Yiddish Club Event Reveals Meanings Behind East European Jewish Family Names
What鈥檚 in a Yiddish name? At the 黑料社 All Yiddish Club鈥檚 opening event of the year on Tuesday, November 13, students and faculty members got the opportunity to explore this fascinating piece of Jewish history. Titled 鈥淎 Rosen by Any Other Name: Secrets within East European Jewish Family Names,鈥 the event featured a lively lecture by Dr. Robert Shapiro, a professor of Judaic Studies at Brooklyn College.
Dr. Robert Shapiro explained the origins of Ashkenazic last names at the Yiddish Club's first event of the academic year.
The origins of their surnames intrigue many Jews, and the names themselves may reveal a wealth of information. 鈥淪urnames are cultural, historical, religious and familial artifacts of Jewish life,鈥 said Shapiro, who has published several scholarly works on the Holocaust and other topics in East European Jewish history. 鈥淭hose family names carry a message about the values, experiences, hopes and ambitions (and even the sense of humor) of previous generations of Jews who probably did not dream about the opportunities that became available to their great, great, great grandchildren in the 21st century.鈥
According to Shapiro, East European Jews were compelled to adopt surnames between the years 1787 and 1821 by Austro-Hungarian, Russian, Prussian and Polish state authorities. Jews could usually choose their own surnames, but when they declined to do so鈥攕ome opposed the new law which was part of a series of controversial Enlightenment reforms鈥攐fficials simply assigned them a surname.
鈥淥ne of the highlights of the evening for me was when Dr. Shapiro allowed students to ask about their own family names and provided explanations for the names鈥 origins,鈥 said Yiddish Club president Eli Fenyes 鈥13YC, a psychology major who studied Yiddish at YU.
Most Jewish names, especially from Austria-Hungary and Prussia, are based on compounds of German words for metals (gold, silver), flora and fauna (e.g. blum means tree), food (birn = pear, apfel = apple), colors (roth = red, weiss = white), topography (berg = mountain), habitation (dorf = village) and other adjectives (klein = small, schon = beautiful). Some German names also have a Jewish subtext鈥攆or example, 鈥淩osen鈥 means 鈥渂aron鈥 or 鈥減rince鈥 in Hebrew. However, there are also names with negative meanings (e.g. Affengesicht = monkey face).
Names can also reveal biographical details about families, such as occupation (e.g. Soifer = scribe, Farbiaz = dyer), whether they were priests (Katz is an acronym for 鈥kohen tzedek鈥) or Levites (e.g. Levi, Levine, Segal), and where they lived. For instance, the actor Woody Allen鈥檚 given last name is Konigsberg, which was the Prussian capital.
Some names are derived from male and female first names, plus a suffix鈥攆or example, Mendelssohn (from Mendel) and Shifrin (from Shifra).
鈥淭he event was amazing,鈥 said Sruly Heller 鈥14YC, who said it 鈥渃ut to the heart of what we Ashkenazic Jews take for our names... He gave everyone in the room the ability to trace literally thousands of Jewish names back to their [linguistic] source.鈥
Fenyes said that future Yiddish Club events, intended for both Yiddish speakers and non-speakers, will hopefully focus on aspects of Yiddish culture, like theater and comedy, as well as on learning the Yiddish language itself.
Dr. Robert Shapiro explained the origins of Ashkenazic last names at the Yiddish Club's first event of the academic year.
Names can also reveal biographical details about families, such as occupation (e.g. Soifer = scribe, Farbiaz = dyer), whether they were priests (Katz is an acronym for 鈥kohen tzedek鈥) or Levites (e.g. Levi, Levine, Segal), and where they lived. For instance, the actor Woody Allen鈥檚 given last name is Konigsberg, which was the Prussian capital.
Some names are derived from male and female first names, plus a suffix鈥攆or example, Mendelssohn (from Mendel) and Shifrin (from Shifra).
鈥淭he event was amazing,鈥 said Sruly Heller 鈥14YC, who said it 鈥渃ut to the heart of what we Ashkenazic Jews take for our names... He gave everyone in the room the ability to trace literally thousands of Jewish names back to their [linguistic] source.鈥
Fenyes said that future Yiddish Club events, intended for both Yiddish speakers and non-speakers, will hopefully focus on aspects of Yiddish culture, like theater and comedy, as well as on learning the Yiddish language itself.
Dr. Robert Shapiro explained the origins of Ashkenazic last names at the Yiddish Club's first event of the academic year.
Names can also reveal biographical details about families, such as occupation (e.g. Soifer = scribe, Farbiaz = dyer), whether they were priests (Katz is an acronym for 鈥kohen tzedek鈥) or Levites (e.g. Levi, Levine, Segal), and where they lived. For instance, the actor Woody Allen鈥檚 given last name is Konigsberg, which was the Prussian capital.
Some names are derived from male and female first names, plus a suffix鈥攆or example, Mendelssohn (from Mendel) and Shifrin (from Shifra).
鈥淭he event was amazing,鈥 said Sruly Heller 鈥14YC, who said it 鈥渃ut to the heart of what we Ashkenazic Jews take for our names... He gave everyone in the room the ability to trace literally thousands of Jewish names back to their [linguistic] source.鈥
Fenyes said that future Yiddish Club events, intended for both Yiddish speakers and non-speakers, will hopefully focus on aspects of Yiddish culture, like theater and comedy, as well as on learning the Yiddish language itself.
