Best Jewish Gifts for Men
Jewish gift guides · High-end Judaica gifts · Gifts for wife · Gifts by occasion
Best Jewish Gifts for Men
Work out the occasion before you look at objects
Most gift guides start with a list of things. That is the wrong end. The occasion decides how personal the gift is allowed to be, how much it should cost, and whether he will use it once a year or every morning. Here is how the occasions in this catalogue sort out.
| Occasion | What tends to land | From |
|---|---|---|
| Birthday | Something worn or carried: a bracelet, a pendant, a good belt, a phone case | $99 |
| Anniversary | A pair of cufflinks or a gold pendant. Anniversary gifts should be the kind of thing he would not buy himself | $700 |
| Father's Day | Desk objects, bronze figurines, a siddur cover, a card holder | $180 |
| Bar mitzvah | A kippah he will actually wear, a bracelet, or a tefillin box for the family to keep | $75 |
| Retirement | Something for the home rather than the office: a decanter set, a mezuzah case, a bronze piece | $750 |
| A promotion | Cufflinks, a business card holder, a mezuzah case for the new office door | $500 |
| Thank you | A kippah, a key chain, a silver bracelet. Keep it under $200 so it does not create an obligation | $75 |
| No occasion | The most honest gift of all. A bracelet or a pendant, given because you saw it and thought of him | $99 |
If the occasion is a wedding or a bar mitzvah specifically, the etiquette differs enough to be worth reading separately. See the bar mitzvah gift guide and, for a partner rather than a relative, Jewish gifts for a husband.
The price ladder
Four bands, and what each one honestly buys. Prices are the starting price for that category.
| Band | What it buys | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Under $150 | Kippot, silver bracelets, key chains, the smaller mezuzah cases | Kippah "Classic" made of denim $75; silver bracelets $99; mezuzah cases from $119 |
| $150 to $500 | Silver pendants, engraved mezuzah cases, denim belts, business card holders, bronze desk models | Pendant "Ice and Fire" made of silver $190; Business card holder made of python $500 |
| $500 to $1,500 | Silver cufflinks, crocodile phone cases, python and crocodile belts, leather-and-brass books and siddur covers | Silver cufflinks "Menorah" with black onyx $700; Siddur Shema Yisrael made of leather with brass $850; belts in python leather $900 |
| $1,500 and up | Bronze figurines, decanter and shot glass sets, gold pendants, tefillin boxes, the larger silver mezuzah cases | Set of decanter and 4 shot glasses $1,950; Tefillin box "Letters of the Hebrew alphabet" made of brass $2,500 |
The categories that actually work for men
Kippot, from $75. The most used gift in the whole catalogue. A man who covers his head owns several and wears out the ones he likes. Denim is the everyday choice; suede and velvet read as more formal. Browse the luxury kippot collection, or the Modern cut if he prefers a shallower shape.
Bracelets, from $99. Silver, worn daily, sized generously. The Jerusalem Lions and Hamsa designs are the ones men buy for themselves. Gold-plated and enamel versions run to $199, and white gold to $1,300. More on how the designs differ in the bracelet gift guide.
Pendants, from $190. Silver at $190 to $280, gold from $1,980. A pendant is a more personal gift than a bracelet, so it suits a wife, a mother or a very close friend rather than a colleague.
Cufflinks, from $700. The classic gift for a man who wears a shirt to work and already owns everything else. Silver with black onyx starts at $700; the Twelve Tribes and Jerusalem Lions designs sit at $1,200 to $1,300. Read the cufflinks gift guide before choosing a motif, and the business gift guide if this is going to a client or a partner.
Belts, from $349. Denim at $349 to $550, python at $900, crocodile at $1,300. A belt is a good gift for a man whose taste you know well and a poor one for a man whose waist you are guessing at.
Business card holders and phone cases, from $500. Python card holders are $500, crocodile $900. Crocodile phone cases are $500 to $600, cut for current iPhone and Samsung models. Check which handset he carries before ordering.
Bronze figurines and desk objects, from $180. Small bronze models start at $400; most of the IDF figurine series is $1,900. These are display pieces for a desk or a shelf and they suit men who collect. The bronze collector pieces guide covers the series in detail.
Books and siddur covers, from $750. Leather with brass or stainless steel, made to hold a prayer book, a Chumash or a Torah, from $750 for a siddur to $8,500 for a Pentateuch with Rashi in silver. The gift for a man whose siddur is falling apart.
Tefillin boxes, from $2,500. Brass at $2,500, silver at $4,000, the King David design at $8,000. A serious object, usually bought for a bar mitzvah or by a family marking something. Details in the tefillin boxes guide.
Mezuzah cases, from $119. For his home or his office door. The cases are sold as cases; a klaf is arranged separately on request. See the mezuzah case collection and, for a workplace, the note on office door mezuzah cases.
Decanters and shot glass sets, from $750. Single decanters at $750, the four-glass set at $1,950, ten-glass sets from $2,250. These get used at a Shabbat table and at a kiddush, which is what makes them a better retirement or milestone gift than something purely decorative.
Who is he?
The occasion tells you the budget. The man tells you the object.
| Type | Give him | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| The observant daily wearer | Kippot from $75, a siddur cover at $850, a tefillin box. Things that wear out and get replaced | Display pieces he has nowhere to put |
| The man who has everything | Cufflinks from $700, or a commissioned piece. The point is that he could not have bought this exact thing himself | Another watch-adjacent accessory |
| The collector | Bronze figurines at $1,900, limited series, anything with a story attached | Wearables. He wants objects, not accessories |
| The professional | Business card holder at $500, cufflinks, a mezuzah case for the office door | Anything overtly religious if the office is not |
| The new father | Something for the home he has just started: a mezuzah case, a kiddush set, a decanter | Personal jewellery. He has other things on his mind |
Engraving and lead times
Engraving is $50 on items that can carry it, and it is the cheapest way to turn a good gift into his gift. A name, a date, a few words in Hebrew. It adds production time, so decide early rather than at checkout.
Much of the catalogue is made to order. Plan on roughly three to four weeks from order to delivery, and longer for a commission. Shipping is free worldwide. If the date is fixed, work backwards from it and add a fortnight of slack. The engraved Judaica guide sets out what can and cannot be engraved.
What not to give
Three things, briefly. Do not give a man a religious object that is more observant than he is; a tefillin box for someone who does not lay tefillin is a rebuke wearing a bow. Do not guess sizes on a belt. And do not give a mezuzah case as a joke gift or an afterthought, because someone then has to arrange a klaf and hang it properly, and that is a task rather than a present.
On religious questions there is more than one right answer. Ashkenazi and Sephardi customs differ on several of these objects, and if a gift is going to be used in ritual rather than displayed, the recipient's own rabbi is the person to ask.
Where to go next
If you know the occasion, go straight to the guide for it: Father's Day Judaica for Jewish men, the retirement gift guide, or Hanukkah gifts for men. If you know the budget but not the object, high-end Judaica gifts sorts the catalogue the same way, across every recipient.