Basic methods of research on the history of Jewish clans

INTRODUCTION

We believe that the study of the history of Jewish clans to which certain families or their individual representatives belong is of particular importance for national self-identification. The individual family heritage is woven into the patrimonial heritage and then into the collective history of the nation, enriching and extending it up to the present day and to the families of our contemporaries.

The restoration of ancestral history is an extremely powerful trigger for the strengthening of national identity among modern Jews and their descendants. Here it is appropriate to clarify what we mean when we speak not of a family, but of a clan. By this term we define a set of all descendants of one person, existing over a sufficiently large historical period of time.

In this article we would like to share a methodology for researching Jewish births created by the Am haZikaron Institute. This methodology has been successfully tested in particular within the Taglit program (Birthright Israel) on more than 50,000 young people from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Germany, the USA, Canada, the Baltics, Israel, and so on.

The basic principles of the above-mentioned methodology are outlined below.

Research on the surnames of Jewish families

I. Methodological principles

One of the most productive ways of restoring the history of Jewish families at the first stage is the study of Jewish surnames and names. Identification and disclosure of the meaning of Jewish surnames and historical peculiarities of their appearance allow a modern person to feel a true connection with his past, to evaluate the historical path of his ancestors over centuries and sometimes millennia. in this regard, the study of the origin of Jewish surnames is extremely important.

With a detailed analysis of the meaning and origin of the Jewish surname, it is possible to restore the following parameters of family history:

Historical period of family (or clan) formation as a separate hereditary lineage
The occupational aspect of the family’s occupation at the time the surname was assigned
Links to community activities and national tradition
Presence of hereditary names
The original community (diaspora) to which the family originally belonged
The original community (diaspora) to which the family belonged at the time the surname was assigned
Main regions of migration or residence of family (clan) members

The importance of such research requires a carefully constructed and calibrated approach based on solid knowledge of scientific or traditional origins.

Bearers of the same surname, originating from the same geographic region, are usually descendants of the same family.

This assertion is based on the following empirically identified aspects accompanying the assignment of surnames to the bulk of Ashkenazi Jews:

а. Demographic aspect (community size).

The communities of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (the time when the bulk of European Jews were legally obliged to fix hereditary surnames) were, as a rule, small and the members of the communities knew each other well. It was neither necessary nor possible for representatives of different, unrelated families to take the same surname. Moreover, the possibility of “imposture” – the assignment of known surnames (and thus attributing to oneself the origin from ancient respected clans – “yihes”) without any reason was thus minimized.

b. Restrictions imposed by the State in whose territory certain communities lived.

The governmental decrees of Austria, Russia and Prussia on the assignment of surnames to Jews contained many such restrictions. For example, in Galicia, each Jewish family living in a certain locality had to choose a surname different from the surnames of other residents. The surname had to be approved by the district governor and the rabbi.

According to the decree of October 11, 1821 on the assignment of surnames to the Jews of the Kingdom of Poland, different families from the same area had to adopt different surnames.

In all places where Jews lived, both in Austria or Prussia, as well as in Russia, it was ordered to minimize the appearance of those surnames that could be identical among unrelated families, In Galicia, these included, for example, “patronymic” surnames (i.e., derived from the personal names of the heads of families). in Galicia, it was “toponymic” surnames (i.e., derived from the names of geographical objects) and surnames derived from Jewish words.

As an example, we can consider, for example, the Shifrin family. at the end of the XIX century, the bearers of this surname were quite numerous and lived in such cities as Borisov, Mogilev, Mstislavl, Gomel, Dribin and Bykhov (Belarus). Total number of carriers of surname Shifrin in the world on 2000 has made about 2300 persons. Of these, 540 lived in Israel and about 1200 in the USA. These two communities (American and Israeli) make up about 80% of all Jews. Genealogical research conducted by the “Am haZikaron” Institute showed that they all trace their roots back to the brothers Kopel (b.1791) and Hirsh (b.1794) Shifrin, who lived in the early 19th century in the Borisov area. They were sons of an ancestor of the family named Shifra and the first bearers of this surname in the region.

It should be noted that the variation in the number of bearers of one surname – descendants of one family of the early 19th century – is quite large: from several hundred to several thousand. The factors influencing family demography are in the process of study.

The bearers of ancient surnames are members of these families

This statement is based on the following factors:

Aggregate corpus of data on reconstructed genealogies of known rabbinic families.

There are documented reconstructed genealogies of a number of ancient rabbinic families, which allow us to say with reasonable certainty that most of the current bearers of these surnames are members of these families. (This is confirmed by the data of modern DNA research.)

