Above: The basket maker's tent

Top Left: Lady Judith bas Rabbi
Mendel (Katie Mendelson)

Bottom Left: Leofwynn "the
Exuberant" (Leslie Reuter)

Helms for sale

Duke Cariadoc of the Bow (David Friedman) storytelling,
the musician Sarah Marie Mullen listening

course comes with 30 pages of source
material detailing authentic Jew-
ish names, professions and practices
from the Middle Ages, just to help
people get their roles right.
A non-Jew with a Jewish persona,
Saarah hint Ishaq (Julie Bright of
Charlottesville, Va.) shows deep re-
spect for Jewishness. She has learned
to sing traditional Ladino songs of
the Balkan Sephardim, as taught by
a Holocaust survivor from Sarajevo,
Flory Jagoda. You can hear Julie's
version of one of these songs on For
You Are Made of Stars, a CD by the
musical group Balkanize. Saarah also
prepares feasts following the culinary
traditions of the Spanish Jews of the
Balkans; as she describes reducing
a sauce of fruit and vegetables to go
with couscous and meat, you can hear
her love of the Sephardic tradition.
As a student of cultural anthro-
pology, she finds absolutely intrigu-
ing those Jews whose cooking still
reflects the recipes of Andalusia,
whose speech preserves an offshoot
of medieval Spanish, whose music,
some five centuries after their ances-
tors escaped from Spain, still sounds
somewhat Arabic. She also finds
Jewish ritual mysteriously attractive.
"I am not going to convert," she says,
"but it seems natural to portray a
Sephardic Jew."
Leslie Reuter, an IT professional
from the Philadelphia area, has not
yet decided for certain, but she thinks
her persona, Leofwynn, will become
a Viking. Leofwynn certainly will be
different from her Jewish mundane
self
"Let's face it, I was attracted to the
Middle Ages by knights in shining
armor, and they were not Jews," she
said. "When the knights put on their
shining armor, Jews mostly ran in
the other direction." Besides that, "it
would feel like cheating. I already
know a lot about Judaism from the

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Middle Ages. I would not have to do
had no television. When Katie had
much research to get started?' Also,
children of her own, Purim became
"it would not feel enough like playing
the focus of their costuming creativ-
dress-up?'
ity. She took the radical step of not
Why a Viking?
participating in Halloween; the
"Most of the people I camp with
public school in Ann Arbor made
at Pennsic already have Viking
a big deal out of Halloween, so her
personae. And I enjoy doing Viking
children took the day off for family
crafts like naalbinding, sprang and
activities like horseback riding. Purim
wire-weaving." (Vikings made socks,
was a big deal.
hats and handbags using naalbinding
Some years later, when Katie's son
and sprang; they used wire-weaving
got interested in period archery, Katie
to make jewelry).
and her husband joined the society.
Naomi Hampson, a Ph.D. can-
She developed a Jewish persona,
didate in material science and
as Lady Judith has R.abbi Mendel.
engineering at Drexel University in
Katie had begun observing kashrut
Philadelphia, never doubted that
as an adult and, in thinking about
she would choose a Jewish persona
her Jewish persona, she realized that
who lived some time when Jews had
Medieval kashrut must have made
some safety and dignity. As Naomi
significantly different demands on
bat Avraham, a 15th-century German observant Jews. That became her
Jewish woman, Naomi could keep
area of research: Now she lectures on
her own first name and, more impor- the history of the Passover seder.
tant, would not have problems with
jewelry "I could not wear a cross."
KEEPING KOSHER
Naomi did have some trouble regis-
Keeping kosher at Pennsic usually
tering her name; although a biblical
involves
camping with people who
name, "Naomi" does not appear in
will
allow
you separate space for your
many German Jewish sources. It took
cooking
equipment.
Yehoshua (Josh
diligent study to find an example to
Feil of New York) notes how scru-
validate the name.
pulously his campmates protect his
Naomi was attracted to the society
kosher
space. Similarly, Lord Gideon
by her interest in archery. In her years
HaKhazar of the East Kingdom ob-
with the society Naomi has learned
served, "I have never had any prob-
to make wooden arrows, to carve
lems
with being a Jew at Pennsic,
wood-blocks for printing, to operate
or indeed in the SCA. Ever. Indeed,
medieval printing presses, to make
it was non-Jewish SCAdian friends
glass beads, to play medieval card
who arranged for my wife and me to
games and many other skills. She
meet, and my knight is mundanely a
loves that people in the society have
multiple skills and love to teach them. very devout Christian minister."
Indeed, non-Jewish society mem-
One skill Naomi did not pick up is
bers enjoy asking about medieval
sewing; her husband learned to sew
so that she could have an appropriate Jewish practices. Yehoshua recalls
his campmates asking how he knew
wardrobe for society events.
a certain Shabbat song dates back to
Katie Mendelson's mother kept
the Middle Ages. He replied, memo-
a box of costumes in the attic. On
rably if not entirely accurately, "It is
rainy days, each child would try on
Jewish; of course, it is period."
a costume, and together make up
In central Asia more than a
adventures for their characters. They
thousand years ago, the king of the

Khazars converted to Judaism. A
Jewish fighter in the society might
choose a Khazar persona, as Jews
fought in the Khazar army. Khadir
bar Yosef HaKhaziri (Hank Steinfeld
of Maryland) has devoted years of
study to the Khazar empire.
Something to think about: How
does a fantasy kingdom differ from
a "real" one? The fantasy kingdoms
of the known world have borders,
taxes, expenditures and armies to
protect them; they go to war, just
like "real" states, in which people die,
though not biological death. True,
the fantasy states exist only because
people believe in them, but then, as
various leaders of the Arab world
have recently discovered, "real" states
can go out of existence if people stop
believing in them, too.
Something else to think about:
When someone tells you about her
persona, her mundane personality
and her position in society, who is
doing the talking? What impact does
role-playing have on our own selves?
Portraying someone who believes
in chivalric honor may impact our
mundane personality: One veteran
member of the society sometimes
refrains from an activity because her
persona would not approve. Even
people who do not belong to the
Society for Creative Anachronism
play roles, such as graduate student
of material science and engineering,
or IT professional, or father or politi-
cal candidate. How do these roles
change who we are?
Maybe you would like to play
Jewish in the contemporary Middle
Ages? RT

LOUIS FINKELMAN of Southfield has been

active in the society for about 10 years as

Eliezer, one of those Jews who moved from the

Rhineland to Spain in about 1300. (Southfield

belongs to the Barony of Roaring Wastes in the

Midrealm.)

umISeptember 2012 35

