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So, I freaked the seder table out a little tonight, by bringing up Jack the Ripper.
What I asked was if anyone knew exactly what a professional "hairdresser" would do in a Jewish community Eastern Europe in the latter half of the 19th century, then I had to explain why I was asking.
It turns out there are a couple of different Yiddish words for "hairdresser," but everyone figured they were American Yiddish, and I don't know enough about Yiddish, historically, to know where the words come from, or how long they have been in the language.
But, what got me thinking about it was the fact that if Aaron Kosminski's profession really was "hairdresser," I'm not really sure what exactly he could have been doing. Here's the problem: Jewish men and women who were not related (or married) were not allowed to touch each other, other than in some kind of situation of necessity, like a doctor rendering aid, or carrying a wounded person, so the idea that a man was styling women's hair, in the shtetl, just isn't viable. Then, on top of that, there is the fact that in the 19th century, women kept their hair covered, especially married women, who were not supposed to show any hair at all, to the point that women who could afford to do so wore wigs over their natural hair. Men kept their heads covered with yarmulkes and hats, and wore their hair short, because it made hats fit better.
So, I can't figure out what a "hairdresser" did, unless what Kosminski actually was, was a wigmaker, as well as someone who maintained and styled wigs for married women. I assume that if he were a barber, he'd be called that, and not a "hairdresser."
If he became a hairdresser after he came to London, that strikes me as even more odd, as he would have worked with gentile women pretty much exclusively, and it just seems a really peculiar career path for someone who came from E. Europe, presumably to escape religious persecution.
Now, I suppose he may have worked for a hairdresser, sweeping up, or something.
I am not finding the original source for the information that he was a hairdresser. Can someone point me to it? If it's translated, I'd like to track down the original, and if it's not, then I'd like to try to figure out where the information came from-- whoever first recorded it, must have been told by someone, and if it wasn't Kosminski himself, I'd like to know who.
I think there's a chunk of his life we don't know about hiding behind the idea that he had been a "hairdresser." There has to be more to it than that, or it is somehow a mistake, and if it's a mistake, maybe we can still find out what he really did. It may not turn out to mean anything, but I'm just trying not to leave an unturned stone. If nothing else, we might find out that he was once employed by gentiles, and had a chance to learn to speak English well.
What I asked was if anyone knew exactly what a professional "hairdresser" would do in a Jewish community Eastern Europe in the latter half of the 19th century, then I had to explain why I was asking.
It turns out there are a couple of different Yiddish words for "hairdresser," but everyone figured they were American Yiddish, and I don't know enough about Yiddish, historically, to know where the words come from, or how long they have been in the language.
But, what got me thinking about it was the fact that if Aaron Kosminski's profession really was "hairdresser," I'm not really sure what exactly he could have been doing. Here's the problem: Jewish men and women who were not related (or married) were not allowed to touch each other, other than in some kind of situation of necessity, like a doctor rendering aid, or carrying a wounded person, so the idea that a man was styling women's hair, in the shtetl, just isn't viable. Then, on top of that, there is the fact that in the 19th century, women kept their hair covered, especially married women, who were not supposed to show any hair at all, to the point that women who could afford to do so wore wigs over their natural hair. Men kept their heads covered with yarmulkes and hats, and wore their hair short, because it made hats fit better.
So, I can't figure out what a "hairdresser" did, unless what Kosminski actually was, was a wigmaker, as well as someone who maintained and styled wigs for married women. I assume that if he were a barber, he'd be called that, and not a "hairdresser."
If he became a hairdresser after he came to London, that strikes me as even more odd, as he would have worked with gentile women pretty much exclusively, and it just seems a really peculiar career path for someone who came from E. Europe, presumably to escape religious persecution.
Now, I suppose he may have worked for a hairdresser, sweeping up, or something.
I am not finding the original source for the information that he was a hairdresser. Can someone point me to it? If it's translated, I'd like to track down the original, and if it's not, then I'd like to try to figure out where the information came from-- whoever first recorded it, must have been told by someone, and if it wasn't Kosminski himself, I'd like to know who.
I think there's a chunk of his life we don't know about hiding behind the idea that he had been a "hairdresser." There has to be more to it than that, or it is somehow a mistake, and if it's a mistake, maybe we can still find out what he really did. It may not turn out to mean anything, but I'm just trying not to leave an unturned stone. If nothing else, we might find out that he was once employed by gentiles, and had a chance to learn to speak English well.
...Just remembered my Grandad having one...........
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