trade groggers for rifles

Religious brigade filmed opening fire as Purim villain’s name is read out, in riff on tradition

There’s noisemakers. And then there’s noisemakers.

One of the central traditions around the Jewish holiday of Purim is making noise when the name of the villainous Haman is proclaimed during the public reading of the Megilla of Esther.

But a group of soldiers recently decided that the traditional spinning noisemakers, “boos” and cap guns were child’s play, taking the art to the next level, courtesy of army-issued semi automatic rifles.

The soldiers, from the religious Netzah Yehuda brigade, were filmed at an Israel Defense Forces shooting range. In the short movie, as one soldier reads out the name of Haman, the unit opens fire, drowning out his name better than any grogger ever could.

The holiday of Purim marks the Jewish defeat of the aforementioned Haman, a Persian vizier who plotted to wipe out the Jews some 2,500 years ago, according to tradition.

The day, which falls on Sunday for most of the world, but on Monday for Jerusalem and some other cities, is traditionally celebrated with costumes, the trading of food baskets, drinking, debauchery and, from now on, a whole lot of bullets.