Jewish Tartan

[Captain Karrot]

I've got to say, I never thought my original question would create such an interesting and ongoing thread! Lots of good info!

[Captain Karrot]

Oh, one more thing. Browsing through a google search for "jewish tartan", one of the results I got was this:

http://www.thejewishwebshop.com/comp...art/Itemid,76/

[gilmore]

Wow, what a thought, that one would be assumed to be JEWISH from wearing a kilt! ...

To be clear, it was the rabbi who said he assumed that some one wearing a Gordon tartan in that neighborhood would be Jewish, not the person who told me about it. In other words, that is how common it is for Glaswegian Jews to wear Gordon tartan.

I don't think it's any stranger than to be assumed to be a Robertson if one is wearing a Robertson tartan, or a Campbell if wearing a Campbell tartan, etc. In fact that is why many if not most of us wear kilts: to identify with a clan or other group of people.

[gilmore]

Oh, one more thing. Browsing through a google search for "jewish tartan", one of the results I got was this:

http://www.thejewishwebshop.com/comp...art/Itemid,76/

You can get the same ones here for less than 1/3 of their cost: http://www.a-zara.com/p218000.htm

[Mike S]

You can get the same ones here for less than 1/3 of their cost: http://www.a-zara.com/p218000.htm

Do you realize how stereotypically funny that comment is, coming from Jewish and/or Scottish mouths?

[James MacMillan]

Do you realize how stereotypically funny that comment is, coming from Jewish and/or Scottish mouths?

Maybe that's a good reason we get along so well - both of us know the value of a penny!

[Galician]

To be clear, it was the rabbi who said he assumed that some one wearing a Gordon tartan in that neighborhood would be Jewish, not the person who told me about it. In other words, that is how common it is for Glaswegian Jews to wear Gordon tartan.

I don't think it's any stranger than to be assumed to be a Robertson if one is wearing a Robertson tartan, or a Campbell if wearing a Campbell tartan, etc. In fact that is why many if not most of us wear kilts: to identify with a clan or other group of people.

I understood that it was the rabbi making such an identification, which, for me, gave it real authority.

I disagree with your second point, though, because a Robertson is a Robertson worldwide, and any Robertson could claim use to that tartan for group identification. Jews worldwide don't have this connection with a kilt.

That's why it's both curious and a bit funny.

[ccga3359]

You can get the same ones here for less than 1/3 of their cost: http://www.a-zara.com/p218000.htm

Yet no Gordon yamaka, pity. Is there any acknowledgement or official approval from clan Gordon?

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

When I was working in London, one of our partners was Rodney Gordon, a great bear of a man, whose family hailed from Aberdeen. Rodney was Jewish and explained that they took the name "Gordon" when they got off the boat in Aberdeen; the Scots immigration official couldn't make sense of their Russian name and Rodney's great grandfather finally asked the man what his name was. "Gordon", came the reply. "Is that a good Scotch name?" Rodney's great grandfather asked. "Aye, it is," the wee man said. "Well then put that down as my name." I suppose that Rodney would have been a Jones if his great grandfather had landed in Wales. The bottom line, I guess, is that Jews in Scotland are Scots, just like Jews in the USA are Yanks. And some Scottish Jews like to wear the kilt. It has nothing to do with religion, but rather a sense of national pride and identity. I think the idea of a "Jewish" tartan is faintly rediculous-- what next? Baptist tartan? Methodist tartan? And how soon before the ACLU demands an Athiest tartan? Really, the mind boggles.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

I think the idea of a "Jewish" tartan is faintly rediculous-- what next? Baptist tartan? Methodist tartan? And how soon before the ACLU demands an Athiest tartan? Really, the mind boggles.

I'm not unsympathetic with your views, but just so you know....

Tartan 4104 in the International Tartan Index, the Baptist Union of Scotland tartan, designed in 2001 by the House of Edgar.

Tartan 6794 in that same database, the Methodist Church tartan, also designed by House of Edgar in 2005.

I don't have pictures to show, but you can view them both at the Scottish Tartans Authority web site.