Shabbat Gathering: What's that on your head?

Brian D. Johnson

09 Jan 2026 • 5 min read

This is actually one of kippahs I've acquired. That isn't my head underneath the kippah.

Gud Shabbos Khaveyrim, as is our custom, we will gather tonight at 5.45p ct to welcome Shabbat. These are the coordinates:

Zoom
Meeting ID: 883 8469 4181
Password: 822665
Phone: +1 312 626 6799

Jeanne will lead services tonight. I'm off on the Winter Retreat. Miss you. Will give you a full report.

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Here we go.

On the morning of November 9, 2016, I learned that Trump had been elected president and I made a vow to wear my kippah everyday. For me, the point was visibility. Crazy things had been said about many minorities and I wanted to make sure that people knew if they wanted to say something about Jews, they should do it to my face. That experience yielded the first story in The Forward.

Community | What It’s Like To Wear A Big Old Yarmulke In Small-Town America

After a Brooklyn Jew moved to Wisconsin, he decided to wear his big Bukharian style yarmulke full-time. Reactions have been mixed:

The ForwardBrian D. Johnson

I had decided to sport a type of kippah fashioned in the Bucharian style, something like a pillbox hat. I found someone on Etsy who made them out of salvaged upholstery and I love them and acquired many more than a solitary person probably should have. But the thing about them is that they don’t shout out that I’m a Jew and that was kind of the point of the exercise. So I’ve made a change. When the news reached me about the massacre in Australia and about ICE murdering an unarmed bystander in Minneapolis, I decided I need to step up my game. Now, I’m sporting something that’s more traditionally associated with what some Jewish men wear, a black, crocheted disc that neatly covers my bald spot. There’s no mistaking it for anything other than a “Jewish yarmulke.”

For me. I want people to know I’m a Jew and if they have something to say about that they should have the testicular fortitude to say it to me directly. And along with wearing the kippah comes the responsibility to represent our people and that is a big deal for me. I remember I’m a Jew every time I decide how much to tip someone, every time I stop for someone in the crosswalk, every time I see someone in the street who needs some help, every time the synagogue needs volunteers to pull off some sort of event. I’m a Jew and I’m proud of that and if wearing a kippah let’s people know that? So much the better.

And may it be for all of us a blessing.

See you tonight!
Mit vareme grusn,
(With warm regards,)

All my love,
brian.

PS

DuoYid

-30-

Here we go.

PS

DuoYid

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