I'm yekkish AMA | Imamother

amother

Lightyellow

Wed, Oct 06 2021, 7:44 pm

This may be a touchy question. Do you think the Yekkish community is disappearing or is it growing in different areas of the world?

Also how difficult do you think it would be for someone not Yekkish to marry one of v.v.

amother

Wed, Oct 06 2021, 7:48 pm

amother [ Brown ] wrote:

Do you wash netilas yadayim before kiddush on Friday night?

Do you (as a mother) bentsch the children Fri night?

Do you daven in a yekkishe shul/ minyan?

Do you do kapparos erev YK?

Do you know what yaares kaddish is?

Yes we wash netilas before kiddush

no I do not bentsch my children but husband does

husbands daves in a yekkish miyan

we do money kapparos. was not raised on the chicken at all.

And yes I do know

amother

Wed, Oct 06 2021, 7:49 pm

amother [ Lightyellow ] wrote:

I do think we are disappearing.
and lots of yekkes marry non yekkes because there are very few yekkes!! I was very lucky to marry a yekke. lots of my cousins did not.

amother

Wed, Oct 06 2021, 7:53 pm

amother [ Diamond ] wrote:

What’s a wimple

Wimple is the yiddish word for it. the yekkes I know use bewimfen

it's a sash used to wrap around the sefer torah, made from the cloth used to hold a baby at a bris.
most sefers in shuls today don't use than. I've never seen one done.

amother

Diamond

Wed, Oct 06 2021, 8:15 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Don’t they do something with them when a bit turns 3?

amother

Wed, Oct 06 2021, 8:22 pm

amother [ Diamond ] wrote:

Don’t they do something with them when a bit turns 3?

Yeah when the boy is 3 his father gets an aliyah at shul and they go to the torah together and wrap the wimpel around

Not all yekkes do this though in my family we did not.

rowo

Wed, Oct 06 2021, 8:25 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Yes there are different yekkish communities, and yes being Yekkish means being German and having been raised with the minhag. I suppose a non-yekkish woman who marries a yekkish man and follows his mesorah could also be called yekkish, even if she's not german.

And no not all yekkish people follow Breuer, although most do. My grandfather BH kept letters from his father's Rov in the 1910s and so we have the exact minhagim and chumras of our community in my family. My husband follows mostly Breuer though.

I love learning about different Minhagim! What are some of the chumras and minhagim from your grandfathers letters?

amother

Cyan

Wed, Oct 06 2021, 8:34 pm

Hi OP!

I'm yekki too!
Growing up it was something to take pride in. Not only because we waited 3 hours Wink

My entire family is on time
Always
There are no exceptions. I become overwhelmed if I am not 5 minutes early because I'll feel like it may lead me to being late!
My family follows mostly rav breuer. My grandparents were part of the original washington heights minyan right after the war.
Unfortunately it does seem like you meet less and less yekkis these days.
I married a non yekki. Who considers being on time coming 15 minutes late!

amother

Wed, Oct 06 2021, 8:36 pm

rowo wrote:

I love learning about different Minhagim! What are some of the chumras and minhagim from your grandfathers letters?

So most of the letters are shaylos and their answers, so they're mainly about how we keep halacha, and how our rav paskened.

But some examples about different minhagim are the classics, negel wasser before kiddush, different davening, different ways of dress, just the traditional yekkish things.

Like in one example is, my great grandmother from Neuwied asked this rav from Frankfurt if she could cover her hair with a cotton fabric. and he said she should always cover with a hat, that was double layers at least. but piece of fabric was okay at home. From that, the women in my family cover with hats.
also the rav recommended for health reasons to have wasserchallah on shabbos, so we do that. not always, sometimes the kids just want the shiny challah, but most of the time I make wasserchallah.
also the rov emphasized the importance of derech eretz, and reading newspapers and knowing the music and culture of the place.we do that as much as we can.

also, part of derech eretz for us is knowing german. both my husband and I speak it. he a lot better than me.

there's lots of little mentions like that over several years of asking questions and back and forthing

amother

Wed, Oct 06 2021, 8:39 pm

amother [ Cyan ] wrote:

Hi OP!

I'm yekki too!
Growing up it was something to take pride in. Not only because we waited 3 hours Wink

Achhh hallo lieb!
My husband's family is from Washington Heights also.
My own family did very much their own thing though haha. Half is from Frankfurt and the other half is from Berlin. They kept very strong identifications to their cities.
I wonder if other yekkes are like that too, feel very strongly about their cities of origin. My husband's family doesn't really...

amother

Rainbow

Wed, Oct 06 2021, 9:27 pm

My maternal grandparents are yekke as well as my husband so married back into the clan. We're def a dying breed. It's very interesting to see all the dif minhagim the dif yekkes have from my experience. Also, many non yekkes only know about the Breuer's type of yekkes which is insulting for the rest out there.
My grandparents are also from Washington Heights Smile

amother

Wed, Oct 06 2021, 9:39 pm

amother [ Rainbow ] wrote:

Hallo Schatzi!

Yes indeed, there's many more types of yekkes than Breuer. In fact, most yekkes did not follow that derech back in DE
Most yekkes followed the derech of their rov in the kehilla they were in.
But anyways, yes we are a dying breed and it's so sad! I love our judentum

amother

Wed, Oct 06 2021, 9:44 pm

amother [ Black ] wrote:

What is yaares kaddish?

I actually am not sure anymore, but afaik, in regards to kaddish, yekkes use a different tone and melody to say it, and also the ein k'elokeinu.

actually most of our davening is different.

amother

DarkKhaki

Wed, Oct 06 2021, 9:49 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

My husband's mother is a yekke but she never calls herself that because her family wasn't part of the Breuer's community.

She is so on time, never early and never late. My husband did not inherit that at all! He's always running late.

My mil will reminisce about her family's monthly get togethers. They kept minutes of each meeting. Was that common or just my mil's family?

amother

Wed, Oct 06 2021, 9:51 pm

amother [ DarkKhaki ] wrote:

Ohhh my grandfather and his siblings had monthly meetings, and yes one of his sisters would keep notes of the meeting sometimes.
Definitely a german thing.

amother

Wed, Oct 06 2021, 9:53 pm

gold21 wrote:

Hello mein goldkind,

Do you eat streusel keuchen
Do you eat lebkuchen
Do you eat greunkern soup
Do you eat kartafel salad

Lol

I most certainly do, and on a special schabbes, we'll even have labskaus und baumkuchen.

amother

Diamond

Wed, Oct 06 2021, 9:57 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I actually am not sure anymore, but afaik, in regards to kaddish, yekkes use a different tone and melody to say it, and also the ein k'elokeinu.

actually most of our davening is different.

Did you have that beautiful shir hamaalos sung under your chuppah?