It has been a mystery for me why German Jews failed to replicate their Weltanschauung in America in proportion to Chasidim and Lithuanians given how many more of them survived the Holocaust by comparison. Maybe understanding why this occurred could help make reviving TIDE more successful. Some possible reasons: 1) Moderation is not as attractive 2) The TIDE ideal of productive engagement with the world while striving for greatness in Torah and Avoda is harder to achieve.
Absent any real information on this topic, I’ve always assumed they never tried to “go big” nor did they want to. They had a self-sufficient, standalone kehillah, which was the goal. Torah im Derech Eretz was a Yekke thing, and Yekkes have always had their own ways and customs. Over time the kehillah acculturated to American frumkeit, which itself has dynamically changed over the generations post Holocaust, leading to today, with the minhagim staying and the hashkafa leaving.
I would question the premise that more neo orthodox German Jews survived than chassidim or (what we now refer to as) Litvaks. I would also point out that far fewer TIDE Rabbanim survived compared to other groups and that Bais Yaakov, Agudah and Torah Vodaas (which birthed Torah Umesorah) were all TIDE institutions and are responsible for a pretty significant part of the growth of American Orthodoxy.
Fair enough. I just meant that Germany had a much higher survival rate than say, Poland and Lithuania. But yes, maybe there was a disproportionate amount of influence on the American Jewish scene at large from them given how few actual pro-TIDE rabbinic figures survived.
TIDE should be far more than a yekkishe thing. It was utter shortsightedness on the part of the German Jewish rabbinic leadership to not create robust institutions here. Now it may be too late.