Nadene Goldfoot
NEW YORK CITY - MAY 18 2016L Hundreds of Satmar Hasidim filled the streets of Williamsburg to mourn the sudden death of Isaac Rosenberg.
Just at the start of Chanukah, the police in Brooklyn are searching for 3 women that are behind a string of attacks against Jewish ultra-Orthodox children who were wearing the traditional ultra-Orthodox Jewish clothing. NYPD's Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the incidents.
The women have been seen in surveillance pictures in these 3 incidents. This happened in a south Williamsburg neighborhood, the Clinton Hill neighborhood in Brooklyn, where young children walk in small groups or even alone. The women slapped a 3 year old boy across the face last Friday, then attacked the 12 year old boy with him as they were walking home on Skillman Street. Then on Sunday they approached a young Jewish woman,18 years old, and pulled her to the ground; 3 against 1;, gang-style.
Brooklyn resident Kenseth Armstead said it's outrageous. Brooklyn resident Kenseth Armstead said it's outrageous. "Anti-Semitism can't be can't be tolerated," he said. "If it were the reverse or if it were anyone who were targeting any person of color, I'd have the same idea. I think targeting anybody because of their difference is reprehensible. I think that's wrong, period."
These Jewish children were easy to spot because of their clothing, which was the mark of children from very religious Jewish families. Usually Orthodox men are picked on the most because of their clothing being easy to spot like Chabad or the Satmar Hasidim who live in Williamsburg. Jews have been wearing some type of uniformed clothing for many years, sometimes by their choice and sometimes by the state's demand.
While Hasidic men do not feel the modesty obligation to the same degree, they believe that it is a mark of humility and respect for others to dress formally when encountering the world. Clothing has long played a significant role in Judaism, reflecting religious identification, social status, emotional state and even the Jews’ relation with the outside world. The ancient rabbis taught that maintaining their distinctive dress in Egypt was one of the reasons the Jews were worthy of being rescued from servitude. More stringently Orthodox men often wear black suits, and many Hasidic men wear suits that are reminiscent of the style Polish nobility wore in the 18th century, when Judaism began. Many Orthodox men also wear a , a four-pointed garment with fringes on the corners, underneath their shirt — sometimes the fringes hang out from the shirt, but sometimes they are not visible.
The dress of the Hebrew in the Biblical Period was similar to all the other people in their habitat. Jews from the Hasmonean age and on wore the clothing of Greek and Roman clothing if they could afford it.
Men wore Tsitzit on the 4 corners of their robe and this differentiated the zealous Jew from his neighbor, though it became usual to relegate these to synagogal and intimate wear. Orthodox men wear a tallit tallit Katan (small) under their outer garments which has the 4 corners on it for that very purpose.
The institution of the Jewish Badge as a distinguishing mark in the 13th century proves how alike Jewish and non-Jewish clothing were at this time in Europe. It was the Christians who insisted on the badge needed on the Jewish clothing. During the Middle Ages, European kings and popes continued the practice of compelling Jews to wear distinguishable clothing or markings. On November 11, 1215, in Rome, Pope Innocent III convened the Fourth Lateran Council. It was one of the largest ecumenical councils ever to assemble. The Council decreed that Jews and Muslims were to wear identifying markers or clothing at all times that made them readily distinguishable from Christians. It was the last stage in a series of measures by the Church to inhibit social contact between Jews and Christians. Issued as Canon 68, the decree became the basis of the subsequent imposition of a so-called Jewish badge in Christian kingdoms.
Nevertheless, Jews sometimes continue to wear the costumes of the countries from which they came from, like the Moslem clothing when in Christian Spain.
Jews generally tended to be conservative in their clothing. In Europe, a pointed hat called a pileum cornutum, was considered in the 13th century to be specifically Jewish, and it was long customary for the Jews to wear a special coat, called a sarbal, on holidays. In eastern Europe, the fur-trimmed hat, called a streimel, a long kaftan, and in certain cases, knee-breeches and buckle-shoes, reflected long forgotten Polish fashions which came to be regarded as sacrosanct.
Distinctive clothing was abandoned in western Europe, and was never known in America except among small ultra-Orthodox groups. In the Moslem countries of North Africa, the prohibition of the wearing of bright colors by Jews resulted in the evolution of the black robe and skull-cap, later considered characteristic Jewish garb. In certain Mediterranean areas, Jewish until recently continued to wear the Spanish fashions introduced by the Sephardi exiles in 1492.
Extravagance in costume was checked in many Jewish communities by SUMPTUARY LAWS. These were country regulations restricting Jewish extravagance in dress, festivities, etc. These were known among the Jews from Talmudic times and in the Middle Ages became common, partly because ostentation aroused gentile enmity.
The laws are found in most countries, and specific codes under the title, Seder or Pragmatica, were drawn up at frequent intervals in various Italian communities. They laid down the maximum number of guests that might be invited to private festivities, the dishes that could be served, the amount of jewelry that women might wear, the dress of both sexes, the nature and number of wedding gifts, etc. These codes throw much light on social history.
Resource:
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/jewish-badge-origins
https://jewishmuseum.org.uk/2017/08/18/sephardi-dress/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williamsburg,_Brooklyn
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