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Each month in this space,
L'Chayim will look back into issues
of The Jewish News to see what
was happening in the local Jewish
community or in the Diaspora 10, 20
and 40 years ago.

TEN YEARS AGO

Three Jewish Americans, Daniel
Nathans, Herbert Simon and Arno
Penzias, were awarded Nobel Prizes
for their work in microbiology,
economics and physics.
Local television personalities
appeared at the 1978 Israel Fashion

Festival at Congregation Shaarey
Zedek to celebrate Israel's 30th
anniversary.

20 YEARS AGO

President Lyndon Johnson
provided Israel with 50 Phantom jet
fighters. Russian Jews danced and
sang in front of Moscow's Choral
Synagogue in celebration of
Simchat Torah.
The 25 local B'nai B'rith lodges
celebrated the 125th anniversary of
the organization with a city-wide
membership campaign.

40 YEARS AGO

A special committee of experts
designated to recommend an official
Israeli flag announced that it had
decided on the now familiar blue
and white stripes and Star of David
pattern.

Many of Detroit's rabbis made
appeals to their congregations
during Rosh Hashanah urging them
to communicate with President
Harry Truman, asking him to lend
aid to Israel in accordance with U.N.
policy.

nc./ Families Changed Names To Protect Themselves

Pk 14o

By Betty Provizer Starkman

For a variety of reasons some
Jewish family names have been
altered or changed over the years.
These alterations can create havoc
for the historian and genealogist.
Let us examine some of the reasons
for the changes of name.
In 1726, Emperor Karl VI
enacted the Familiants Law. Jewish
families were enumerated and only
the eldest son was allowed to wed.
Younger sons were "adopted" by
other family members or friends
without sons or moved on to other
areas. Some young men took their
mothers' maiden names. A family of
that time could thus have several
sons, each bearing a different
surname.
Other cases of "adoption" by
families without sons took place
during the Czarist era. Conscription
laws often caused the seizure of
young Jews for 25 years. Only the
eldest son was allowed to remain at
home and care for elderly parents.
A name change saved many men
from a life of bondage.
The Sephardic Jews and
Marranos took baptismal names
when they became "New
Christians." Upon their return to
Judaism, they often kept the
baptismal name and adopted a
biblical first name. Rabbi Malcolm
Stern gives us an example, "Diego
Nunes Ribiero who became Samuel
Nunes Ribiero."
In Israel, some Diaspora
surnames were changed to Hebrew.
Infected with a surge of Zionism
and freedom, many immigrants
considered their surnames as the
remnants and shackles of the
ghettos and Middle Ages and threw
them off.
Upon their arrival in the United
States some ancestral names were
changed for a number of reasons:
• Misunderstanding at Ellis

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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1988

Island or other ports of arrival.
• Desire for Americanization or
assimilation.
• Desire for status — some
immigrants for example, adopted the
name Cohen/Kahn, to indicate a
rabbinical origin, others took English
or American names.
• Some names were changed
due to the complexity of the spelling
or the inability of Americans to
correctly pronounce them.
An inquiry was received about
the origin of the surname Chatelin.
This was the name used by a

&l ate

,100 iv-

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distinguished French family from the
city of Troyes. At Passover in 1288,
a dead body was placed in the
home of Troyes notable Isaac
Chatelin. The entire Jewish
community was accused of ritual
murder (an ancient canard charging
that Jews used Christian blood to
make matzah).
Thirteen members of the
Chatelin family sacrificed
themselves to the church in order to
save their fellow Jews. They were
burned at the stake on April 24,
1288. There are still a few French

Jewish families who bear this
surname.
The Dresner family inherited a
surname adopted by an ancestor
who once lived in Dresden,
Germany, on the Elbe River. Some
former residents adopted Dresden
as a family name. The Dresden clan
also could be found in Holland and
during the 19th and early 20th
Centuries.

Betty Starkman is the past president
and founder of the Jewish
Genealogical Society of Michigan.

Golda's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Or/

Do you have a favorite kosher
recipe? Each month in this space,
L'Chayim will print kosher recipes
that the whole family can prepare
together. To contribute to the
column, type your recipe on 8 1/2x11"
paper and send it to L'Chayim, clo
The Jewish News, 20300 Civic
Center Dr., Southfield 48076.

This month's recipe was
reprinted by permission from The
Children's Jewish Holiday Kitchen
by Joan Nathan (Schocken Books)

Golda Meir was an American
woman from Milwaukee, Wis., who
decided to live on a kibbutz in
Israel. She became the prime
minister of the country and a
heroine to women around the world.
Even while she led her country, she
entertained friends and visitors in
her simple kitchen. One of her
favorite foods, linking America and
Israel, was chocolate-chip cookies,
which she varied by adding Jaffa
orange juice to the classic recipe
she had learned in her youth in
Wisconsin.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter or
pareve margarine
1/2 cup white sugar
1 /2 cup firmly packed light-brown
sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
2 tsps. orange juice
12 ozs. chocolate chips
EQUIPMENT: Measuring cups,
measuring spoons, mixing bowls,
wooden spoon, sifter, greased
baking sheets, tablespoon, pancake
turner, cooking rack.
Adult: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Child: Using a wooden spoon,
cream together the butter and the
white and brown sugars. In a large
bowl, sift together the flour, baking
soda and salt. Mix together the
butter and sugar mixture, the flour
mixture, and the eggs and orange
juice. With a wooden spoon, beat
until everything is smooth and well
combined, or use an electric mixer
for about 2 1/2 minutes. (If you beat
by hand, take turns at it — it's fun.)

Stir in the chocolate chips.
Child: Drop the dough by
tablespoons onto the baking sheets
about 3" apart.
Adult: Bake for 10-12 minutes,
or until golden. Remove from the
oven, let sit a few minutes, and
transfer with a pancake turner to a
rack to cool. Makes about 40.

tC .116
Ate°

Friday, Oct. 28

The Birmingham Temple will have a
World Day family service at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 28
at the temple.

Saturday, Oct. 29

Congregation Beth Shalom will have a
Minchah shalosh seudah with Maariv and
Havdalah services at 6 p.m. Oct. 29 at the
synagogue.

Sunday, Oct. 30

The Beth Abraham Hillel Moses nursery
school will learn about how the world was
created at 10 a.m. Sunday.

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