Has Modesty Gone Too Far? "Toe Sheitels" For Sale? An Advertisement Aimed at Orthodox Women Stirs Controversy

Appealing to Orthodox women who want to look great but conform to their communities’ standards for conservative dress, an advertisement circulating this week in Orthodox circles peddles “high quality” silicone toes that buyers can slip on over their own, allowing them to wear sandals without having their own feet be seen.

As reported by Jackie Hajdenberg for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency,

“Do you want to be fashionable but also tzniyusdyig?” the ad says, using a Yiddish form of the word for modest. “Do you want to look stylish but would never c’v [God forbid] wear open toes [sic] shoes?”

The ad resembled many real ones that circulate in the haredi Orthodox marketplace, where orders often must be placed by phone or in person because internet use is frowned upon and small-batch innovations that facilitate religious observance hit shelves frequently. But it also smacked of satire at a time when some Orthodox Jewish women are trying to push back against norms that dictate their attire, police their accessories and keep their faces out of some Orthodox publications.

Speculation about whether the mysterious ad is real or a prank — and what each might mean for Orthodox communities — has occupied a segment of the Orthodox world this week. Many are calling the product “toe sheitels” for the similar role they play to sheitels, or the wigs some married Orthodox women wear to cover their own hair in keeping with Jewish tradition.

“Some think it is real. Some think it is a joke,” Sharon Weiss-Greenberg, a longtime activist in Orthodox feminism, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about the toe sheitels. “I think it is a joke. But I think the fact that so many think that it isn’t is a problem — the fact that it is plausible.”

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