Hamantaschen: A Jewish F*ck You In Cookie Form

Exploring the iconic cookies and the holiday Purim

It’s not often that a people’s abiding, millenia-long hatred for one man is so strong that it leads to the creation of a baked good. But such is the case with Hamantaschen, which appear each year around the Jewish holiday of Purim, which begins tonight.

For those who aren’t familiar, Hamantaschen are three-sided cookies, often filled with strawberry, fig or apricot jelly. You may have seen them appear in supermarkets, bakeries or Jewish delis around the Spring. Hamantaschen are the iconic cookie of the Purim holiday, and are a food that American Jews love (or love to hate).

The cookies originate with the story of Purim, with is told in the Book of Esther, part of the Jewish bible. The story takes place in ancient Persia, around 400 BC. The full version is complex, but here’s the basic gist. King Ahasuerus led Persia, but was a bit of a buffoon. After he had his wife Vashti executed, he searched for a new wife, and ended up marrying a beautiful woman named Esther (partially through the work of Ether’s cousin, Mordechai). Esther was Jewish, but the king didn’t know this.

Not wanting to deal with the actual work of ruling a nation, the king brought onboard a vain anti-Semite named named Haman as his prime…