This photo depicts a banquet seen in a religious school during the Purim celebrations in the ultra religious neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem on march 2nd 2018. Purim commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from Haman, who was planning to kill all the Jews. This took place in the ancient Achaemenid Persian Empire. The story is recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther (Megillat Ester in Hebrew).

On this special day celebrated all around Israel as a huge festival (costumes and parties), religious people have to fulfill a few missions such as charity to the poor, a banquet and the duty to get drunk until you’re won’t be able to distinguish right from wrong.

Mea Shearim is a very closed neighborhood, not easy to access and to photograph, where religious people lived apart from the rest of the israeli society in a very strong community life. Ultra orthodox people are now almost one million people in Israel. Most of them are really poor because they are not working and they spend all day studying the Bible. The fecundity rate is huge, 6.9 per women and the sexual segregation is really strong. The community, due to its growing number and to the right wing government gained a lot of political power theses last years in the country bringing more and more religious views to the israeli democracy.