Young couple wearing a kippah and a tichel on the subway in New York, USA
>>
synagogue, while studying Torah and/ or when eating. Some fulfil the head covering requirement with secular headwear such as a baseball cap. The Reform movement allows Jewish men and women to consider wearing a kippah a personal choice. The most striking of Jewish hats are perhaps the shtreimels, the fur hats worn by Orthodox Jewish men, commonly Hasidic Jews, on Shabbat (the sacred day of rest), Jewish holidays and special occasions. Shtreimels are cylindrical or doughnut-shaped and made of brown tail fur. Although dimensions vary, the crown height is typically around 12.5–15 cm. Similar types of traditional fur hat are the kolpik (Galician or Hungarian), which has a taller and narrower cylindrical shape than the shtreimel and is made of brown fur, and the spodik (Polish), which is made of black fur. Historically, the Jewish people have been made to wear specific colours or garments to mark them out. In regard to the origins of the shtreimels, one legend says that the Polish authorities demanded Jews wear animal tails on their heads, as a way to mark and humiliate them. The Jews then constructed shtreimels out of tails to look like crowns, thereby inverting the ruling. However, it is also possible that the hats were fashionable at the time in Eastern Europe and the style stuck. The basic black felt hat used to
cover the head for daily wear comes in a variety of shapes; all are black with a crown and brim. Shapes include fedoras, hoiche hats and platchige biber hats. Different sects favour different styles. The hoiche (‘high’ in Yiddish) hat has a tall crown while the platchige biber (‘flat beaver’) hat has a lower crown. Why black felt is used is disputed: possibly to mourn
48 | the hat magazine #99
for Jerusalem, possibly because it is more conservative, or because the plain colour allows for a person’s internal self to be more visible. One popular hat seen among Torah-
observant Jewish men is the black Borsalino fedora. Steven Goldstein of Bencraft Hatters in Brooklyn, New York, says: “When a boy turns 13 and gets bar mitzvahed, it’s a step to manhood and one of the rituals is that he gets a new hat, sometimes two — one for weekdays and the other for the Sabbath. And usually the one for the Sabbath, if the parents can afford it, it’s a Borsalino.”
Jewish Women Orthodox Jewish people believe that “hair reveals something very deep from within a woman’s soul and is reserved for her husband alone,” says Rebbetzin Chana Bracha, director of the community study group ‘Midreshet B’erot Bat Ayin: Holistic Torah Study for Women on the Land’. “You can be creative with the coverings, using
Jewish women wearing different types of head coverings combined with a wig, New York, USA
several scarves in different colours, tying them in new and creative ways. Of course, some women prefer a fancy hat or even a wig.” Married Orthodox Jewish women
are expected to cover their hair, except when they are around their husband and immediate family. This can be achieved by wearing a variety of head coverings such as a mitpahat, or mitpachat, (Hebrew, meaning length of cloth or a covering), tichel (Yiddish for headscarf), shpitzel (Yiddish, a partial wig that only has hair in the front, with the rest covered by a small hat or headscarf), or fall (a headband that covers the hairline and has wig hair covering the head and hanging down). The fall is popular with the Modern Orthodox communities. A snood, beret or sheitel (Yiddish for wig) are also in compliance with the code of modesty known as tzeniut. For Reform Jewish women, head coverings are optional, although some wear a kippah.
Islamic Headwear
Religious headwear (for males) is common among some Islamic communities, with 85% of Indian Muslim men, for example, reporting they often wore a skullcap during daily prayer. As with all religions there is a range of adoption of this practice and it varies in different areas of the globe. For imans, the men who lead Islamic prayer, the
headwear varies and tends to align more by sect. Unlike the leadership of the Jewish and Catholic religions, Islamic leaders mostly wear the skullcap like other Muslim worshippers. Some wear turbans, which vary in colour, size and wrapping style between sects.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102
