LOS ANGELES — Scott Svonkin will shortly send his yarmulke to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington — and thereby hangs a tale.
Before Svonkin headed for the Democratic Convention in Chicago in August, his brother Craig handpainted two leather kippahs and presented them to him.
One was brightly colored and carried the inscription “Clinton ’96.” The other, more subdued, was decorated with the word “Clinton,” flanked by a donkey and a Star of David.
The skullcaps created quite a stir at the convention and the 31-year-old Svonkin was busy posing for press photographers and fending off conventioneers who wanted to buy the caps.
In a quiet moment, two gentlemen approached Svonkin and identified themselves as historians working for the Smithsonian. Part of their job, explained one, was to attend both the Republican and Democratic conventions every four years and collect offbeat examples of political Americana.
The Smithsonian reps were greatly taken by the yarmulkes: One vowed that he had never seen anything so lovely. Could they have one for display at the Smithsonian?
Now back home in Los Angeles, Svonkin is about to send the more colorful kippah to Washington, while rejecting a similar request from the Chicago Historical Society.
Svonkin works as national manager for sales training with a health insurance company, and divides his free time between Jewish and Democratic causes. His mother, Paula, runs a kosher catering enterprise.