Communicating Esther: The Diffusion and Reception of a Biblical Dream

This book presents a communications approach to the biblical story of Esther and the ritual that it anchors, the Jewish carnival of Purim. Esther, the second-most written about book of the Bible, is thought to be based on a tale that circulated around 400 BC, and was later transcribed and brought before the Jewish Sages with the request that it be canonized. It was, though God is not mentioned in it, with its focus instead on glamour, drinking, sex, violence, and genocidal plots. Despite the reservations of many at its inclusion in the canon, Esther formed the basis for an extremely popular Jewish ritual: the holiday of Purim.

This book discusses how story and holiday combine all of the elements of a communication process – production of content, choice of medium, seal of approval, diffusion over time and space, and promotion of various forms of reception and reaction. It is a case study of "how culture works" and how the text itself is about communicating. It will appeal to all researchers of communication and religion, communication and the Bible, and communication and Judaism, and more generally to readers who are interested in communication or fascinated by culture.

Elihu Katz (1926-2021) was one of the founding fathers of communication as a discipline. After graduating from Columbia University and teaching at the University of Chicago, he immigrated to Israel, established communication studies in the country, and also served as the founding director of Israeli Television. After retiring from the Hebrew University and then from the University of Southern California (USC), he was for many years the Sterling Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

Menahem Blondheim is the Karl and Matilda Newhouse Professor Emeritus in the Department of Communication and the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Currently serving as the Dean of the School of Media Studies at Israel’s College of Management, his research fields include the history of communication, particularly in the American and the Jewish experience, and media technologies, old and new.