It’s a length of cloth, decorated and personalized. It accompanies a yekkishe boy from his bris to his first visit to shul to his chuppah. The fascinating minhag of wimpels.
“I grew up in chassidishe Boro Park” Mrs. Silberman said with a laugh. “I had no conscious exposure to yekkes until my daughter married one.”
Suddenly Rena was waiting only three hours between meat and milk washing her hands before hearing Kiddush and preparing gruenkern soup (a soup usually served Shabbos day instead of cholent).
When Rena’s son Chanina turned two Mrs. Silberman mentioned how excited she was that an upsheren was around the corner. The Nussbaums told her they don’t have an upsheren ceremony but around the same age they celebrate with a wimpel.
“A what?” Mrs. Silberman asked. She’d never heard the strange word before.
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