One of the most comprehensive in this sense is the corpus of data on surnames recorded in the so-called “Judengasse” (“Jewish Quarter”) of Frankfurt am Main. The history of the “Frankfurt” families is valuable because this community is one of the most “documented” of all the Jewish communities in Europe since the sixteenth century. Thanks to this, it is possible to trace the migration of old Jewish surnames from Central Europe to Poland (and from there to the Russian Empire). as we will discuss below.

Analyze the corpus of personal names specific to a particular genus.

Due to the peculiarities of the choice of personal names among Jews and a certain limited number of them, as well as on the basis of our experience, we can say with certainty that the same (with certain variations) set of personal names – both masculine and feminine – is statistically used in related families belonging to certain ancient families.

The heterogeneity of the geographical distribution of the bearers of famous rabbinic surnames.

One of the arguments in favor of the above statement about kinship ties between the bearers of ancient surnames is the heterogeneous distribution of these surnames. As a rule, these surnames by the end of XIX – beginning of XX centuries are grouped only in some regions specific to a particular surname. For example, the surname Lurie, traditionally going back to RASHI (France – XI century), in the Russian Empire by the end of the XIX century is found almost exclusively in the Mogilev province and on the territory of Courland. at the same time, the surname Shor, leading its origin from “Bechor Shor” (France – XIII century) by the end of the XIX century is mostly found in the region of Galicia.

A comparison with the Sephardim.

In the study of Sephardic surnames, it is generally accepted to recognize the almost complete absence of namesakes in this milieu. In other words, every Sephardic surname is always regarded as belonging to a single (regardless of its size) family. If such a statement is the accepted consensus in one powerful Jewish community – there is no logic in assuming the exact opposite situation in another community (Ashkenazi). Especially since both communities have been in close contact for at least the last 400 years and often reside in the same places (e.g. Prague, Budapest, Hamburg, Poznan, Taurage, etc.).

All of the above naturally does not exclude the possibility of the appearance of namesakes. Although their percentage in Jewish communities is extremely small. At the same time, there are known cases when a rabbi, the head of a yeshiva, gave his especially gifted student the name of a famous sage of the past. The mechanism of such an assignment is, in fact, close to the widespread Jewish tradition of naming rabbis after the names of treatises written by them. But even these cases were not widespread (such cases still occur today, but very rarely).

In predominantly “Hasidic” regions, characterized by a wide spread of mystical ideas and attitudes, there were cases when one of the Hasidim was declared to be the incarnation of the soul of a great righteous person of previous generations, and sometimes began to be called by the nickname or name of this righteous person.

Again, such “imposture” was extremely rare and not encouraged by known admors.

We know about some more cases of taking famous surnames, by the way, sometimes it sometimes ended in court proceedings (as in the famous case with the family of Baron Ginzburg).

These are all exceptions that should of course be considered in the work.

As a whole it is possible to assert: the majority of modern carriers of ancient known surnames should be considered connected by kinship ties with corresponding ancient families.

A number of families traditionally considered Ashkenazi are of Sephardic origin.

This conclusion is based on a thorough study of the peculiarities of the distribution and distribution of Jewish surnames in the territory of the Russian Empire and a revision of some, still existing views on the ways of migration of Jewish families from the West to the East. This will be discussed below, in the chapter on the migration of Jewish families.

Changing surnames in the process of family migrations

However, it is worth mentioning here that the change in a number of surnames is connected with the peculiarities of the migration paths of Sephardic families. For example, a Sephardic family migrates to Germany, and on further movement to the East (to Bohemia, Poland, etc.) acquires a nickname associated with a German city. This happened, for example, with the surnames Epstein (in the past – Benvenista) or Gurevich (in the past – Girondi) (from the name of the towns Epstein and Gorzowitz). The new surname was passed on to the descendants, while the original Sephardic surname was discarded.

In other cases, the original surname was translated into Yiddish or Polish, Ukrainian or German, and the surname lost all signs of Sephardic and took on the form of an Ashkenazic surname. This was the case with the surnames Grushko (Pereira), Perchik (Peretz), Shlivko (Tsiruel) and some others.

Therefore, in a number of cases, researchers at the Am haZikaron Institute conduct searches and onomastic analysis on both the array of Ashkenazic and Sephardic surnames.

The so-called “artificial” surnames of the Jews were actually much fewer than was commonly believed.

The so-called “artificial” surnames are usually understood to be Jewish surnames “created by the rich imagination of the officials” responsible for the “officialization” of Jews (or even by Jews themselves). It is traditionally believed that in “inventing these surnames,” officials used mostly elements of flora or fauna and their most intricate combinations with minerals or geographical objects. the result was such surnames as, for example, Gelblum (“Yellow Flower”), Rosenbaum (“Rosewood”), Zigelboim (“Brick Tree”), and so on.

Our experience shows that many of these surnames are either “toponymic”, that is, they refer us to the names of localities (usually German and Austrian), or are formed from personal names (for example, the surname Rosenzweig is not a “rose branch”, but a “scion of Rose”, i.e., a matronymic surname).

In our opinion, often the surnames “Baum”, “Berg”, “Zweig”, “Stein” and their like refer not to generalized and abstract concepts (“tree”, “branch”, “mountain”, “stone”), but either to “kinnuim” (“nicknames”), adopted in Germany-Austria (e.g., Stein among German Jews is the kinnuim for the name Itzhak, Falk is the kinnuim for the name Joshua), or are truncated for some reason (e.g., Rosenberg becomes Berg, Rothstern becomes Stern, etc.).д.).

It also happens that these parts of surnames indicate the belonging to a certain family (the already given example with Rosenzweig, Zipperstein – “the stone of Zipporah”, i.e., “the base, foundation laid by Zipporah”, etc.).

In the same way (as indicating belonging to a certain family), presumably, surnames ending in “bein”, “strain” and “blat” can be interpreted. Hirshbein, Mandelstam, Roizblat – can be regarded as surnames indicating the belonging of the bearer to the family (clan) of the descendants of Hirsh, Mandel, Roiza (Reizel) respectively. Of course, the final conclusion can be made after studying all the data indicating the origin of this particular surname.

On the belonging of the bearers of a particular surname to the descendants of King David.

This question is very complex and often debated. Of course, already in the I-II centuries AD there are serious chronological lacunas in the genealogy of the descendants of the ancient dynasty. The practical absence of any documents capable of shedding light on this problem for a thousand years makes us turn to national tradition. in this sense, historical evidence indicating that the descendants of David belonged to certain lawgivers, the reality of whose existence is not disputed by modern science, is extremely valuable. at the same time, we know of some families that lived already in the Middle Ages and associated their origin with these lawgivers. According to this family tradition, for example, the family of the famous Talmudist and halachic scholar Rashi is considered to belong to the descendants of King David.

As part of the preparation of materials for the study of the history of this or that family, we believe it is necessary to point out the existence of a tradition attributing this or that family to the House of David. We do not assert with documents in our hands that the modern bearers of, for example, the surnames Katzenelenbogen, Lurie, etc. are descendants of King David. But we point to the existing tradition.

II. Sequence of research on the origin of the surname

Surname work begins with the most general question: is the given surname Jewish or not?

Throughout history, there are a sufficient number of cases in which Jews received (voluntarily or forcibly) the surnames of surrounding peoples; moreover, surnames could be transformed beyond recognition under the influence of various factors, or simply turn out to be consonant with another surname.

For example, there is a Jewish “toponymic” surname Gordon, derived from the slightly modified name of the city of Grodno.

There is also an old Scottish surname Gordon. For example, the famous political and public figure of the middle of the XVIII century Lord George Gordon belonged to the Gordons. The mother of the poet Byron was also from this family.

Linguistic and onomastic analysis of the surname

During the linguistic and onomastic analysis of a surname, the relevant reference and scientific literature is used (see bibliography). On the basis of this analysis, the type of surname is established – whether we are dealing with a “toponymic” surname (i.e., derived from the name of a settlement or locality), a “matronymic” surname (formed from a personal female name) or a “professional” surname (formed from a nickname indicating the occupation of the first bearer), etc.

If the surname, after its first appearance recorded in documents, was transformed, phonetically close surnames indicated by the sources are established. in such cases, the type of the studied surname is determined through these phonetically close surnames.

Modeling the formation of a surname

It is of great importance for further conclusions to determine the scheme by which the surname was formed, the language used, and so on. For example, in the case of professional surnames, words from Hebrew or Yiddish, as well as from the languages of the surrounding nations, can indicate the occupation of the first bearer. and this does not only indicate the linguistic preferences of regional officials or the local population.

Let us consider, as an example, surnames that were formed from the name of a specialist in “shekhita” – ritual slaughter of animals and birds. A number of surnames go back to this profession: Shekhter, Shekhtman, Shoikhet, Reznik, Reznichenko and so on. What can such diversity mean? First of all, of course, the language of preference for the officials of a given region. But, at the same time, if both the surname Shekhter and the surname Shekhtman or Shoikhet appeared in the same region at the same time, it would be logical to assume that there was a fairly large community, which needed several specialists to serve it.

