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How Jews Got Their Names

FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF A FIRM SERVICING WALL STREET/

How Jews got their Names....

DON'T MISS THE YIDDISH POEM AT THE END.

Other than aristocrats and wealthy people Jews did not get surnames in Eastern Europe until the Napoleon years of the early 19th century.

Most of the Jews from countries captured by Napoleon, Russia, Poland, and Germany were ordered to get surnames for tax purposes.

After Napoleon's defeat, many Jews dropped these names and returned to "son of" names such as: MENDELSOHN, JACOBSON, LEVINSON, etc.

During the so called Emancipation, Jews were once more ordered to take surnames. In Austria The Emperor Joseph made Jews take last names in the late 1700s, Poland in 1821 and Russia in 1844. It's probable that some of our families have had last names for 175 years or less.

In France and the Anglo Saxon countries surnames went back to the 16th century. Also Sephardic Jews had surnames stretching back centuries.

Spain prior to Ferdinand and Isabella was a golden spot for Jews.

They were expelled by Isabella in the same year that Columbus left for America.

The earliest American Jews were Sephardic.

In general there were Five types of names (people had to pay for their choice of names; the poor had assigned names):

1 -- Names that were descriptive of the head of household:

Examples:

HOCH (tall) ,

KLEIN (small),

COHEN (rabbi ),

BURGER (village dweller),

SHEIN (good looking),

LEVI (temple singer),

GROSS (large),

SCHWARTZ (dark or black),

WEISS (white),

KURTZ (short)

2 -- Names describing occupations:

Examples:

HOLTZ (wood)

HOLTZKOCKER (wood chopper),

GELTSCHMIDT (goldsmith),

SCHNEIDER (tailor),

KREIGSMAN (warrior),

MALAMED (teacher)

EISEN (iron),

FISCHER (fish)

3-- Names from city of residence:

Examples:

BERLIN ,

FRANK FURTER,

DANZIGER,

OPPENHEIMER,

DEUTSCH (German)

POLLACK (Polish),

BRESLAU ,

MANNHEIM ,

CRACOW ,

WARSHAW

4 -- Bought names:

Examples:

GLUCK (luck),

ROSEN (roses),

ROSENBLATT (rose paper or leaf),

ROSENBERG (rose mountain),

ROTHMAN (red man),

DIAMOND,

KOENIG (king),

KOENIGSBERG (king's mountain),

SPIELMAN (spiel is to play),

LIEBER (lover),

BERG (mountain),

WASSERMAN (water dweller),

KERSHENBLATT (church paper),

STEIN (glass).

5-- Assigned names (usually undesirable):

Examples:

PLOTZ (to die),

KLUTZ (clumsy),

BILLIG (cheap)

DREK (shit)

Original Birth Names of Jewish Performers:

Woody Allen --- Alan Stewart Koenigsberg

June Allyson --- Ella Geisman

Lauren Bacall --- Betty Joan Perske

Jack Benny --- Benjamin Kubelsky

Irving Berlin --- Israel Baline

Milton Berle --- Milton Berlinger

Joey Bishop ---Joseph Gottlieb

Karen Black --- Karen Blanche Ziegler

Victor Borge --- Borge Rosenbaum

Fanny Brice --- Fanny Borach

Mel Brooks --- Melvin Kaminsky

George Burns --- Nathan Birnbaum

Eddie Cantor --- Edward Israel Iskowitz

Jeff Chandler --- Ira Grossel

Lee J. Cobb --- Amos Jacob

Tony Curtis --- Bernard Schwartz

Rodney Dangerfield --- Jacob Cohen

Kirk Douglas --- Issue Danielovich Demsky

Melvyn Douglas --- Melvyn Hesselberg

Bob Dylan --- Bobby Zimmerman

Paulette Goddard --- Marion Levy

Lee Grant --- Lyova Geisman

Elliot Gould --- Elliot Goldstein

Judy Holliday --- Judith Tuvim

Al Jolson --- Asa Yoelson

Danny Kaye --- David Daniel Kaminsky

Michael Landon --- Michael Orowitz

Steve Lawrence --- Sidney Leibowitz

Jerry Lewis --- Joseph Levitch

Peter Lorre --- Lazlo Lowenstein

Elaine May --- Elaine Berlin

Yves Montand --- Ivo Levy

Mike Nichols --- Michael Peschkowsky

Joan Rivers --- Joan Molinsky

Edward G. Robinson -- Emanuel Goldenberg

Jane Seymour --- Joyce Penelope Frankenburg

Simone Signoret --- Simone-Henriette Kaminker

Beverly Sills --- Belle Silverman

Sophie Tucker --- Sophia Kalish

Gene Wilder --- Gerald Silberman

YIDDISH ~~~THE SECRET CODE

Yiddish was the secret code, therefore I don't farshtaist, A bisseleh maybe here and there, and the rest has gone to waste.

Sadly when I hear it now, I only get the gist,

My Bubbeh spoke it beautifully; but me, I am tsemisht.

So och un vai as I should say, or even oy vai iz mir,

Though my pisk is lacking Yiddish, it's familiar to my ear.

And I'm no Chaim Yonkel , in fact

I was shtick naches, But, when it comes to Yiddish

though, I'm talking out my tuchas.

Es iz a shandeh far di kinder that I don't know it better

(Though it's really nishtkefelecht when one

needs to write a letter)

But, when it comes to characters, there's really no contention,

No other linguist can compete with honorable mentshen:

They have nebbishes and nebechels and

others without mazel,

Then, too, schmendriks and schlemiels,

and let's not forget schlemazel.

These words are so precise and descriptive to the

listener, So much better than "a pill "

is to call someone 'farbissener'.

Or - that a brazen woman would be better called chaleria,

And you'll agree farklempt says more than does hysteria.

I'm not haken dir a tsheinik and I hope I'm not a kvetch,

But isn't mieskeit kinder, than to call someone a wretch?

Mitten derinnen, I hear Bubbeh say, "It's nechtiker tog, don't fear,

To me you're still a maven, zol zein shah, don't fill my ear.

A leben ahf dein keppele, I don't mean to interrupt,

But you are speaking narishkeit.....

And A gezunt auf dein kup!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GLOSSARY

Farshtaist = (Do You?) Understand

Bisseleh = A little

Tsemisht = Confused or mixed up

Och un vai = Alas and alack

Oi vai iz mir = Woe is me

Pisk = mouth

Naches = Joy, Gratification

Shandeh far di kinder = A pity/shame for the children

Nishtkefelecht = Not so terrible

Nebbishes = A nobody or simpleton

Nebechels = A pititful person or playing the role of being one

Schlemiel = Clumsy bungler, an inept person, butter-fingered; dopey person

Schmendrik = Nincompoop; an inept or indifferent person; same as chlemiel

Schlemazel = Luckless person. Unlucky person; one with perpetual bad luck (it is said that the shlemiel spills the soup on the Shlimazel!)

Farbissener = Embittered; bitter person

Chaleria = Evil woman. Probably derived from cholera.

Farklempt = Too emotional to talk. Ready to cry.

Haken dir a tsheinik = Don't get on your nerves (Lit.., Don't bang your teapot!)

Kvetch = Whine, complain; whiner, a complainer

Mieskeit = Ugly

Mitten derinnen = All of a sudden, suddenly

Nechtiker tog! = He's (it's) gone! Forget it! Nonsense! (Lit., a night's day)

Zol zein shah! = Be quiet. Shut up!!

Leben ahf dein keppele = Words of praise like; Well said! Well done! (Lit., A long life upon your head.)

Narishkeit = Nonsense

From: remelin@suddenlink.net

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