Yarmulkes go contempo
By Beth J. Harpaz
New York -- When 4-year-old Hart Levine gets ready for nursery
school each morning, he faces a big decision. Should he wear the yarmulke
with Batman on it, or the one with Superman.
Well, actually the yarmulke with
Teen-age Muntant Ninja Turtles is his favorite.
" 'Cause they're pretty," he
explained.
Skullcaps featuring logos of
cartoon characters are popular among Jewish boys. There's Bart Simpson,
Mickey Mouse, and "Where's Waldo?" from the series of books and puzzles.
"Waldo, he's big right now," said
Harriet Flusberg, who runs Hecht Hebrew Book & Religious Supplies,
where the yarmulkes can be had for $10 apiece.
"They are popular," said Sandy
Gruenberg, director of the Learning Center at the Solomon Schechter
School, a Jewish school in suburban White Plains. "It's a positive way of
encouraging the children to wear yarmulkes."
Although Jewish law requires male
to cover their heads as a way of humbling themselves be-fore God, there is
no rule about the type of headgear o whether it can be decorated.
Some observant Jews wear knitted
skullcaps, others wear leather or suede. Members of some ultra-Orthodox
Hasidic sects favor fedoras.
Yarmulkes embroidered with scenes
of Jerusalem have been around for a long time, as have skullcaps imprinted
with the names of wedding couples and children celebrating bar or bat
mitzvah. So the cartoon characters are just another variation on a theme.
"As long as it covers the head and
it's not offensive, on a child I feel that it does the job," said Rabbi
Mordechai Grunberg, rabbinic coordinator for the Union of Orthodox Jewish
Congregations of America.
"For people who want to adhere to
a strict Jewish way of life, they really shouldn't wear this," said Rabbi
Jeffrey Chaitoff, and administrator at Yeshiva University. "But if a
cartoon character, in good taste, helps a child want to wear a yarmulke,
that should be fine."
Hart's father, Dan Levine sells a
wide range of cartoon-character yarmulkes in his Manhattan store, J.
Levine Co. Books & Judaica. They're priced from $11 to $18 and he
sells about 100 a month.
They're a cottage industry, he
says, made mostly by women in their homes. While the creators do not
bother to get permission to use the cartoon characters, Levine says he
only has had one complaint. It was from a lawyer for "Sesame Street," so
he no longer sells yarmulkes with Big Bird on them.
Levin and other yarmulke suppliers
also sell skullcaps with team logos on them for bigger kids -- some of
them much bigger.
"I get bridegrooms in here who
say, 'I want to walk down the aisle in a Giants yarmulke,' " he said.
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