An outsider’s description of what Jews look like.

The month of May is Jewish American Heritage Month, and this is actually quite a new thing. It was only officially proclaimed by George W. Bush Jr. in 2006. I read somewhere that as many as 40% of Jews live in America today, the most famous one being Albert Einstein pictured on the left.

Nearby my place, there are many Jewish institutions (Schools, Synagogues, meat markets, grocery markets) all in such a small area! I see Jews almost everywhere, even when I am coming home late at night.

Let me describe the Jews I see in my neighbourhood. The ladies are almost always slim and slender, unless they are 50s and older – of which they are not obese, just rounder. They usually wear dark colors – black is very popular, and skirts or dresses. Sometimes they have a small triangular head scarf, sometimes not – but I don’t know if that’s just something fashionable for them. The young girls are a mirror image of the women in what they wear.

Then young men are also usually tall and slender, but the older ones can be rotund with a budging tummy. They are usually in long sleeve collared shirts (light colored or white) and long black pants. A majority of them wear black blazers to go along with it, and sometimes ties too. Yes, they look like they are wearing formal wear quite often, even the children. So I guess, businesses selling business wear, and cloth makers producing black cloth will never go out of business. It’s cute to see the really little boys in their black suit, white shirt and tie with their little skull cap on their head.

The Jewish children are amazingly well behaved with their parents, walking together as a group. It is a joy to see them walking by. Family time seems very important, and parents usually have more than 1 child. No child is well behaved 24/7 of course, the children play and can be mischievous like any other normal kid when “no one’s” looking. ;-)

On left: French president Nikolas Sarvosky wearing a yarmulke. Another Jewish man to his right wears a hat. (AFP Photo Eitan Abramovich 15 Dec 2004)

But ah! Skull cap is what I call it, but that’s improper. The proper name is yarmulke (Yar-mool-ker), sometimes informally known as kipa (Key-Par: plural; kipot: singular). I think a brief reason why they wear it as a symbol of submission to God. I see many of these caps floating on many heads in my area, which might mean that I have a very religious community here.

The yarmulke are most popularly worn by the Ashkenazim (Ush-ker-nar-zeem: plural; Ashkenazi: singular) who are Jews from central and eastern Europe. There are chances that the Ashkenazim can speak Yiddish, which is the language of Jews in Central and Eastern Europe 'resulting from a fusion of elements derived principally from medieval German dialects and secondarily from Hebrew and Aramaic, various Slavic languages, and Old French and Old Italian’(- The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition).

The Sephardim (seh-far-deem: plural; Sehardi (-dee): singular) probably also wear the yarmulke. They are a ‘descendent of the Jews who lived in Spain and Portugal during the Middle Ages until persecution culminating in expulsion in 1492 Inquisition forced them to leave’ (- The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition). Where did they settle after that? According to Dictionary.com, they ‘established communities in North Africa, the Balkans, Western Europe’ and I believe a lot in the Mediterranean, middle east and India too, because their food is so much like Indian food! More about that in the coming Blog posts.

The Diaspora (dye-as-per-rer) originally referred to the 6th centruey B.C. ‘scattering of the Jews to countries outside of Palestine after the Babylonian captivity’ (-dictionary.com). Today, it would possibly emcompass Jews living outside of Israel like the Ashkenazim and Sephardim, and small scattered minorities in other parts of the world. My guess is that the Diaspora that are neither Ashkenazic nor Sephardic might wear the yarmulke the least.

The Chassidim are a different group of Jews, and they seem to be very religious in appearance! They wear hats (like the guy to right of French President Nikolas Sarkovsky), have long side burns tucked in, or sticking out (sometimes they make it curly like 2 beautifully soft spring coils on both sides of their faces). The older guys sport a long beard. The black formal wear of suits, black leather shoes and a white shirt applies to them too. Solemn, but interesting to see them walking around my neighborhood. I would love to show you a picture of them because they are the most interesting looking of the bunch, but I have a feeling they may not want to have their picture taken for my blog. (I also scared they “hoot” me if I tou tou pai (photograph them sneakily).

All of the Jews above can more or less (or none if they are not exposed) read and write some Hebrew, although the Jews from different locations may pronounce the writings differently, just like Cantonese can sound different in Guang Dong VS Guang Xi in China.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading about what Jew’s look like from an outsider’s point of view. More about their food coming up soon! Here is a video of some American Jews talking about what they wear today. They are probably not so strict in their garb as those Jews in my neighbourhood. ;-)