The kippa-wearers among us have much reason to be proud of late. Upon the recent announcement of Yoram Cohen as Israel’s next Chief of the Shin Bet, the media was quick to comment that he was the first kippa-wearer to achieve this lofty position. But Cohen’s achievement is only the latest in what appears to be a trend toward an increasing presence of kippa-wearers in Israeli public life. Kippa-wearers are now seen regularly on mainstream Israeli TV as commentators on Israeli politics, society and culture, and a kippa-wearer offers consumer advice on a daily program called “Tokhnit Chisakhon” that immediately precedes the broadcast of the evening news. Furthermore, the kippa-wearing community can now boast that nearly half of all officers in the IDF are kippa-wearers and that a kippa-wearer came within a hair-breadth of becoming the next Israeli Chief-of-Staff. And of course how can we forget that just a few years ago the Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to a kippa-wearing Israeli scholar? Yes, kippa-wearers are gaining prominence and visibility within Israeli society and for many in the kippa-wearing community this is a sign that they’ve “made it” and that their time has come.
Yet, at the same time, the kippa-wearers among us have much reason to cringe. The images on Israeli television of our former President convicted of rape and the obstruction of justice repeatedly showed him wearing his kippa and surrounded by an entourage of kippa-wearers who were frequently accompanying him to and from his local synagogue. Indeed, the former President’s guilty verdict and subsequent sentencing is only the latest in what appears to be a trend toward the arrest and imprisonment of prominent kippa-wearing Knesset members on charges of bribery and corruption and of an increasing number of criminals who appear on Israeli national television with kippot on their heads. And of course how can we forget that not long ago our Prime Minister was assassinated by an unrepentant kippa-wearing Israeli Jew? And so just when it appears that kippa-wearers are ascending to the heights of Israeli society we are reminded that some kippa-wearers are descending to the depths of depravity and corruption.
But if the kippa is, in theory, a symbol of the noblest religious ideals of ethical behavior and good citizenship then how can kippa-wearers represent both the very best and the very worst in Israeli society? The answer, it seems to me, is that the kippa simply does not symbolize in actuality what it is meant to symbolize in theory. Thus, there are “good” kippa-wearers and “bad” kippa-wearers- just as there are good and bad people-and whether one is to be included among the former, or the latter, has very little to do with the kippa on one’s head.
Furthermore, there is a growing phenomenon of the “kippa shkufa (transparent kippa)”—a reference to religiously observant Jews who do not wear kippot and who playfully refer to their non-kippot as “kippot shkufot”. Finally, there is an increasing population of young Israelis, some kippa-wearing and some not, who reject the traditional dichotomy of religious/non-religious Jews in favor of a much wider spectrum of Jewish/religious/Israeli identities. Thus, not only does the kippa fail as a symbol of moral behavior; it fails as an indicator of religious observance as well.
I suggest that we recall the words of Martin Luther King in his memorable 1963 speech: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” If King’s dream was to create a society that is “colorblind” then I believe that our dream should be to create a society that is “kippablind”. In other words, we as a society ought to stop judging people by the kippa that is, or is not, on their heads—indeed we would be better off not commenting on such things altogether—but by the content of their character and by what matters the most. If we are able to cultivate “kippablindness” of this sort, then hopefully, to borrow King’s words again: “this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed”.
