Street poster: smash-your-smartphone festival

March 9, 2022 Street poster: smash-your-smartphone festival

Posted at 01:17h in Artifacts, Technology by Frieda Vizel 2 Comments

The holiday Purim is coming up, and it’s one of those rare times the deeply conservative and self-contained Hasidic community lets loose for a lot of merriment. The kids get into costume, everyone delivers gifts to each other, there’s music everywhere, and the men do the best they can to get very drunk. It’s a wild day in Williamsburg.

This street poster advertises a special event that will coincide with the holiday of Purim. The photoshop on this is a work of art in itself. Smartphones are being destroyed with various unusual instruments like screwdrivers and pliers. Here are the important parts of the invite, in English:

We are overjoyed to announce that this Purim we will hold:

“The Event to Smash Amalek”

Where the good people of the community will get together to clean out the dirty devices which have already destroyed many thousands of Jewish souls, both spiritually and physically.

It will be held ON Purim!

Program details:

Where? To make the public comfortable, the event will be held in many locations. In every place or Jewish home where this “Amalek”* sadly resides, there will be a separate event.

When? Any time during the Purim holiday. (If you missed the opportunity on Purim then it can be done after Purim as well, and as soon as possible.)

How? With a hammer, a saw, a drill, knife, pliers — what not? Or simply throw it out in the middle of the highway or into the middle of the ocean.

Pro tip: After several glasses of wine, you will find the right wisdom, and indeed it will be easier to accomplish that which you truly have long wanted to do.

Sounds like a fun party.

*On Purim, it’s tradition to do something to erase the memory of Amalek, because the villain of Purim is the descendants of the Amalekites. This article outlines more, if you’re interested. Here is a useful paragraph from it:

“Indeed, each year on the Shabbat before the holiday of Purim we read the section of the Torah in Deuteronomy recounting Amalek’s action. On Purim the Jews were saved from the evil designs of the wicked Haman, a descendant of the Amalekite king Agag—a perfect time to celebrate the destruction of Amalek.”

Related:

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