Family & Education
So, how many kippot in your house?
Jack Shamash has counted up all his stray skull caps
November 19, 2020 11:58
By, Jack Shamash
1 min read
Jack Shamash has counted up all his stray skull caps
November 19, 2020 11:58ByJack Shamash , Jack Shamash
One welcome aspect of lockdown is that it’s given me a chance to gather the kippot which were scattered in various places around my house.
From under the beds, kitchen drawers, coat pockets, they are now in one plastic box. I found 52 kippot, including seven in my car. The only time we use large numbers is on Se-der night, but since I’ve never had more than a dozen people for Seder, most are surplus to requirements.
I’m not sure what to do with them: it seems slightly blasphemous to throw away an item with a religious purpose. I thought I’d try to catalogue them. I have about 25 leather ones from weddings and barmitzvahs. Most have the names of the families — often in gold lettering — on the inside. And the kippot can be pleasant souvenirs of enjoyable events.
I’ve got a selection of cloth ones. My Scottish cousins had tartan kippot for their functions. Another young cousin was was obsessed with underground trains, so the kippot at his barmitzvah had a London Transport roundel stitched on to them.
I always envied people with crocheted kippot. A friend of mine had a Chelsea badge and one of the wardens at our synagogue had a Scottish flag running around his. I’ve just got a child’s one with a small train going around the edge. It’s charming but I can’t remember who gave it to me.
My least favourites — and I may throw these away — are from burial grounds. I pick them up with the intention of giving them back at the end of the funeral. By the time I’ve shaken hands with mourners and caught up with relatives I haven’t seen for years, I often go home with the kippah in my suit pocket. These are black with the burial society’s name printed on the inside and I’d rather not have them. One of these is from a cemetery in Paris. I’m not quite sure how I’ve acquired this, as I’ve never been to a French funeral.
I paid for only one kippah. I was going through a hippy phase and bought an embroidered item which looks like an Edwardian smoking cap. I thought it gave me a jaunty air.
The most interesting kippah was given to me by Reverend Malcolm Weisman, Jewish chaplain to the British Army. It was an American Army kippah from the 1993 Gulf War, made from tropical camouflage material. Malcolm told me that it would keep me safe from enemy ac-tion or incoming missiles. I have no intention of putting it to the test. Oh, and if anyone needs 30 kippot, don’t hesitate to let me know.
