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And why did most Litvish, also, stop wearing a long rekel? Why did most Litvish stop having long peyos flowing from the sides of their heads?
These used to all be standard forms of dress for everyone, including the Litvish and the Yekkes. We have pictures of the Litvish in Lita with shtreimals and lange rekels as well as real Yekkes in Germany with peyos that today many people would (mistakenly) assume they are Chasidish.
The Litvishe talmidim of the GRA who moved to Eretz Yisroel before these changes occurred continued to dress with shtreimals, rekels and long peyos. As do their descendants, the Perushim, in Eretz Yisroel today. i.e. Rav Shlomo Zalman, Rav Elyashiv, etc.
When and why did the changes occur? Should the descendants of those that changed return
The short jacket was chiefly because of the change of dress in the surrounding goyishe communities. However it should be noted that the litvishe yidden didn’t need as many havdalos from goyim in terms of their dress, because they lived in jewish towns, spoke yiddish, spent the whole day working among yidden and learning, and had almost nothing to do with the goyim.
Rav shach said that a long jacket is a mayloh and that a chasidishe bochur should not stop wearing it in order to find a shidduch. He may stop once he’s married, but doing something which in any way shape or form is a step down is out of the bounds of hishtadlus.
Litvishe gedolim, especially the chazon ish, pushed for distinct dress when the frummer yidden had to content with zionist neighbors in Israel and frei/goyim in America.
But for chasidim it was a shtarker inyan either way, to go out of their way to dress different in as many ways as possible.
M’Ikar hadin, Halacha requires only a small shinui (maharik 88, brought in rema)
Re, payos; there was a gezerah from goyim against having payos. The divrei chaim held it was yehereg velo yaavor, like arkasa d’mesani, while the litvishe mostly held it was not. A notable exception was the netziv, who was moser nefesh to keep his payos long.
That’s where the “behind the ears” look originated. Some litvishe discarded long payos altogether, including some gedolei olam like reb chatzkel, who kept two days of yom kippur in kobe, davened the whole day and learned the whole night, for 2 days…a malaach elokim.
Shtreimels im not familiar with.
Fur hats used to be standard throughout Europe. One factor was it got warmer (the period from roughly 1400 to the mid-19th century was the “Little Ice Age” and it was unusually cold – that’s why the greens use it to base global warming charts). The centers of non-Hasidic Ashkenazim were increasingly in countries where fur hats ceased to be fashionable. While some attribute the decline of kapotes (frock coats) to King George V’s decision to stop wearing them, automobiles were a major factor (to a greater extent than railroads).
Hasidim tend not to care about British kings or American presidents, and so are less likely to follow their fashions.
the chazon ish himself wore a shtreimel when he first immigrated to eretz yisrael. see the famous pictures of him wearing a shtreimel at the hanochas even hapina for the novardok bnei brak yeshiva in 1934. (published in the artscroll book on novardok, which obviously didn’t include the picture of the chazon ish standing for rav kook {who wore a spudik}, but that’s a different topic lol…). however, the chazon ish started the “yishuv hachodosh” which was different then the “yishuv hayashon” of the yerushalmi perushim, and thus did not wear the the golden kaftan, although some pictures of him show him wearing the yeushalmi chalat with its unique rounded collar and one button waist belt. basically, the reason why the “litvish stopped wearing shtreimals” is because they never really started… because the chazon ish prevented it to distinguish between the yishuv hayashan and the yishuv hachodosh, which although both technically “litvish” are radically different in their hashkofah and derech hachaim…
in terms of the chassidim, it was really the chasam soferdike ashkenazishe yidden from hungary who went ironclad with the levush, because of the chasam soifer’s takaanah of “chadash ossur min hatorah”. as chassidus caught on in these communities, they just kept their previous hanhagoha. but shtreimlach were by and large not worn by laypeople until after the holocaust when rav yoel Teitelbaum of satmar ztzkl insisted that every married member of his community wear one, even laypeople. before the war, the majority of poilisher or galicianer yidden did not wear one. shtreimlach, spudiks, kolpiks, were only worn by rabbonim, rebbe’s, or their “bais harav”.> book on novardok, which obviously didn’t include the picture of the chazon ish standing for rav kook
why would you quote a book with such low standards?
