Is a Halloween witch costume antisemitic? Jewish dress historian explains noses, hats, and more

The witch halloween costume : pointy witch hat, long hooked nose-- and anti-semitism?! The history of witch costumes and anti-semitic stereotypes goes back further than the witch trials to the middle ages, when Jews and witches were considered one and the same. Turns out, this harmless-seeming witch Halloween costume has a problematic history, and as a Jewish dress historian, I'm here to explain it. So where does the witch hat come from? What's the history of the witch hat? The history of witches is long, but many of the stories we associate with historical witches go back to the Malleus Maleficarum . . . and the text on anti semitism it was based on, the Malleum Judaeorus (Hammer against Jews). Medieval witches were persecuted interchangeably with medieval Jews, so much of the lore and history of witchcraft in Europe is a recycling of medieval anti-semitism. Turns out, the historically accurate witch hat was actually a traditional hat worn by Jews, and was then both forced on them by antisemitic laws, and used as visual shorthand for greed, evil, and witchcraft. All of these antisemtic stereotypes and more were applied to the medieval witch, despite the fact that the historical witch was usually just a woman who ran afoul of social prejudices. Add in a couple hundred years of history and politics, the Salem witch trials and European witch craze, and the association of Quakers and witches through the use of those same antisemitic stereotypes, and you have our modern witch ha