Jewish headgear explained

Yesterday we went for a visit in the Antwerp Zoo. This zoo is very well placed in the middle of Antwerp, a well-known active and touristic city in Belgium.

The zoo is located just next to Antwerp Central Station and can be reached easily. Coming from Brussels, we parked our car in one of the suburbs, and took the local tramway number 15 towards Antwerp Central Station (I have the intention to write also a blog on this impressive building in the near future).

On our way in the tram, we passed along one of the important streets in Antwerp, called the BelgieLei. In Antwerp, de ‘leien’ are the names for important city lanes. Passing this lane, we saw several jewish people walking along with their families. You have a large jewish population living in Antwerp, of which many of them work in the Diamant industry.

As you know, the Jewish people have their Sundays on Saturdays, called the Shabbat. Many Jews attend synagogue services on Shabbat even if they do not do so during the week. We probably saw them returning from the Shabbat morning services.

As we passed, we noticed the various hats or headgear the various men were wearing, followed by the immediate reaction that we did not really know who and why this headgear was worn. So I decided to write todays blog. This blog is not intended to give any particular opinion on religion, but it is only focused on explaining the main headgear.

Black Hats

Hasidic Judaism or Hasidism is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that promotes spirituality through the popularization and internalization of Jewish mysticism as the fundamental aspect of the faith. Hasidim customarily wear black hats during the weekdays, as do nearly all Haredim today.

A black hat

Kolpik

A kolpik is a type of traditional headgear worn in families of many Chassidic Rebbes (Hasidic rabbis), by unmarried children on Shabbat, and by Rebbes on special occasions. It is made from brown fur, as opposed to a spodik, worn by Polish chassidic dynasties, which is fashioned out of black fur.

Rabbi Moshe Leib Rabinovich wearing a kolpik

Shtreimel

A shtreimel is a fur hat worn by many married ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, particularly (although not exclusively) members of Hasidic groups, on Sabbath and Jewish holidays and other festive occasions. The shtreimel comprises a large circular piece of velvet surrounded by fur. It is generally worn only after marriage, except in many Yerushalmi communities, where boys wear it from their bar mitzvah.

A shtreimel

Spodik

A spodik is a tall fur hat worn by some Haredi Hasidic Jews, particularly members of sects originating in Congress Poland. Spodiks should not be confused with shtreimels, which are a similar type of hat also worn by Hasidim. Shtreimels are shorter, wider, and circular shaped. Spodiks on the other hand are long, tall, thin, and cylindrical. There are many types of spodiks, some quite similar to the shtreimel.

A spodik

Kippah

A kippah, or plural: kippot (also called a skullcap or kappel) is usually a cloth, hemispherical or platter-shaped skullcap traditionally worn at all times by observant Jewish men, and sometimes by both men and women in Conservative and Reform communities. Originally all kippot looked the same. They were small, black skullcaps worn at the apex of a man’s head. However, nowadays kippot come in all sorts of colors and sizes.

A Kippah

The above headgear is mainly worn by men. However, in modern times some women also choose to wear kippot as an expression of their Jewish identity or as a form of religious expression.

If you are interested to read more on this, I suggest checking Wikipedia (click here)or other sites. I hope you learned something new today. At least, I did.

Back on Tuesday with a new blog. Tomorrow a day off. Take care.