I am also not sure whether Satmar Rebbe was the only initiator of the new minhag of everyone dressing up like Rabbonim before them, I think there were others also. Are you saying other Rabbonim picked it up from Satmar?
There was a campaign by one of the Russian tsars against Jewish minhogim
One them was you have to change your livush to the modern European garb short jacket or Cossack garb
The litvish pic European garb
The chassidim pic Cossack
And you weren’t alowd to have peyos from that you have all type of styles to hide the peyos
And that is why also women stop cutting the hairMedieval Christians insisted on Jews having different dress from them. In 16th century Poland, yellow hats were decreed for Jews – with an exemption during travel. Presumably, without the hats, many Jews dressed like Polaks. Things indeed changed under Russian government:
1804 Russian law: (soon after Poland was divided and Russia got a big part of it)
Jewish children attending parochial or district schools, may wear Jewish dress, but those attending gymnasiums must wear German or Polish [style] dress for the purpose of uniformity.anyone who would like to be elected as a Member of Town Council from among the Jews in the Gubernias incorporated from Poland, for general order and uniformity, must wear Russian or Polish dress, if they do not like to wear German dress. In the Russian Gubernias where Jews are permitted to live, Jews elected to Town Council must wear German dress.
nobody can be elected or appointed to any position in Kahal or the Rabbinate without being literate in [ Russian, German or Polish]
Manufacturers, artisans, artist and merchants will be permitted to visit other Gubernias and even capitals due to business purposes for a specified period of time, but only by a Gubernator issued passports, about which [Governers] in their turn have to send monthly reports to the Minister of Interior [on passport issuing].
Jews (including their wives and children) temporarily traveling outside of the Pale, have to wear German [style] dress no different than that of others. If they wear traditional dress, they shall be sent back [to the Pale] by the Police.More came in 1840s and 50s
Shtreimlech1: I don’t think the Czars had anything to do with it. For starters, a good many Yidden did not live in territory directly rules by Russia. For example, the Hungarian cavalry (part of the Hapsburg army) were still wearing shtreimels at the start of World War I, and furs hats remained popular in Russia (to this very day). Long coats remained popular in Europe until after World War I (all the world leaders were wearing kapotes at the post-war peace conference). Since one still found many non-Hasidic Yidden with shreimels after World War I, it is more likely related to reason many westerners gave up wearing fur hats (cars and trains are heated). While non-Hasidim are somewhat influenced by goyish fashions (e.g. switching to Homburgs and Fedoras as dress hats), most Hasidim couldn’t care bobkes about what the goyim’s fashion influencers do.
What I remember hearing in Yeshiva 50 years ago was that the Alter of Slabodka encouraged short coats and fedora hats without beards to raise the self-image and pride of the Bocherim who were looked down on by the Baalei Batim as (ke-ilu) being old fashioned and consequently unable to find Shidduchim. A recently deceased American Rav told this story: that as a Bocher they went to pick up Zedaka boxes in homes 70 years ago and the old woman told him: “Here is my Zedaka box for the Jewish hospital so my children PUPU won”t ever need one, and here is my Zedaka box for the orphanage so my children PUPU won”t ever need one, and here is my Zedaka box for the Yeshiva so my children PUPU won”t ever go to one.” .. Pretty sad, but you have to thank Hashem how far we have come in the last 100 years. Anyway when the Slobodka Bocherim came to Jerusalem in 1924 the Yerushalmim were shocked and called them Muscovites and were happy to ship them off to Hebron. When they fled back to Jerusalem in 1929 after the massacre they couldn”t find Shidduchim until Rav Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld broke the ice and took Rav Hirsch Kopshitz for his granddaughter.
They all moved to Florida.
“Lakewood is Chasidish?”
Sure, once you get beyond the BMG crowd, all you can see are streimlach in every direction, all the way to 770 and Monsey
Gadolhadorah, do you realize that to go from Lakewood to Monsey, you’d pass through Bergen County? You’ll probably see many more srugies than streimlach there!
“if you go from Lakewood to Monsey, you’d pass through Bergen County? You’ll probably see many more srugies than streimlach there”
If you give the Monsey Trails driver a good tip, he will guarantee you won’t see a single kipah srugah or Borselino from the time you board at the Swifty Gas Station in Lakewood to arrival in Monsey. You will also get a great scenic tour of Delaware, Western Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Western New York.
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