Only in America

Probably the question I am asked most often about life in the UK is, "What is the official tartan of Scottish Jews?" In the past, I have been able to answer only with a sad sigh and a brushed-away tear. But I shall weep no longer. Rabbi Mendel Jacobs-- who bills himself as "the only Scottish-born rabbi living in Scotland" -- has received approval from the Scottish Tartans Authority for the first official Jewish Tartan. Here it is, as modeled by Rabbi Jacobs:



My only disappointment is that "Mendel Jacobs" is a sadly non-Scottish name for Scotland's only Scottish-born rabbi. Maybe it used to be Mendel MacJacob, and he changed it to sound less ethnic?