Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Here's The Fascinating Origin Of Almost Every Jewish Last Name
BI - Slate ^ | 6-18-2014 | Bennett Muraskin

Posted on 06/18/2014 11:04:47 AM PDT by blam

Bennett Muraskin
Jan. 8, 2014

Richard Andree's 1881 map of the Jews of Central Europe.

Ashkenazic Jews were among the last Europeans to take family names. Some German-speaking Jews took last names as early as the 17th century, but the overwhelming majority of Jews lived in Eastern Europe and did not take last names until compelled to do so. The process began in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1787 and ended in Czarist Russia in 1844.

In attempting to build modern nation-states, the authorities insisted that Jews take last names so that they could be taxed, drafted, and educated (in that order of importance). For centuries, Jewish communal leaders were responsible for collecting taxes from the Jewish population on behalf of the government, and in some cases were responsible for filling draft quotas. Education was traditionally an internal Jewish affair.

Until this period, Jewish names generally changed with every generation. For example, if Moses son of Mendel (Moyshe ben Mendel) married Sarah daughter of Rebecca (Sara bat rivka), and they had a boy and named it Samuel (Shmuel), the child would be called Shmuel ben Moyshe. If they had a girl and named her Feygele, she would be called Feygele bas Sora.

Jews distrusted the authorities and resisted the new requirement. Although they were forced to take last names, at first they were used only for official purposes. Among themselves, they kept their traditional names. Over time, Jews accepted the new last names, which were essential as Jews sought to advance within the broader society and as the shtetles were transformed or Jews left them for big cities.

The easiest way for Jews to assume an official last name was to adapt the name they already had, making it permanent. explains the use of "patronymics" and "matronymics."

(snip)

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ggg; jews; names; origins
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041 next last
* Ashkenazic Jews have the highest IQ's than any other group of people.

* 80% of the Jewish immigrants to the US are Ashkenazi Jews as was Albert Einstein.

1 posted on 06/18/2014 11:04:47 AM PDT by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: blam

Sephardic Jews claim they are numero uno


2 posted on 06/18/2014 11:13:44 AM PDT by babble-on
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blam; Zionist Conspirator

There are really only three surnames that are specifically Jewish in nature: variations on Cohen, Levy and Israel.


3 posted on 06/18/2014 11:14:25 AM PDT by Borges
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Borges

what about ice”berg” lol?


4 posted on 06/18/2014 11:17:06 AM PDT by brivette
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: blam
Ashkenazic Jews have the highest IQ's than any other group of people.

And you know this how?

Besides being grammatically incorrect, it smells racist.

5 posted on 06/18/2014 11:19:28 AM PDT by newberger (Put not your trust in princes, in sons of men in whom there is no salvation.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blam

Wasserman — water carrier

That sure fits!


6 posted on 06/18/2014 11:23:15 AM PDT by texas_mrs
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blam

And just where is your source material for those claims???

This article acts as if some how the naming convention was unique to the Jewish people. Scots and Scandinavians as well as Spaniards (and probably lots of others that I can’t think of) have used a similar naming convention. Some who immigrated to the US were made to take more Americanized names others were not.

And for your edification here is Albert in his own words

“Einstein was raised by secular Jewish parents. In his Autobiographical Notes, Einstein wrote that he had gradually lost his faith early in childhood:

. . . I came—though the child of entirely irreligious (Jewish) parents—to a deep religiousness, which, however, reached an abrupt end at the age of twelve. Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true. The consequence was a positively fanatic orgy of freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression. Mistrust of every kind of authority grew out of this experience, a skeptical attitude toward the convictions that were alive in any specific social environment—an attitude that has never again left me, even though, later on, it has been tempered by a better insight into the causal connections. It is quite clear to me that the religious paradise of youth, which was thus lost, was a first attempt to free myself from the chains of the ‘merely personal,’ from an existence dominated by wishes, hopes, and primitive feelings. Out yonder there was this huge world, which exists independently of us human beings and which stands before us like a great, eternal riddle, at least partially accessible to our inspection and thinking. The contemplation of this world beckoned as a liberation, and I soon noticed that many a man whom I had learned to esteem and to admire had found inner freedom and security in its pursuit. The mental grasp of this extra-personal world within the frame of our capabilities presented itself to my mind, half consciously, half unconsciously, as a supreme goal. Similarly motivated men of the present and of the past, as well as the insights they had achieved, were the friends who could not be lost. The road to this paradise was not as comfortable and alluring as the road to the religious paradise; but it has shown itself reliable, and I have never regretted having chosen it.”


7 posted on 06/18/2014 11:27:05 AM PDT by Nifster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blam

later


8 posted on 06/18/2014 11:28:57 AM PDT by deweyfrank
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blam

did not take last names until compelled to do so.


This was part of the Napoleonic code. My ancestors were Dutch and I can trace my last name to about 1814. Several groups or individuals selected the same last name which means birdsong (though none appears to be in the same local govt. Some picked funny names like “outhouse” or “stuck in pants” or “born naked” thinking the law would not last. (but it did)

Because of this prior to 1814 you look at church records, not govt records.


9 posted on 06/18/2014 11:33:42 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Where is your thinking cap? The one you were issued in elementary school.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PeterPrinciple

http://genealogy.stackexchange.com/questions/1836/name-selection-practices-driven-by-the-napoleonic-code


10 posted on 06/18/2014 11:40:34 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Where is your thinking cap? The one you were issued in elementary school.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: blam

It is my understanding that many Jewish names were picked by German border officials who couldn’t pronounce the strange names from more-eastern countries such as Poland. They were often derisory for the Germans’ own amusement, such as Weisskopf (Whitehead) for especially dark people. or Goldman for especially poor and ragged immigrants, or Rosenblum (Rose-flower) for an especially smelly individual, etc.


11 posted on 06/18/2014 11:45:05 AM PDT by expat2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: texas_mrs
Referring to her as only Wasserman leaves the Schultz out of Little Debbie's name.


12 posted on 06/18/2014 11:47:31 AM PDT by Rodamala
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

Comment #13 Removed by Moderator

Comment #14 Removed by Moderator

To: SJackson; POWERSBOOTHEFAN; ExTexasRedhead; Nachum; GunsareOK; Alter Kaker; Yaelle

Ping!


15 posted on 06/18/2014 11:59:15 AM PDT by Albion Wilde ("The commenters are plenty but the thinkers are few." -- Walid Shoebat)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: texas_mrs

Wasserman? Word is she flunked the test...repeatedly.


16 posted on 06/18/2014 11:59:58 AM PDT by Huaynero
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Rodamala

Both of them know nothing.


17 posted on 06/18/2014 12:03:11 PM PDT by GOP_Party_Animal
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Mrs. B.S. Roberts

ping


18 posted on 06/18/2014 12:08:04 PM PDT by CaptainAmiigaf (NY TIMES: We print the news as it fits our views.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PeterPrinciple

Vogelsang?


19 posted on 06/18/2014 12:13:08 PM PDT by Lisbon1940
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

Comment #20 Removed by Moderator


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson