Keep It Under Your Hat!

As I write it’s raining hard in Jerusalem and snow has been forecast.  You might expect the hats to be coming out here to protect people’s heads from the weather but if that’s what you think hats are for you are badly mistaken.  You may even see some orthodox Jews wearing plastic bags over their hats to protect the hats themselves!  Hats have a much more social purpose altogether especially here in the holy city of Jerusalem.  “Fashion”, someone once wrote, “is a kind of communication.  It’s a language without words”.  We talk about someone “wearing many hats” and we mean that they have many roles in life.  We mean that a hat is really a piece of uniform.   It signals a person’s role and status; their position in society.  Think of crowns for kings and queens, police officers’ or soldiers’ hats and you’ll get the idea.

Jerusalem society is many layered and therefore it is a place of many different hats - figuratively and literally.

Detail from a mediaeval Hebrew calendar

Over the centuries Christian or Moslem authorities turned customary forms of dress into badges of shame for the Jews.  Some Jewish communities took these badges of shame and made them symbols of their pride in their own identity.  In the year 1215 under Pope Innocent III the Fourth Lateran Council ruled that Jews and Muslims must be distinguishable by their dress.  The Jewish hat was a cone-shaped pointed hat often white or yellow, worn by Jews in Mediaeval Europe and some of the Islamic world. It was initially worn by choice.  After 1215 it became compulsory in some places in Europe for adult male Jews to wear this hat whilst they were outside a ghetto so that they could easily be distinguished from others.  

Orthodox Jew wearing a shtreimel
Photo: Boaz Gabriel Canhoto

Enter an ultra-orthodox area on Shabbat and you will see many men wearing round fur hats - shtreimels.  The shtreimel is a black velvet cap surrounded by sable or fox tails.  It is worn on special occasions such as Shabbat and festivals by married men from many Hassidic groups and, in the old Ashkenazi community of Jerusalem, by boys from the age of bar mitzvah.   The number of fur tails used gives the shtreimel an added, mystical significance; 18, for example is the numerical value of the Hebrew word חי – life, and 26 the numerical value of the name of G-d.  The origin of the shtreimel is obscure.  Tradition has it that an anti-semitic ruler in Europe decreed that Jews should wear a tail on their heads on Shabbat to identify themselves.  This form of discrimination had been seen before.  In 16^th century Holland lepers had been forced to wear fox’s tails on their backs to mark themselves out.  The Jews complied with the decree but turned the tail into regal headgear rather than a badge of shame.  The shtreimel is worn with pride, and it does indeed resemble a crown.  

Herbert Samuel British High Commissioner
 for Palestine with kavasses 1923

The fez or tarboush probably has its origins in Greece but for about 100 years it became the most common form of hat in the Ottoman Empire.  It was what my great-grandfather wore when he moved from mainland Turkey to Egypt before the First World War.  In 1826 the Sultan Mahmud II made a fez with a cloth wrapped round it the official headgear of the Turkish army.  In 1829 he ordered officials of the empire to wear a plain fez.  This was a symbol of his modernisation of the army and of the civil administration.  The wearing of the fez soon spread to the general population.  After the demise of the Ottoman Empire Kemal Ataturk, the first President of the Republic of Turkey, banned the wearing of the fez in Turkey in 1925 as decadent, Ottoman dress.  Nowadays you will only see the fez worn in Jerusalem by the kavasses walking at the head of important religious processions.  During Ottoman rule these officials of the empire were armed escorts who accompanied consuls of foreign powers and heads of religious groups in the city including the Hakham Bashi, the Chief Rabbi.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef
Photo: Michael Jacobson

In 1842 Rabbi Haim Gaguin was appointed the first Hakham Bashi or Chief Rabbi of Eretz Israel under the Ottoman Empire.  Just over 100 years later his great-great- grandson, Rabbi Dr Maurice Gaguine officiated at my parents’ wedding.  The title Hakham Bashi was not new but it had never before carried this kind of governmental authority, over education and matters of religious ritual and marital status.  Rabbi Gaguin was granted a firman (a royal mandate) from the Sultan, and with it a hat and embroidered robe of office as well as an escort of kavasses.  The Jews called the Hakham Bashi “Rishon LeZion” (literally “the First in Zion”), a title still used by the Sephardi Chief Rabbis of Israel.  The hat of the Hakham Bashi was a black tarboush with a long blue cloth wound round it.  A black hat like this was worn by all the Sephardi rabbis but that of the Rishon LeZion had a silver thread woven into it.  The Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel is today known as the Rishon LeZion.  His hat and robe recall that of the Hakham Bashi.  The current Rishon LeZion is Rabbi Shlomo Amar.  Rabbi Ovadia Yosef who held the post from 1973–1983 is also called by this title.

Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem 1900

There are about 20 ancient Christian communities and some 30 more Protestant denominations in Israel.  The Armenian Orthodox Church is amongst the oldest here.  Armenia was the first nation to adopt Christianity in the year 301.  Like the Druze the Armenian Orthodox Church does not accept converts.  There have been Armenian Christians in Jerusalem since the fifth century.   In the past there were many Armenian institutions in the city.  Armenian mosaics from the Byzantine period were uncovered on the Mount of Olives during the building of the Russian Church of the Ascension.  The community is now concentrated mostly around St James’ Cathedral in the Armenian Quarter - the smallest and most private of the four quarters of the Old City.  Senior Armenian priests wear a characteristic high black triangular cowl.  Some say that it represents Mount Ararat in Armenia where Noah’s Ark came to ground.  Others say that it is taken from the lines of construction of the dome of the church and represents the “point of perfection” where the cross is suspended.

I have only just scratched the surface of the hat culture here.  Jerusalem is wonderfully rich and diverse; a mosaic of different cultural, religious and ethnic groups.  Each one makes its unique contribution to the sights, sounds, tastes and aromas of this amazing city.

Where the Train Stopped in Jerusalem

I know that in a city like Jerusalem we have to make a balance between preserving its heritage and meeting the demands of modern living.    Even so I hate to see a beautiful, historic building knocked down in the name of “progress” or, even worse, just allowed to decay until it has to be taken down.

The Jerusalem railway station in the 1890s.

That’s what I feared might happen to the old Jerusalem railway station.  The station opened in 1892 opposite the Khan as the final stop on the Jaffa to Jerusalem line – the first railway in the Middle East.  When the station finally closed its doors in 1998 it was sadly neglected despite its special architectural and historical merit.  The years took their toll on the building.  Decay, vandalism and the occasional fire almost damaged it beyond repair.

The neglected old railway station in Jerusalem. Photo: Dr Avishai Teicher

In 2008 I had watched in horror as a crane with a concrete ball on the end of a chain demolished the Ashkenazi Orphanage building on Harav Kook Street in the centre of town.   Bought from a wealthy Arab in 1881 the building had been extended and developed into “one of the finest public buildings in the city”.  In this orphanage and the nearby Alliance School the first attempts were made to introduce Modern Hebrew into the school curriculum.  Both buildings have been pulled down.  The Alliance School was replaced by the large, ugly Clal Centre.  The orphanage made way for “7 Harav Kook”, a huge 10 storey apartment complex, being built by developers Africa Israel.

About a year ago, after seeing a short film about the restoration and development of the old Jaffa railway station, I wrote to the mayor of Jerusalem. Follow this link to see the film.  I was impressed by what Tel Aviv had done and ashamed of how the old Jerusalem station was being allowed to decay.  He told me that I needn’t feel ashamed.    The city already had plans for a comprehensive renovation of the station and of the railway track all the way to Malcha.

The renovated Jaffa railway station.  Photo: Dr Avishai Teicher

Since then the first phase of the project has been completed.  The railway track from the old station along Rechov Harakevet to the junction of Emek Refaim and Pierre Koenig Streets has been transformed.  What was overgrown and unsightly is now a popular and attractive urban park with cycle and walking paths.

It was good to hear last week that a contract to renovate the station itself had been awarded to Avi Mordoch, the same developer who had done such a good job in Tel Aviv.  The plan for the site includes the preservation of the building, railway carriages turned into bars and cafes, a visitors’ centre for the railway, shops, galleries, exhibitions and restaurants.  The railway station together with the Sherover Centre under construction nearby will become a major cultural and entertainment focus for the city.   There is already, however, some controversy over the plan.  Both these sites will be open on Shabbat and charedi authorities have expressed their dissatisfaction.

From Cochin in Southern India to Nevatim in Southern Israel

One of the best things about Israel is the diversity that exists in such small country.  People from five continents have come to settle here and the country is home to communities from many different cultures and religions.  I love to show people aspects of Israel that they haven’t seen before.

There are many cultural gems here.  One of these is Moshav Nevatim  Just to the east of Beer Sheva, Nevatim was originally founded as a kibbutz, together with ten others, one Saturday night in October 1946.  It was part of a determined attempt to establish a Jewish presence in the Negev in anticipation of the partition of Palestine.  During the War of Independence in 1948 the kibbutz was besieged by the Egyptian army.  It was kept supplied with food and other essentials by air-drops.  Nevatim survived the war but was abandoned soon afterwards.

In 1954 Nevatim was re-established as a moshav by Jews from Cochin on the Malabar Coast in Southern India.  Cochin was the oldest of the Jewish communities in India.  The tradition is that Jewish traders called here during the time of King Solomon.  Exiles from the Kingdom of Judah settled here soon after the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE and were joined by refugees fleeing after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.  They settled first in the ancient port of Cranganore near to Cochin.  Here they received protection from the Hindu rulers and were granted special privileges that were recorded on copper plates (known as the “Sasanam”) that were given to the community.  The Hindu king gave the Jews permission to live freely, build synagogues, and own property "without conditions attached" for "as long as the world and moon exist". The area where they lived in came to be known as ‘Jew Town’.

The Sasanam

In the 14^th century the port of Cranganore silted up and trade moved to the smaller port of Cochin.  In the 16^th century the established community was joined by Sephardic Jews fleeing from the Iberian Peninsula.  It’s perhaps not surprising that in India, the home of the caste system, the two communities did not mix.  The older established Malabar community, who became known as the Black Jews, were seen as inferior by the newcomers, the Pardesi or White Jews.  They maintained separate synagogues.  The Pardesi Jews did not even allow the Malabar Jews into their synagogue.  Needless to say they did not intermarry.  By the early 20^th century most of these divisions had disappeared thanks largely to the efforts of Abraham Barak Salem.

An Indian Jewish Family in Cochin

There were eight synagogues in Cochin.  The Black Jews had seven and the White Jews one, the Pardesi synagogue.  Only the Pardesi synagogue is still open.  The interior of the 16^th century Kadavumbagam synagogue was brought to Jerusalem in 1991 and reconstructed in the Israel Museum where you can see it today.

Most of the Jews have left Cochin and have settled in moshavim and in cities in Israel.  At Nevatim they have built a heritage centre for Cochin Jewry with a museum, a film presentation of their history and a beautiful synagogue.  Arrange your visit in advance and you can enjoy a delicious meal of kosher Cochini food.