Anti-Semitism v.s. Jewish Identity in the Book of Esther

In the book of Esther, we find a classic example of anti-Semitic politics and propaganda, when Haman incites the Persian king to exterminate all the Jews of the empire because they are different. The book of Esther was often viewed as a historical novel far removed from reality. However, research in the second half of the 20th century, when the archives of the fortifications and the archives of the treasury of Persepolis were published, as well as the excavation of Apadan from Susa, confirmed with great accuracy that the events described in Esther were not fiction. On the clay Elamite cuneiform tablets of these archives, we find names identical to many of the characters from the book of Esther. Historians have reconstructed a hypothetical chronology of the book's events. An Akkadian tablet from Borsippa (Amherst 258), published by Ungnad, confirmed that Mordechai indeed held a high administrative post at the court, i.e., as stated in Esther, "sat at the gates" of the King (Esth. 2:21; 3: 2-4; 5: 13). It follows from the Aramaic documents of the Persepolis treasury that in the 19th year of the reign of Xerxes, the royal treasury underwent a reshuffle, as a result of which the main segan was replaced: a certain Mithraka unexpectedly received the position, who remained in this post until the 7th year of the reign of Artarkserxes 1 (458/457 BC), and then disappeared as suddenly as he appeared. Thanks to the analysis of Mithraka name, it was noted that through metathesis, the transcription mrtk is given in one tablet, which, according to some scholars, phonetically may be identical to the name Mordechai. It is assumed that the figure of Mordecai from the book of Esther may be hiding under these names. Attention was also drawn to the fact that this name disappears from their archives precisely in the 7th year of the reign of Artaxerxes (458) - that is, when "some of the children of Israel, and of the priests and Levites, and singers and gatekeepers and the Nephites went to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes" (Ezra 7:7). Also in the 19th year of Xerxes, when Mithraka/Mordechai was appointed segan, and a new royal seal "Xerxes, the Great King" was put into circulation, the use of which, however, disappeared in the year of Mordechai's disappearance – in the 7th year of Artaxerxes. It is possible that in the 19th year of his reign, "the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai" (Esther 8:2). Our article is devoted to the reconstruction of this historical background.