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Birth

Kvatter

A Yiddish word for a simple honor: being the one who carries the baby to the brit.

קוואַטער

kvatter · KVAH-ter

On this page
  1. What the sources say, and what is custom
  2. Across communities
  3. What this means for an invitation

Kvatter is a Yiddish word, related to the German Gevatter (“godfather”). In Ashkenazi custom it refers to the person, most often a man, who takes the baby from his mother or from the kvatterin and brings him to the sandak, the one who holds him during the brit milah. The kvatterin is the woman who carries the baby to that point. In practice a couple is often honored together. It is sometimes translated as “godfather” and “godmother,” but as with the sandak, this is not godparenthood in the Christian sense: it is an honor, not a commitment toward the child.

What the sources say, and what is custom

The gesture of handing over the baby is old: the Rema (Shulchan Arukh, Yoreh De’ah 265:11) writes that a woman should not be sandak where a man is available, but that she may help her husband by bringing the child to the synagogue, where the man then takes him and becomes sandak. That source describes the gesture, not the title: the words kvatter and kvatterin are a Yiddish, Ashkenazi custom, and the details of the sequence vary from one family and synagogue to another. So we do not present them as a rule.

Culture

In some families this honor goes to a couple hoping for a child, with the idea that it brings good fortune. This is a folk belief, not a rule, and it can be painful for those who have been waiting a long time. Never mention it on an invitation, and do not choose someone for that reason without talking to them first.

Across communities

  • Among Ashkenazi families, particularly in Yiddish-speaking and Hasidic circles, kvatter and kvatterin are common roles, separate from the sandak.
  • Among Sephardic and Mizrahi families, the gesture of carrying the baby and the honors of the brit milah also exist, but under other names and with a division that varies by family, city, and country of origin. We do not impose Yiddish vocabulary on them: follow your own family’s word and custom.
  • In secular Israeli families people simply say that a relative “carries the baby”; the word kvatter may be unknown to guests.

What this means for an invitation

  • Use your family’s word, and add a short explanation in parentheses (“the person who carries the baby to the brit”) in case guests do not know it.
  • Do not assume a man and a woman: the honors can go to two relatives of any makeup. To learn what your community’s tradition provides, ask your rabbi.
  • Tell the honorees early: they need to be there a few minutes before the brit begins.
  • These honors belong in a ceremony program, rarely on the invitation itself.
On the invitation

The names of the kvatter and kvatterin go in a program, not on the invitation. Add a line of explanation for guests who do not know the Yiddish term, and attach no idea of luck or fertility to the role.

On the same topic

Sources consulted

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