A Skullcap That Has Become a Precise Political Signal

The kippah is worn as an expression of awareness that something is above, and in modern Israel it has become one of the most exact pieces of social signalling anyone wears.

Custom, not command

Covering the head is custom rather than biblical command, and rabbinic authorities differ on how strong an obligation it carries, from required at all times to required for prayer and blessings only. That latitude is the background to the disputes about who wears one and when.

Reading the cap

In Israel especially the kippah reads as affiliation. A knitted kippah usually indicates Religious Zionism, a black velvet one Haredi affiliation, a large white crocheted one Breslov, and people read these instantly. The wearing of a kippah by women is normal in Reform, Reconstructionist and much of Conservative Judaism and is not the practice in Orthodoxy. The cap has also been litigated: in Goldman v Weinberger the United States Supreme Court held in 1986 that the Air Force could forbid an Orthodox rabbi to wear one on duty, and Congress reversed that result by statute the following year, which is a rare instance of a legislature overturning a court on a question of religious dress.