Uproar over nonkosher wigs reaches Toronto

TORONTO — The global uproar among Orthodox Jews over wigs made from the hair of Hindu women from India reached Toronto in mid-May.

A temporary ban on the wigs, worn by Orthodox women as a sign of modesty, was issued in May by a leading Israeli rabbi, throwing some of the Orthodox world into distress. The concern is that some of the hair may have been shorn as an offering to Hindu deities — which would make it idolatrous and nonkosher under Jewish law.

After the ban was issued, Toronto-based Continental Hair, one of Canada’s leading hair replacement salons, received a flurry of calls from as far as Israel inquiring about the origin of its natural hair wigs.

“Our phones have been ringing off the hook,” Michael Suba, Continental Hair president, said in a statement. “Many of our customers are Orthodox Jewish women, and they can rest assured that all of our human hair wigs are made from hair from Eastern Europe and northern Russia,” he added.