Yeshivish (culture)

Yeshivish refers to the culture of the Orthodox Jewish yeshiva system. As yeshiva students are typically in their teens and twenties, it bears strong parallels to students' culture in high schools and universities. Objects can be yeshivish if they are typically associated with students; a yeshivish car is a jalopy, as many people in the yeshivos are not paricularely rich. Today, however, a large number of people who would be classified as yeshivish have very expensive cars. In Israel, yeshivish glasses or yeshivish ties refer to very expensive and fancy ones. On the other hand, as with the parallel term "collegial," the term also appeals to standards of conformity. These competing strains are reflected in the dictionary definitions for "yeshivish": "conservative"; "indecorous"; "cheap"; "typical, hackneyed"; "adherent"; and "geshmak" (itself defined as "delightful").

Yeshivish has wider cultural connotations than young men that study Torah. Ashkenazi non-Hasidic and strictly Orthodox Jews, often where the men where black hats, frequently self-identify as being Yeshivish. This is seen as to the right of Modern Orthodox but to the left of Hasidic Judaism. The term is also applied to situations where a speaker uses way too many Hebrew or Yiddish words witihn an otherwise English conversation, usually a dvar Torah, or Torah discussion. In this case, the -ish suffix describes the converstaion as if it were a separate language or dialect.

Yeshivish in the "geshmak" sense is GeneRally disputed as to the definition. A person who tries too hard May Be classified as a "harry". As well the definition of a "harry" is still not clearly defined.