Kultur1

Although I found most of the reading to be very interesting, the part of it that really caught my eye was the explanations of how the reform Judaism movement was, in large part, started by German Jews. Although I am not of German descent myself (I can trace myself back to the "Yiddish speaking immigrants from Eastern Europe" the article mentions), I grew up in the reform Jewish faith, and have spent my entire life in that community.

Despite the great deal of time spent in the reform movement, I was never aware of the connection to Germany, and I found the history of German Jews in America that the article presented to be very interesting.

I found that religion was not the only area in which I was unaware of German contributions. I had no idea that the movie version of Bambi was based on a German novel. And, although I know some oft-mentioned words are German, (doppelganger, for instance) I was unaware that Kindergarten, delicatessen, and waltz were originally German words.

Overall, this article showed me that American culture has deep German roots, and in many cases, these connections are not immediately obvious. I'm quite interested in exploring more of these connections, and seeing even more of the ways in which German immigrants shaped the country I live in.