A Lobbyist’s Hat Raises Eyebrows
Last week, lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to three felony counts of mail fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy. But here’s the big question after he walked out of federal court: What’s with the hat?
Some pundits suggested his black fedora made him look like Godfather Mafioso Michael Corleone. Several conservative commentators suggested that Abramoff, an Orthodox Jew, was hoping to look religious.
Whatever fashion statement he was trying to make, Abramoff purchased the hat from Bencraft Hatters, a Brooklyn-based haberdasher that caters largely to Orthodox Jews. The hat in question, a Como II fedora made by Borsalino, retails on the Bencraft Web site for $200.
For a full report on the lobbyist’s headgear by Anthony Weiss, visit forward.com/abramoffhat.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
