SKIRTS AND SLEEVES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20611, 9 January 1929, Page 12

SKIRTS AND SLEEVES.

ADVICE TO HEBREW WOMEN. A poster which recently appeared in Hebrew on Jerusalem hoardings has been translated and reproduced in the London Jewish Chronicle. It reads as follows: Listen, 0 our dear sisters, and may your souls live! I would ask of you a small question: Is the honour of the Jewish nation precious in your eyes? Is the honour of our Holy Land dear to you? Doubtless you will answer with a strong affirmative. If, however, your reply comes from a genuinely and truly pure heart, why do you actions belie your words? Why do you parade the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem with naked arras and uncovered heads? Shame and confusion cover our faces at the sight of this accursed and contemptible fashion, disgraceful even outside our own land. Within the precincts of our land, especially in Jerusalem itself, the Holy City, such offensive dress is a description of the glory of God and of the nation.

Not only do you ain yourselves thereby, but you also cause others to sin, and you will have to stand before the Great Tribunal in the same place as Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who sinned and caused others to sin, and whose name has remained a symbol of disgrace and everlasting 'shame,- Hy this your act you murder your brethren, body and soul. Is it worth, dear daughters, the risk of the lives of yourselves and your brethren, merely for the sake of a paltry, imaginary pleasure?

Every true daughter of Israel, the line of whose descent is to be traced directh* to Abraham, our father, will surely coilt£ss that she has hitherto erred, and will repent completely for past wrongdoing, and will remove the filthy garments which have made our people a shame and a laughing stock among the nations, and from this day onward will put on modest garb.

(God-fearing maidens will henceforward clothe themselves with the garments of glory, as worn by our mothers, and little girls must bo trained to wear their sleeves down to the greater part of their hand, and their skirts to cover the greater part of their legs.)

Tlie poster is signed by “him that writes with broken heart and tearful ey»s, your brother who loves his people and his land with unbounded love, and wishes you a happy and sweet year.”