Modeling the origin of a surname

The results of the research conducted according to the previous paragraph allow for a historical analysis, including the approximate time and place of the surname’s appearance, the reasons and peculiarities of its appearance, the connection with certain historical circumstances; the connection with Jewish languages; the connection with Jewish tradition at various historical stages.

To obtain the most complete picture, it is at this stage that a study of family naming or the method of comparative analysis of personal name continuity is carried out – that is, the establishment of a “dynastic” set of names used in this family and families with a supposed kinship to it. due to tradition, names in Jewish families could not be random. As a rule, it was a generic, “dynastic” name, passed down from generation to generation. in different communities, the tradition of naming children was somewhat different, but in all Jewish families there were names that appeared constantly, with a certain periodicity, and passed in these families from generation to generation.

Sometimes such names were later fixed as surnames. For example, Palti or Paltiel, Friedman or Sholem, Lieber or Lieberman, etc.

In principle, by the sound of a “patronymic” surname (i.e., a surname formed from a male name), one can determine which male name in a given family has been included in the set of “dynastic” names for generations (Gershovich, Meirov, Leibzon, etc.). Similarly, one can determine the set of female dynastic names by the sound of so-called “matronymic” surnames, i.e., surnames formed from female names (Sorkin, Rosenson, Tobman, etc.).

The use of the names of the patriarchs – the progenitors of the twelve tribes of Israel – as male names should also be attributed to tradition. A number of Jewish clans retained the tradition of tracing their roots back to the tribes of Ephraim (Ephron), Naftali (Naphtali), Menashe (Menashe), etc.

Another tradition that can be defined as a family tradition is the use of not one, but two (sometimes more) names. It is about the so-called “shem kodesh” and “kinnui”. “Kinnui” (“nickname”) is a so-called household name that was given along with the traditional Jewish, Tanachic name (“shem kodesh”). Tanachic names were used in liturgy, invocation to the Torah, etc., “household” names (or double names) were used in everyday life, as well as in civil records. “Household names” varied from country to country and were usually given either in Yiddish or in the language of the surrounding people. later on, such name pairs sometimes became permanent (Yehuda-Leib, Zvi Girsh, Menachem-Mendel, etc.). Often the name “kinnui” turned into a permanent family nickname and eventually acquired the status of a surname – or the basis of the surname of a given family, and then of the family (Mendel, Mendelson, Hirsch, Aryeh, Steinerman, etc.).

To the specific Jewish tradition of naming should be attributed, for example, and some types of family nicknames that eventually became surnames, which existed in ancient families and have survived to our time.

The first group of such nicknames are abbreviation nicknames. They were characteristic of famous rabbinical families and were used from ancient times – from the early Middle Ages. This group itself, in turn, is divided into several types. Thus, one can distinguish nicknames beginning with the word RA- (RASHI, RAMBAM, RAMBAN, RASHBA, etc.) – in this case, the name contains the word “Rabbi” – “teacher”, or “Rabeinu” – “our teacher”: RASHI – “Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki”, RAMBAM – “Rabeinu Moshe ben Maimon”, etc.

Another group of names begins with the syllable MA- (MAARSHAK, MAGARIL, MAGARAM, etc.). This indicates the titulative “Moreinu” contained in the abbreviation – another form of address “our teacher”: MAARSHAK – “Moreinu ve-rabeinu Shlomo Kluger”, MAGARIL – “Moreinu ve-rabeinu Yehuda-Leib”, etc. Thus, both of these groups tend to indicate that the bearer belongs to ancient and famous rabbinic families.

Other types of abbreviations indicate the kinship of the first bearers with famous rabbis. These are groups of nicknames beginning with the syllable BAR- (BARON, BARAN, BARATS, etc.) or HAR- (HARON, HARATS, HARAL). The syllable BAR- stands for “ben Rabbi”, i.e. “son of Rabbi”, and HAR- for “hatan Rabbi”, i.e. “son-in-law of Rabbi”: BARATS – “ben Rabbi Zvi”, BARAN – “ben Rabbi Nachman”; HARAL – “hatan Rabbi Leib”, etc.

One can also pay attention to nicknames-abbreviations of a more individual character, such as, for example, KATS (“Kohen Tzadik” – righteous clergyman” or “Kohen Tzadok” – clergyman Tzadok), SHUB (“shochet u-bodek”, i.e., cutter and checker), and so on.

