Reply To: Where have all the Yekkes gone?

@ujm – from my experience the yekkes who stopped giving their Bar Mitzvah/3 year olds a talis is rooted in a lack of self confidence. Many Litvishe Rabbaim think its enjoyable to poke fun at the oldest minhagim around today. The torment an average yekkishe bochur must deal with throughout his school years leaves no wonder why many of them feel embarrassed to practice their uniqueness in a public forum. This phenomenon to which I refer is not a select case but rather a widespread illness amongst some Yeshiva Rabbaim.
Putting that aside, there are staunch yekkes living in virtually every Jewish community on every continent. Whether they are identifiable by their children wearing a tallis, seeing them enjoy a geshmake ice-cream on Shabbos afternoon, or seeing them quietly reciting piyutim to themselves in shul. Those yekkes who understand where they shtam from have a certain shtultz to them. The ones who start taking apart their mesorah, don’t necessarily understand what its all about and therefore may not be consistent with regard to which pieces they hold onto and which ones they allow to fade away.