Order of Eastern Star will celebrate Purim

Staff report

NEWTON FALLS

Chapters of District 2 of Order of the Eastern Star will celebrate Purim at 5 p.m. Saturday in Roby Lee’s Banquet Center, 425 Ridge Road.

Tickets are $20 per person and nonmembers are welcome to attend. Dessert is an additional $5 and includes tickets for a basket drawing. A cash bar will open the event at 5 p.m. and a buffet dinner will be served at 5:30.

Purim is a Jewish holiday which celebrates how Queen Esther and her Jewish cousin Mordecai saved the Jewish people from a Persian royal official named Haman who planned to kill off the entire ethnic group. The story is recorded in the Book of Esther in the Bible. The day is celebrated with feasting and rejoicing.

The story of Esther is one of the five degrees or lessons in the Order. With over half a million members worldwide, the Order is the largest fraternal organization in the world with both men and women as members. The group was founded in the United States in the early 19th century as a charity organization, like its Masonic counterparts.

Proceeds from the event will benefit organizations such as the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, Eastern Star Training Award for Religious Learning and the Ohio Eastern Star Home, as well as scholarship opportunities, children dyslexia centers and Masonic youth organizations.

For information on the event, call Beth Cooper at 330-947-3310 or Bill Westover at 330-654-2199. For information on the order, visit www.ohoes.org.