6 Jewish Costumes for Shabbat-oween

Image by Getty Images

By Anne Cohen October 30, 2014

Dressing up for Halloween is always an ordeal. Dressing up when Halloween also falls on Shabbat? Wow.

So this year, in honor of “Shabbatoween,” we’ve come up with some easy tricks to add a topical Jewish twist to your costume. Major treats guaranteed.

1) Irv Rosenfeld from “American Hustle”

For ultimate ’70s swag, pair a leisure suit with a colorful shirt. Bring on the bling, perfect the comb-over and voila! (ABSCAM optional)

2) Gloria Steinem

Forget Jennifer Lawrence. For the female counterpart to Irv’s psychadelic charm, try a long hair, don’t care Gloria Steinem attitude. Throw on some oversized sunglasses and you’re good to go.

3) Michael Ginsberg From “Mad Men”

This season of “Mad Men” was not so kind to our favorite MOT. Pay tribute with a garish sports coat, clashing tie and fake mustache. For a real show stopper, carry around a suspicious-looking, slightly bloody box (avoid the whole cutting your nipple off part).

4) Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Another (and far more sane) Ginsburg. This one is easy: black robe, sleek bun and major side-eye. If all else fails, you can just rock a “Notorious RBG” t-shirt. We hear she’s a fan.

5) Woody Allen

Big black frames, white shirt, and a healthy dose of neurosis.

6) Christian Bale Dressing up as Moses

Christian Bale is on a roll with the Jewish roles (is he trying to tell us something?) In honor of the upcoming “Exodus” reboot, channel his Moses spirit with a linen cape, a beard and a whole lot of spray tan.

Anne Cohen was the Forward’s deputy digital media editor. When she’s not looking for the secret Jewish history of Voodoo in New Orleans, or making lists about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she writes for The Assimilator. She graduated from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism with an M.S. magazine concentration in 2012.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO