Esther Adina Sash has received hateful online messages about her long wig, which some in her Orthodox community view as immodest. |
“People always say the longer it is, the sluttier it is,” said Esther Adina Sash, a 30-year-old mother of two from Flatbush.
Specifically, she’s referring to the sheitels, or wigs, that she and other married Orthodox women wear as mandated by Jewish law, so as to not entice men who aren’t their husbands. Now a heated debate is brewing over hair that some in the community view as being too sexy.
Traditionally, sheitels reflect what is considered modest: shoulder-length or shorter — almost Jackie Kennedy-esque — and synthetic, which is seen as more humble than wearing human hair. (Prices can range from a few hundred dollars to as much as $5,000 for a 28-inch, waist-grazing wig of European hair.)
On her Instagram account (@flatbushgirl), which has some 38,000 followers, Sash regularly posts photos of herself in wigs that cascade and curl down her back, prompting hateful comments. “Go drown yourself in a lake — you’re negatively influencing young girls,” she recalled one reading.
She’s been criticized by rabbis, including one who challenged her to cut her wig as a good example to others — and to receive an “astronomical” spiritual reward.
She didn’t take the bait.
“I was laughing that he would think hair length has a connection to spirituality,” said Sash, who crusades for women’s issues in the Jewish community and is running for district leader in the 45th Assembly District. Although, she admitted, “The wig is a very charged item.”