Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

May 5, 2026

A Documentary Explores the Meaning of Religious Jewish Women’s Head-coverings

Sheitel: Beauty in the Hidden.

Although the practice is mentioned by the Talmud, it’s not entirely clear when a Jewish consensus emerged that halakhah obligated married women to cover their hair. In the Middle Ages and even after, some rabbis tried to ban the practice of wearing a wig for this purpose—yet they lost the battle. Simi Horwitz reviews a new documentary about the sheitel, as these wigs are known in Yiddish: 

SaveGift