Historical Bits

 

The status of the Israeli kippah has undergone transformations over the years.

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In the state's early years, it was not so prominent—the kippah was uniform, black, and rested modestly, almost secretly, on the heads of Jews who came from European countries. Its wearing was mainly in the synagogue, where even secular people came once or twice a year, wore it, and removed it after the prayer. Among immigrants from Islamic countries, who were considered more traditional, the kippah was a religious accessory dedicated to religious ceremonies.

In those years, Israeli society was controlled by an establishment that instilled a secular culture and education. The secular trailblazers sought to create a new, enlightened, and liberal Judaism. Like in Europe. Like in America. Without a kippah, which was in their eyes one of the hallmarks of the diasporic Jew that did not fit the Zionist ideology that sought to create a "new Jew."

To not completely disconnect from the thousands of years of Jewish tradition, the secular hegemony made a political alliance with kippah wearers from the religious Zionist sector, who called themselves: national religious. These were a modest, uninfluential minority at the time, but partners in the Zionist idea. As part of this partnership, the national religious received key governmental positions, which they used to keep the traditional flame alive, albeit on a low heat. Their competitors in the religious sector, the ultra-Orthodox, did not interfere, isolated themselves in human "nature reserves" and were almost invisible.

Both the ultra-Orthodox and the national religious continued to wear a black kippah (yarmulke), as in Jewish communities in Europe. Here and there, it was also possible to see young men who tried to combine secular and religious fashion, and wore a peaked cap or a beret—which was also a religious but also a fashionable symbol.

 

In the early 1950s, the knitted kippah appeared.

The knitted kippah was born in the religious kibbutzim established by the national-religious stream in Israel. The members of these kibbutzim, like the members of the secular kibbutzim, saw manual labor and settlement as supreme Zionist values that would advance the new Jew from his inferior status in the diaspora.

The religious kibbutz members distinguished themselves from the secular kibbutz members. They, the religious, observed the commandments and maintained a traditional way of life according to Jewish law, and wore a kippah. But the black kippah, the yarmulke, bothered them. It was a characteristic symbol of the Jewish communities in the European diaspora, and young men who grew up within the new Israeli identity felt uncomfortable wearing it. To create a Jewish symbol befitting the Zionist vision, these kibbutz members placed the new kippah on their heads—smaller, colorful, suitable for the local climate and adapted to the landscapes of blue sky and sun, and hand-knitted with Israeli craftsmanship.

 

From the religious kibbutz, the kippah trickled down to the national-religious youth movement—"Bnei Akiva," which adopted large parts of the settlement ideology in addition to its religious dimension.

In the mid-1950s, Rabbi Moshe Zvi Neriah, the head of the Bnei Akiva yeshiva in Kfar HaRoeh, replaced the black kippah on his head with a knitted kippah and helped promote the unique brand among his students at the yeshiva and in the other Bnei Akiva yeshivas.

 

In the 1960s, the knitted kippah took over the "Bnei Akiva" branches in the large cities.

It was knitted by the girls for their male friends in the youth movement, and for their family members. Even trainees who did not receive the romantic gesture found a knitted kippah for themselves in Judaica stores, bought it, and placed it on their heads. Their friends from state-religious high schools, who did not go to the youth movement, did the same.

All these boys grew up and kept the knitted kippah on their heads—in the army and at the university—thereby declaring their belonging to the rapidly growing and developing tribe of national-religious. Within a few years, wearing the knitted brand became a significant part of the dress code for men from the national-religious sector throughout the country.

Demographics did their part, and the sector expanded. With the unique kippah on their heads, national-religious men began to stand out in the field, with active involvement in all areas of life.

 

The Six-Day War in 1967 improved the place of Jewish tradition in Israeli society.

The heroic victory of the IDF in the war brought pride to Israelis and swept up a general euphoria in the Jewish people. To the military success, were added mystical and faith-based interpretations related to miracles and redemption, and the concept of "the people of Israel" took on a more religious meaning.

This was immediately expressed: utterly secular people flocked with the masses to the Western Wall and to the holy places in Bethlehem and Hebron, which were liberated and were under Israeli sovereignty.

When they came, they wore a kippah and felt an uplifting spirit; public figures from all sectors quoted verses and proverbs from the Bible and the Talmud; the secular media pointed spotlights at the national-religious sector, at its sons who wore knitted kippahs and fought in the war and went to settle in the captured territories, and at its daughters who knitted the kippahs.

 

In 1977, the kippah completely came out of its modest corner.

The old secular establishment was ousted in dramatic elections, and the government in Israel passed to conservative right-wing parties that hastened to bring all the religious sectors, the wearers of black and knitted kippahs, closer to them.

Immediately after the dramatic upheaval was announced, the designated Prime Minister Menachem Begin stood before the cameras and microphones of the media from Israel and around the world. He pulled a large black kippah from his pocket, placed it on his head, and recited a traditional Jewish blessing the common jewish prayer: "Shehecheyanu" ("Who has kept us alive and sustained us and brought us to this moment").

The next day he went with the same kippah to say a prayer at the Western Wall, in front of the television cameras.

 

These were formative moments for all kippah wearers and for Israeli society as a whole—for the first time, an Israeli leader made such public use of a kippah and of verses of prayer and blessing.