SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 2S
Watch For The New
Sir, Name?
Why you won't find last names in the Torah.
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0: Did the biblical patriarchs have
Q: Could you tell me the most
last names?
popular Jewish names, among the
From reader IF. in West Bloom- general population, for boys and
field
girls?
A: No. Surnames, or family
A: According to Cleveland
names, as we know them are of Kent Evans of the American
relatively late origin, certainly Name Society, the most popu-
among Jews.
lar Jewish girls name in recent
No person in the Tanach is years is Sarah, ranked No. 4
mentioned as having a sur- (No. 1 is the ubiquitous "Ash-
name. Occasionally, some per- ley"). Also in the top 50: Kayla,
sons are shown as having had Rachel, Rebecca, Hannah. For
two names, such as Damesek boys, it's Michael, which is the
Eliezer (Genesis 15:2). The most popular boys name in the
names, however, were not country. Other favorite Jewish
hereditary. The practice of be- names for boys are Joshua,
stowing a hereditary surname David, Joseph, Jonathan,
simply did not exist in ancient Daniel, Zachary, Jacob, Aaron,
Jewish history.
Benjamin, Jeremy, Samuel,
Jews did, however, use Nathan and Jesse.
patronymics —
that is, an addi-
tional name at-
tached to the given
name designating
the father, mother
or other ancestor.
This practice still
survives, used pri-
marily for ritual
purposes, most
commonly when
someone is called
to the Torah. In
"Chayim ben
Moshe," for exam-
ple, "Chayim" is
the first name,
"Moshe" is the fa-
ther's name and
"ben" is "son of."
The develop- Jacob (no last name) wrestles with the mysterious angel.
ment of surnames
generally took place in Europe
Q: My wife and I love soap op-
in the late Middle Ages with the
eras.
Each evening, at the end of
rise of cities and commerce, and
a
long,
hard day — we work to-
then only among the wealthy.
European Jewish communities gether, selling pet insurance —
were small, ghettoized or oth- we come home to videos of our fa-
erwise isolated. Jews were eas- vorite shows. The drama is so stir-
ily identifiable to each other and
to the gentiles and thus had no ring, the acting so stunning, the
need for surnames. The few message of the program so very
Jews who gained wealth and in- profound.
teracted with gentiles and ac-
Often, I have noticed the pro-
quired surnames did not pass
grams
making use of the "flash-
the surname down through the
back,"
in
which characters return
generations.
It was only in the late 18th to a moment in history. How I love
century that Jews began using these sentimental journeys, when
surnames as we know them to- I walk hand-in-hand down memo-
day. Austria was the first coun-
try to compel Jews to adopt last ry lane with Erica or Sheila or
names, in 1787. Later, Tony.
Napoleon issued a similar de-
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it
cree, and down through the seems I once heard that a Jewish
1800s most other European gov- film was the first to make use of
ernments did the same. Proba-
bly the last was Switzerland, the technique. Is that really the
which required its Jewish res- case?
A: Gosh, a guy who sells pet
idents to register last names be-
insurance and loves soap op-
ginning in 1863.
eras. It's fellows like you that
make life worth living!
Your comment is right on
target. In fact, the first flash-
back seen on the silver screen
was in the 1908 film, A Yid-
disher Boy. Produced in the
United States, the movie had
a flashback showing the pro-
tagonist 25 years earlier, in a
street-fight scene.
Q: Recently, when I took my
daughter in to get her immuniza-
tions, I was asked to sign a
consent form. At the bottom was
a separate space to sign if I ob-
jected to the immunizations on re-
ligious grounds. I've heard there
are some groups (though none
Jewish), whose ob-
jection to immu-
nizations is based
on the Bible. I won-
der, whose Bible
and where does it
mention immuniza-
tions?
A: Since in
most states the
law requires chil-
dren to be immu-
nized before they
start school,
groups that object
to the vaccines do
so mainly out of
opposition to
what they see as
government in-
trusiveness in
their private lives.
Others feel that
medical intervention of any
sort is wrong and that illness
can be prevented or cured by
prayer; moreover, they see
death as a Divine punishment
in the face of which medicine
is ineffective.
Objectors to vaccines usual-
ly cite one passage from the
Torah to justify their stand:
Leviticus 19:28, "Do not make
gashes in your skin for the
dead. Do not make any tattoo
marks on your skin ..."
They also note two passages
from the New Testament, I
Corinthians 6:15 ("Do you not
know that your bodies are
members of Christ?") and I
Thessalonians 5:23, ("...may
your spirit and soul and body
be kept sound and blameless.")
Send questions to "Tell Me Why"
c/o The Jewish News, 27676
Franklin Rd., Southfield, MI
48034 or send fax to 354-6069.