#sheital

Halacha requires married Jewish women to cover their hair. As immigrants to the United States, however, women were often urged to abandon their wigs and kerchiefs – by social workers, by concerned friends, sometimes even by their husbands (particularly if the husbands had already spent time in the US). Such old-world practices were an obvious sign of a “greenhorn,” a newbie, and thus both embarrassing to acculturated husbands and children, and a hindrance to successful interaction with the world outside of the Jewish neighborhood. Some women complied, but in many family photos from the early 20th century, the younger women are wearing fashionable hats (or no head covering at all) – while Bubbe is still wearing her wig.

The Jontiff family, Baltimore, 1910.  Abraham Jontiff emigrated to Baltimore from Poland around 1898-1900, followed a few years later by his wife Dora Ezersky Jontiff and their four oldest children (three more were born in the US). In this photo, Abraham and Dora (seated) posed with six of their seven children, and Dora’s elderly mother Chai Lura Ezersky (center, standing). Chai, who probably came to the US with Dora, wears a thin sheitel; if Dora is wearing one, it’s nearly impossible to tell. Gift of Edna Jontiff. JMM 1992.155.13

Though wearing a sheitel after marriage is a constant thread through the generations of many Orthodox families, the look is sometimes much different over time. Where early examples were obvious wigs (and some Ultra-Orthodox women still choose to make sure their sheitels are clearly not their own hair, so as to make certain people can tell they’re wearing one as they are supposed to), many modern sheitels are carefully made to be quite fashionable.

“My dear mother.” Mrs. Esselson, mother of Samuel Elson, likely taken in Russia, circa 1900. Gift of Joseph Hoffman. JMM 1997.1.2

Fagie Rosen, an Orthodox woman who specializes in wig styling, shown in her shop “Hair’s to You,” Baltimore, 1994. Gift of the Baltimore Jewish Times. JMM 2012.54.246.2