Punctual, hard-working and a little strange: the 'Yekkes' in Israel - People and Politics 02.05.2008

The state of Israel was founded sixty years ago, and one of the groups of Jews that helped build the young state was the Yekkes - German Jews who managed to escape Nazi Germany and travel to Palestine. Among them were Hilde Hoffman and Hans Grünthal, both 17 at the time. Like many other Jews from Germany at the time, they were initially eyed with scepticism by Palestinian Jews and they were ridiculed for the way they dressed. But following Israel's founding in May 1948, they earned a position in Israeli society.