Orthodox leaders are increasingly policing the length of women’s wigs, the New York Post reported Sunday, citing numerous women who say they have encountered criticism and even discrimination because of their artificial locks. “People always say the longer it is, the sluttier it is,” Esther Adina Sash, 30, told the Post. Orthodox women traditionally wear…
On a chilly spring day in March of 2002, Rachel Riss, an Orthodox woman with a fashion-forward sensibility, got engaged. But niggling at the edges of her starry-eyed cloud of happiness was a twinge of worry: she needed to find a wig. According to Jewish law, a woman must cover her hair upon marriage, and…
Digital flyers were recently sent among the Orthodox community’s wig makers. The senders’ names were kept anonymous. “Dear Jewish women,” the flyer’s message screamed in all-caps. “How badly are you trying to look like a prostitute? How important is it for you to slap G-d in the face?!” The flyer featured a collage of images…
Five Israeli ultra-Orthodox rabbis released a statement this past summer, blasting wigs made of human hair for their idolatrous origins (which has long been a dispute among rabbis). As is well-known, in the year 5764, the rabbanim and great poskin [ruler] in our generation have ruled that wigs which contain any human hair from India…
When I was 17, a matchmaker introduced me to my future husband. My family and I knew it was an auspicious match from the get-go: The boy and I were both Satmar Hasidism; we came from the same town, Kiryas Joel; we were socialized in similar circles, and we observed the same religious rules. But…
Nate Lavey Two weeks ago, the rabbis of Lakewood, N.J. called a gathering of female educators to provide words of encouragement in the area of — what else — tznius, or modesty. Among the many dire tznius issues discussed, the rabbis suggested that women cut their wigs shorter to make them less provocative to —…
When Mashie Butman, the wife of the only rabbi in Cambodia, flies home to the United States for a rare visit, one of the things on her to-do list is to take care of her wig. That includes styling the elegantly cropped, light-brown head covering that the young Orthodox woman always wears in public. “Here…
“Do you like the blond better? With or without the ponytail?” Wig-shopping is the new initiation into religious life for women, writes Tali Farkash, a Haredi columnist for Ynet who alternates between defending religious life and kvetching about it. If women used to accompany brides to the mikveh in order to welcome them ritualistically into…
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