Moment magazine's Cartoon Caption Contest for the Winter 2026 issue anticipates spring. One elderly, Orthodox man's shtreimel has a bird's nest up top and a younger man wearing a similar hat comments. According to the good folks at Wikipedia, a shtreimel "is a fur hat worn by some Ashkenazi Jewish men, mainly members of Hasidic Judaism, on Shabbat and Jewish holidays and other festive occasions." The drawing is by cartoonist Benjamin Schwartz, a keen observer of people, hats, and nature. My captions appear below.
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| "Shmuel, your shtreimel shows it to be shpring." "Humane, yes, but it doesn't count as a mitzvah." "Where can I get some feygl for MY shtreimel, Feivel?" "We never use the hat check but if we do we leave a tip." |
A mitzvah is a commandment, but commonly it's used to mean a good deed. Feygl, in Yiddish, are birds. No Orthodox man would ever check his hat. What was I thinking?
March 24, 2026 Update: The Finalists
July 4, 2026 Update: The Winner
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