THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

What's in Jewish Name? Plenty!

By BEN GALLOB

(Copyright 1978, JTA, Inc.)

The evolution of Jewish
names poses a challenge to
the American Jew who
wants to participate in the
newly-popular pastime of
tracing family roots, a
search in which Jews have
always had an interest.
Dr. Steven Lowenstein,
an archivist at the Leo
Baeck Institute, has de-
scribed that evolution in a
report in "Keeping Posted,"
a monthly publication of the
Union of American Hebrew
Congregations, the associa-
tion of Reform congrega-
tions.
Dr. Lowenstein contends
that research into the his-
tory of one's family will
"hopefully" lead the re-
searcher to discover the
names of his or her ances-
tors and to reconstruct the
stages through which the
individual's name de-
veloped.

Jews of Ashkenazic de-
scent, meaning most
American Jews, will
probably find "less than
eight generations" with
their last name. Jews of
Sephardic descent prob-
ably might be able to go
back farther than that
"but you would also
reach a point where your
name ceased to exist," the
archivist said.

All this goes back to the
time of the Bible or Talmud
when family names were
unknown, the archivist re-
ported. Moses and Hillel, for
example, did not have last
names. If a single name was
not enough, the father's
name would be mentioned,
for instance, Moses ben (son
of) Amram.
By the 17th and 18th
Centuries, use of "ben"'was
usually dropped in common
speech "and sometimes re-
placed by the word meaning
son in the local Jewish or
non-Jewish language,"
Lowenstein reported. Thus,
Jacob son of Abraham, be-
came Abramson (in Ger-
many) or Abramovitch or
Amramowicz (in Eastern
Europe) and Abrami (in
Italy).
The regular Hebrew form
was often translated into
the vernacular. The child of
a Jew with the Hebrew
name of Ze'ev (wolf) might
be named Jacob Wolf. Low-
enstein cited as examples of
Ashkenazic names based on
the father's name:
Jacobowitz — son of Jacob;
Beilis — son of Bella; Mos-
kowitz— son of little Moses;
Berkowitz — son of little
bear; and Smulovic— son of
Samuel. "Sephardic first
names commonly derive
from last *names include
Saadia, Hahmias, Ben
Sousseen and Vital."

He reported that place
names are particularly
common among Jews
and that, "since Jews
moved around more than
non-Jews, it was not un-
common for them to take
town names from past re-
sidents."

He reported German
cities have led to such corn-

mon names-as Berliner,
Shapiro and Frankfurter.
Kissinger, Horowitz,
Pressburger and Lipnick
"come from the names of
towns in Czechoslovakia.
Names of nations or regions
have been the source for
such family names as
Deutsch (German), Unger
(Hungarian) and Pollock
(Poland).
Italian Jewish names also
come from specific locales,
"but they sound very diffe-
rent from the ones to which
most of us are accustomed,"
Lowenstein reported. "They
include Treves, Lattes, Ter-
racini, Tedesco, Pollaca and
Luzzati. Similarly, Sephar-
dic names like Toledano,
Murciano, Bagdadi and
Romani come from place
names."
Then there are occupa-
tional sources. Common
names in this category in-
clude Schneider (tailor);
Metzger or Reznick
(butcher); Schachter (ritual
slaughterer); Kolwalsky
(blacksmith); Handlesman
or Kaufman (businessman
or merchant); Schreiber
(scribe); Sherman (clothcut-
ter).

(tree) and -blatt (leaf).
A few names are found
almost exclusively among
Jews. One kind is derived
from the old priestly and
tribal names — Cohen
(priest) and Levy (Levite, an
assistant in the Temple).
These names have many
variants. For Cohen, there
is Kohn, Cohn, Kahana,
Kahn, Kagan,
Kaganovitch, and Cowen.
For Levy, there is Levi, Le-
vin, Levitt, Levinson,
Loewy and Lowenstamm,
according to the archivist.
Sometimes names were
cut down "to size," Lowens-
tein reported. American
immigration officials un-
able to spell or pronounce
difficult Jewish names, like
Katzenellenbogen or Shep-
shelowitz, assigned either
what they considered typi-
cal Jewish names like
Greenberg or Cohen, or
American names like Mor-
ris, Smith or Brown.

Friday, /typist 25, 1918 23

Would you believe
this low
Kosin's price?

eve it!

because Kosins insists on making room for our
new fall merchandise, and because we refuse to carry
over the same styles from one season to another.
Kosins is clearing out a selected inventory in
the latest fashions. Formerly $125 to $165,

88

Now

alterations at cost.
3 days only.
Fri., Sat., Mon.

Many familids did their
own changing for easier
spelling "or to sound less
Jewish," by shortening
them: Braunschweiger to
Brown, or Katzenellen-
bogen to Katz; or by
translating them into En-
glish: Steinberg to
Stonehill and Blaustein
to Bluestone.

"The largest branch of
Jewry — the Ashkenazic
branch — did not gener-
ally have fixed last names
Because most Jewish
until the beginning of the
19th Century when gov- names are derived from the
ernments, finding it dif- spoken language of the area
ficult to keep track of from which the families
Jews, ordered them to come, it is often hard to dis-
choose family names" tinguish between Jewish
and "in some cases, tak- and non-Jewish names.
Lowenstein reported that
ing last names was made
a condition for acquiring many names are shared by
Jews
and non-Jewish
increased civil rights.
The first law requiring names.
Lowenstein reported that
family names, issued by
the emperor of Austria, in many names are shared by
1787, limited Jews to bi- Jews and German Christ-
blical names," the ar- ians (Mayer and Krauss) or
by Jews and Poles (Koz-
chivist said.

Many European families
picked final family names
that seemed stylish or
beautiful by the standards
of the time. Such prefixes
were chosen as Rosen-
(rose), Blumen- (flower),
Loewen- (lion), and Stern-
(star). Popular name end-
ings chosen included -stein
(stone), -feld (field), -berg
(hill), -thal (valley); -baum

lowski and Lewandowski).
"The Jewish Cohen and
Irish Cohan sound alike but
are totally unrelated."
Jacobson or Davidson may
sound Jewish, "but are in
fact common Scandinavian
names, while the Jewish-
sounding name Alfred
Rosenberg belonged to a
leading Nazi war criminal,"
Lowenstein noted.

Physicians Plan Bond Effort

•

State of Israel Bond Medical Physicians Division
leadership planned their annual drive for economic
development loan fund dollars at a recent meeting.
Their effort will culminate at an Israel Bond tribute
dinner Nov. 8 honoring Dr. Arnold Axelrod. Shown at
the meeting are, from left, seated, Drs. Alex Fried-
laender; H. Saul Sugar, last year's honoree; Hershel
- Sandberg, division chairman; Hyman S. Mellen, past
honoree; and A. Martin Lerner. Standing are, from
left, Drs. Murray B. Levin; Firooz Banooni; Gerald
Sherman and Henri Bernard. Not pictured are Dr.
Joel I. Haiaburger, past division chairman and
former honoree, and Dr. Samuel Indenbaum.

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