In the boulevards of Brooklyn and Monsey, in the passageways and alleys of Yerushalayim and Bnei Brak, they go about their daily business dressed in the distinctive apparel that their grandfathers wore. For chassidim, tradition is more important than style – especially since the various fabrics, buttons, and patterns of their clothing often hold some deeper significance.
Anyone who’s spent Shabbos or Yom Tov in one of Yerushalayim’s older districts has been transfixed by the otherworldly sight of men walking home from shul in gleaming caftans their heads crowned by shtreimlach. The scene takes on a timeless quality especially in the shadow of Yerushalayim’s walls. But exactly how timeless? The Yerushalmim have an answer to that question that may surprise you.
“This levush is a mesorah from Avraham Yitzchak and Yaakov” declares one prominent tailor who together with his wife produces all the varieties of the Yerushalmi caftan in their home in Batei Ungarin. “We also have an eidus that when Bnei Yisrael left Mitzrayim they were dressing this way.” That’s not to say they were traveling through the desert getting sand in their shtreimels but the Yerushalmi tailors treat the ancient significance of the caftan’s construction with reverence.
The tailor and his rebbetzin who asked not to be identified are part of a sizable cottage industry that has been at work in Yerushalayim for generations producing these garments. Wearers of the Yerushalmi levush have no large outlets like the ones found in Boro Park and Monsey with off-the-rack garments (made in Hungary Turkey or China) fitting rooms and alterations performed on-site. Instead the clothing is largely produced — and sold — in private homes.
Most of the work is in fact done by women. This presents a bit of a complication in those situations where a man needs to be fitted for a new beged. When the tailor is male the normal rules apply; but what to do when the tailor is a balabusta? Leave it to the Yerushalmim to work out a solution.
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