The Great Kippot Creative Collaboration Caper

A north London boy has decided ahead of his bar mitzvah next month to follow in his father’s passion by helping some of the poorest people on the planet. Saul Jacobs will sell handmade kippot, generating income for the Madagascar-based women’s embroidery cooperative who make them.

The idea for the creative collaboration arose during a conversation on the way home from synagogue between Saul and his dad, Mark, who is managing director of SEED Madagascar, a charity working to alleviate poverty and improve wellbeing in the African island country.

Saul, who attends JFS, has been interested in his father’s work since he was very young and has wanted to visit the country for some time. “I’ve been hearing the name Madagascar all my life,” he told the JC.

The women’s embroidery cooperative, known as Stitch Sainte Luce, based in rural southeast Madagascar, originated as an income-generating project under SEED Madagascar teaching embroidery, business skills, maths, sales strategy and English to over 100 local women in the impoverished island nation.

Mark Jacobs and his son, Saul

When Mark, who travels to the country regularly in his role, introduced to the women the idea of stitching kippot to assist in his son’s coming of age ceremony, they were “incredibly touched”, Mark said.

“I sat down with some of them and explained the cultural and religious significance of Jewish traditions to them, why we keep our head covered with a kippah, and they understood,” he said. “They felt humbled that they could take part in our tradition and a real sense of prestige, knowing it will be used as a prayer item.”

Women of the Stitch Sainte Luce womens' embroidery cooperative (Credit: SEED Madagascar)

The cooperative and local communities are aware Mark is Jewish but are only ever intrigued to learn more, he said. “There’s no such thing as antisemitism there, it doesn’t exist, people are perplexed to learn the definition of the word.”

The kippot are a new canvas on which the women of the cooperative, who are used to sewing items such as cushions, bags, and bookmarks, are given complete creative freedom to develop their own unique styles and patterns. They are encouraged to infuse their own cultural references in the designs of the kippot in addition to a Magen David and, inspired by the environment in which they live, incorporate depictions of flora frequently found in Madagascar and local animals like lemurs and geckos.

Mark said: “They have real pride in the local birds and plants, which are so diverse, so each kippah is totally unique, with new colours, new stitches, different ways of depicting fauna. New designs come all the time. For them, it’s art, and each kippah is signed in embroidery by the person who stitched it.”

The profit from selling each hand-stitched kippah goes directly back to the women of the cooperative, bringing valuable income to the women and their families, many of whom are among the 80 per cent of Madagascar’s 30 million population living on less than £1.70 a day.

Women of the Stitch Saintluce embroidery cooperative (Credit: SEED Madagascar)

It is Saul’s hope to sell 100 kippot (he’s so far sold 30) via the Stitch Sainte Luce Etsy shop page online, generating around £1,500 for the about 100 (and growing) women of the cooperative, which would have a profoundly positive impact on their lives at a time of rife food insecurity in the region.

A woman uses a sewing machine in the Stitch Sainte Luce cooperative (Credit: SEED Madagascar)

St Luce is particularly poor, with most people being illiterate, having no access to electricity or running water, and relying on subsistence agriculture.

“The people in Madagascar are incredibly poor, but it’s an absolutely beautiful country and home to some of the most resilient, positive people in the world,” Mark said.

Hand stitched kippot by Stitch Saint Luce in Madagascar

The kippah embroidery initiative is an extension of the trust between SEED Madagascar and the local population that Mark has built up over nearly 25 years as managing director, helping to build over 40 schools in the country, improving community health, water and sanitation, as well as creating a host of other rural livelihood programmes. SEED Madagascar is one of the bigger employers in the region.

Man models a kippah stitched by the Stitch Saintluce women's embroidery cooperative (Credit: SEED Madagascar)

Mark said he was “enormously proud” of Saul, whose bar mitzvah is on September 14. “It’s totally beautiful to have my son involved. I do it because I love it, the fact that one of my kids decided to be part of it is just so touching. Bar mitzvahs are theoretically about coming of age, and Saul being interested in being part of this is one of the biggest indications he’s maturing.”