In the Orthodox Jewish world, in many many synagogues, the person who leads services (aka the Chazzan) has to wear a jacket or tallis when leading.
In the synagogue I grew up with, you had to wear a jacket to lead. In the synagogue I go to now, they require a tallis. The shul I grew up in had spare jackets around, so if you need to lead (i.e. you are a chiyuv) you have something to quickly put on.
In any event, my father is in a synagogue right now which requires a jacket. He sent me a picture of the jacket on hand, which says on the back “Official Chazzan Jacket 2.”
This is incredibly funny because (a) it is funny to see a suit jacket with letters stuck onto the back, like a sports jersey and (b) it is in a shul in Florida, which is stereotypical of an older congregation which is obsessed with not losing something. Members may accidentally walk home with it and then the synagogue will have to buy a new one.
I never saw this before and nothing on Google about Chazzan Jackets, so had to blog it.
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