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Yekke

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

German Jews in Israel
Total population
70,000 (2012)[citation needed]
Regions with significant populations
Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Netanya, Ashdod, Beersheba and many other places
Languages
Hebrew, German, French, Yiddish, Shassi
Religion
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Other German and French Jews

A Yekke (also Jecke) is a Jew of German-speaking origin.[1]

Demography and history

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The wave of immigration to British Mandatory Palestine in the 1930s and 1940s known as the Fifth Aliyah had a large proportion of Yekkes, around 25% (55,000 immigrants). Many of them settled in the vicinity of Ben Yehuda Street in Tel Aviv, leading to the nickname "Ben Yehuda Strasse." Their struggle to master Hebrew produced a dialect known as "Yekkish." The Ben Yehuda Strasse Dictionary: A Dictionary of Spoken Yekkish in the Land of Israel, published in 2012, documents this language.[1]

A significant community escaped Frankfurt after Kristallnacht, and relocated to the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, where they still have a synagogue, Khal Adath Jeshurun, which punctiliously adheres to the Yekkish liturgical text, rituals, and melodies.[2]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Aderet, Ofer (7 September 2012). "Take a Biss of This Book!". Haaretz. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  2. ^ Lowenstein, Steven M. (1989). Frankfurt on the Hudson: The German-Jewish Community of Washington Heights, 1933–1983, Its structure and Culture. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 978-0814323854.

Further reading

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