Second generation of immigrants from German speaking countries ("Yekkes")

Tamara Ben-Arzi grew up in Sde Warburg. After her marriage in 1964 she lived in kibbutz Ashdot Yaakov for several years. She was trained as a physical education instructor. She returned to Sde Warburg in 1976 with her family. Since 1988 she has a practice of complementary and alternative health care, together with her husband. TBA has four children and six grandchildren. ; The family language in TBA's early childhood was German, with her grandmother she always spoke German. She learned Hebrew only when she came to the kindergarten. TBA describes how her family members have learned their languages. She is able to read German, but she cannot write it. TBA describes her father's work at the health insurance company Kupat Cholim. She talks about her parents' places of birth. TBA has experienced bilingualism as a normal situation: all the adults in their circle of friends spoke German, but everything she learned was taught in Hebrew. She and her younger sister only spoke Hebrew among each other since they were in kindergarten. When she was 11 years old, TBA consciously avoided to speak German outside of her family circle, she felt a barrier against her “mother tongue”. Gradually she also started speaking Hebrew with her parents. She talks about her time in primary school and high school. TBA describes the language acquisition of her younger sister, with whom her parents spoke Hebrew from the beginning. ; TBA's parents were liberal and open-minded. They hardly ever talked about their experiences in Germany, therefore TBA only dealt with it when she was an adult. She speaks about her father's experiences at school and his first experiences with anti-Semitism. TBA has been conscious of the Holocaust since she was 11 years old. The Holocaust was not yet a subject of discussion during her school years. TBA compares this problem with the present situation, in which many children visit the concentration camps. Five years ago TBA joined the “evenings of memory”: people tell about family members whom they have lost, but they hide their most painful emotions. She discusses the immigration wave of Czech and Hungarian Jews in 1949. ; After her marriage in 1964 TBA moved to kibbutz Ashdot Yaakov. Speaking German was taboo there. TBA describes the situation of the first German volunteers: only a part of the kibbutzniks accepted them. She describes the life in the kibbutz, the children's house and later structural changes like privatization and social differentiation. The kibbutz (insufficiently) supported her studies when she promised to work there after her return. She tells about her various professional activities. TBA describes other social security contributions from the kibbutz. Most of the time her children stayed in the children's house, they only came home for a few hours in the afternoon. She talks about her return to Sde Warburg and how her children avoid the German language. She analyzes the different degrees of assimilation among her family members. TBA tells where her sons and daughters in law were born. She compares the Germans of today to the Yekkes in Israel. She analyzes the religious attitudes. TBA herself did not pass strong religious attitudes to her children, but she wanted them to maintain Jewish traditions. ; TBA visited Germany for the first time in 1989. She talks about the German Re-unification and about her professional and private contacts. She analyzes the interest of the third generation in the Holocaust. Her parents have contacts with Germans, but they only returned to Germany once. She describes her Yekkish education. ; TBA talks about the development of the kibbutzim and the immigration wave of Jews from Eastern Europe in 1957/58. She explains the difference between moshavim and kibbutzim. She has close contacts with the Arab population because of her work. The political situation does nourish her fear for the future. Many young people are leaving Israel, but TBA does not notice a general disinterest in politics. She describes her motivation for getting European passports. TBA thinks the United States are still more attractive to young Israelis than Europe. Her impression of Israel today is that materialism is slowly replacing idealism.