Why do so many people think that Zimmerman is a Jewish name, or think that other people think that? It means “carpenter” in German, not a traditional Jewish occupation.
And honestly, I think if Zimmerman were Jewish, he might be seen as belonging to a victim class and not be facing this prosecution.
It's a 2000 year-old tradition. :)
There are a number of Jewish Zimmermans (Bob Dylan comes to mind), but the Jews named Zimmerman are less common than Jews surnamed Miller, Green, Snyder and others. Yet people don’t jump to a Jewish conclusion about those surnames.
A lot of those Germanic Jewish surnames became traditional because official surnames were required by the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
You can’t really tell from a surname. Songwriter George M. Cohan, for example, was 100% Irish Catholic!
I was raised in Cleveland Heights Ohio, and every Zimmerman I knew was Jewish.
I married a Jewish man, and our last name is not particularly ethnic, either. BUT some folks automatically assume we are Jews.
Maybe the idea that Zimmerman is Jewish comes from it being Bob Dylan's real name.