Positively Medieval
Playing Jewish in the Society for Creative Anachronism.
By Louis Finkelman
firound midsummer,
participants in the Soci-
ety for Creative Anach-
ronism (SCA) gather in
western Pennsylvania
for a week or two of a
combination costume
party, camping trip,
crafts fair and athletic competition
called the Pennsic War. Participants
dress in medieval styles, practice anti-
quated arts, study obsolete languages
and refer to each other by fanciful
medieval names. More than 10,000
people come from as far as Australia
for the event.
The legend of the origin of the
Pennsic War, polished and embel-
lished for new generations of partici-
pants, goes like this:
In Berkeley, Calif., in the middle
1960s, some young folks discussed
how they enjoyed thinking about the
Middle Ages. The group, including
at least one science fiction writer,
readers of fantasy fiction and graduate
students in medieval history, planned
an event at which they would call
each other "My Lord" and "My Lady,"
would admire each other's costumes,
play ancient music, eat old-fashioned
food and also, perhaps best of all, put
on shining armor to bash each other
with wooden poles. They would recre-
ate everything about the Middle Ages
but religious fanaticism, medieval
standards of cleanliness and medical
hygiene.
So many people wanted to take part
in that event, and in subsequent ones,
that they needed a venue suitable for
a crowd. The application form had
space for the name of the organization
— which had no name — so one of
the founders invented "the Society for
Creative Anachronism."
At these early events, the group
chose the reward for winning the
armored combat competition; they
dubbed the winner a knight. A skill-
ful young student, David Friedman,
became the society's first knight.
FORMING A SOCIETY
Around the country, groups planned
similar events and applied to join
the society. Affiliated groups claimed
different geographical areas; associa-
tions of affiliated groups became the
first monarchies of the known world.
Naturally, winners of the heavy list ar-
34 September 201
2 oirD T
• How to make hardened leather
armor
• How to make Viking jewelry
• How to use period literature to tell
stories in public
• How to redact medieval recipes
for use in modern kitchens
• How to understand the history of
the society
• How to fully inhabit your persona
• How to behave properly as an
Islamic or Jewish persona
JEWISH MEDIEVALS
mored competition earned the right to
become king. David Friedman became
one of the earliest kings.
By then, though, he had become
Cariadoc of the Bow, a 12th-century
Berber tribesman and also King
Cariadoc of the Midrealm, the second-
oldest kingdom in the society. As King
of the Midrealm, Cariadoc sought to
initiate a national event, so he chal-
lenged the King of the East to war,
sending an arrow to symbolize his bel-
ligerent intent. He got no response.
Later, Friedman moved to New
York. He took part in society activi-
ties there with similar success, and
became King of the East. He found the
challenge that he himself had issued,
and promptly accepted it, breaking the
arrow to show his readiness for war.
At about that time, an SCA group
had formed in the Pittsburgh area,
and the leaders of the Society dis-
agreed about its affiliation. To which
kingdom should western Pennsylva-
nia belong? The Society decided to
make the Debatable Lands around
Pittsburgh the prize for the first
Pennsic War. The Debatable Lands
would belong to whichever kingdom
lost. The leaders named this event the
Pennsic War, a portmanteau word
combining the words "Pennsylvania"
and "Punic" after a long-lasting war of
antiquity.
As it happened, the East lost the
first Pennsic War, and so took control
of the Debatable Lands. King Cari-
Yaacov ben HaRav Eliezer (Jacob Finkelman)
in fairly authentic period garb, but with an
anachronistic knitted kippah in the form of an
archery target (his archery teacher's joke)
adoc of the East became arguably the
first king in history to declare war
against himself, accept the challenge
and lose.
Thus the legend of the origin of
Pennsic 1, the first annual Pennsic
War. This August, in the 46th year
of the society, "Anno Societas 46,"
members of the 19 kingdoms of the
known world took part in Pennsic 41.
Objective historians may provide cor-
rections to any detail of the legend.
In the terminology of the society
David Friedman is Cariadoc's mun-
dane name; Cariadoc of the Bow is his
persona. King of the East was his role
in the society; his rank is now duke.
Every year at the Pennsic War,
volunteers teach more than 1,000
classes in medieval studies, or in arts,
crafts and the history of the society.
When Cariadoc teaches at Pennsic
University, he sometimes teaches in
persona, dressed as a medieval Berber,
behaving like a Berber, speaking in
the characteristic idiom of a medieval
Muslim, albeit in English. For other
classes, Cariadoc speaks as a historian
of the society, or as an expert in his-
torical recreation, not identical with
any of the other roles.
He teaches courses in many sub-
jects:
Plenty of Jewish members of the so-
ciety (Jewish mundane) portray Jew-
ish medievals (personae), but some
Jewish mundanes portray non-Jews,
and some non-Jews portray Jewish
medievals.
The society has rules for personae.
Heralds will not register the name
of a known real person; for example,
you cannot portray Maimonides. You
may not claim a title unless you have
earned it in the society. You must be-
come a plausible character, a medieval
who might have existed, a fictionally
possible person from any time before
about 1600.
Some veteran members of the soci-
ety pay almost no attention to perso-
na. One veteran described his persona
this way: "A man. From the Middle
Ages. Who fights. That's enough?'
On the other hand, as a herald for
more than 20 years, Ulric von der
Insel believes that "it all starts with
persona. Get the persona right and
the rest of the activities of the society
fall into place." (Ulric is the persona of
David Cormier of Rhode Island.) Ul-
ric, though not Jewish in any role, has
thought deeply about what it means
to have a Jewish persona. He worries
that anyone who takes on a persona
from a different ethnic group runs the
risk of inadvertently lampooning that
group, of stereotyping. For example,
some Jews in period did not observe,
he says, but to portray a Jew and not
observe Jewish etiquette would betray
the society's goal of showing the best
and purest image of the Middle Ages.
Other society members do not share
that idealized goal, and happily play
the part of pirates.
One veteran member, Reb Elezar
ha-Levi (Lew Wolkoff of Harris-
burg, Pa.) teaches a course on how
to develop a Jewish persona. The
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