Another group of specific family Jewish nicknames are names representing the titles of books. Since ancient times, Jews have had a tradition of naming prominent rabbis after their most famous works. Thus, for example, the famous Prague rabbi of the 16th-17th centuries, Yehuda-Löv ben Bezalel, in addition to the name-abbreviation MAARAL (“our teacher Rabbi Löv”), was also known by the nickname “Gur-Arieh”. This was the name of his fundamental theological treatise. Subsequently, some of the famous rabbi’s descendants inherited this nickname, eventually turning it into a family name. From this nickname come the genera Gurariy, Gurariye, etc.

Since rabbis often took quotations from the Tanakh as the title of their writings, the result was a group of surnames derived from lines and images of the Tanakh, such as the surname Ktalherman (“Ke tal Hermon”, like dew on Hermon – from a line from the Psalm speaking of Mashiach). Another surname of this kind is, for example, the surname Maskileison (“Maskil Eison” or “Maskil Eitan” – “The Doctrine of Eitan”, a subtitle to Psalm 86). This was the name of the Talmudic work of Rabbi Abraham ben Yehuda-Leib from Minsk (1788 – 1848), from which he later received a nickname that became a family name for his descendants.

Historical roots of the surname

Often the very history of the origin of a surname provides us with rich material for research. We can illustrate this with the so-called “Frankfurt phenomenon” or the history of surname formation in the medieval Jewish ghetto “Judengasse” in Frankfurt am Main.

The Jewish community of Frankfurt am Main has a special significance in Jewish history. It is worth dwelling briefly on this phenomenon. Jews have lived here since ancient times. Around 1150, Rabbi Eliezer ben Nathan of Mainz wrote that the Frankfurt Jewish community was small but prosperous and had a clear organizational structure, and that many Jews from other cities came to the fairs in Frankfurt am Main. The Jewish quarter “Judengasse” was located in the southern part of the city and actually represented its business and administrative center (the town hall and the mint were located here). Frankfurt’s “Judengasse” was home to the families that created the financial system, which is actually the prototype of the modern banking system.

In 1618 there were 370 Jewish families (occupying 195 houses) in Frankfurt am Main, in 1694 – 415; by 1709 the number of the community reached 3019 people. The Jewish houses, mostly wooden, but on stone foundations, were marked with white, green, red or black signs. Until the 18th century, all European cities had no house numbering at all. As a matter of fact, there was no urgent need for it. The population of cities was not so large and, in principle, the inhabitants were quite freely oriented in the city or in their neighborhood: everyone knew to whom which house belongs. At the same time, since the second half of the 14th century in large cities in Europe have spread signs that decorated the facades of houses. These signs were symbolic images of lions, lilies, horseshoes, roses, bears, towers and so on. All these images carried a rather deep symbolic meaning, however, understandable to every medieval citizen. They decorated, first of all, the houses of wealthy citizens.

For example, the red medieval heraldic rose, which had five or ten petals, symbolized a spiritual sacrament. Therefore, in Germany, the rose was painted or depicted in bas-relief on the ceilings of halls or meeting rooms, emphasizing that everything said “under the rose” was confidential. For example, the famous Rabbi Meir Worms was not only a rabbi, but also a famous Kabbalist (as were some other members of the family). Therefore, the image of a rose, which he chose to hang above the entrance to his house, quite logically for that time reflected the sphere of interest and activity of the owner of this house – spiritual mystery.

Symbols on the signs in front of the doors, originally serving as signs of the houses belonging to these families, later became, on the one hand, heraldic images of the respective families, and on the other – the basis of family nicknames, which turned into surnames. For example, the red shield of the Rothschild family, the eagle of the Adler family, the antler of the Hirschhorn family or the ship of the Schiff family.

The history of the family nickname “Shif” deserves a separate, at least a short story. Originally the nickname of this family was Kahn and, since it was formed from the ancient name Cohen, it was written in Latin with the letter h retained: Kahn. In German, Kahn means “boat.” So soon after being placed in a house in the Frankfurt ghetto, the family labeled him with a sign depicting a boat. But later, when the Kahn family became rich and took high positions in the community, the head of the family decided that a boat was shallow for a respectable family. and the image of a boat on the house was replaced by the image of a sailing ship. A ship in German is Schiff. and the family was soon no longer called Kahn, but Schiff.

Later, new symbols were added to the original symbols. For example, the coat of arms of the Rothschilds, who actually created the modern banking system, had five zones. four zones, each of which corresponded with one of the sons of the founder of the Amschel dynasty, contained heraldic animals – sable, eagle, leopard and lion, and the fifth zone contained a hand clutching a bundle of four arrows.

Other famous families from this quarter include the Schwarzschild (“Black Shield”), Hahn (Cock), Gelfand (“Elephant” – “Elephant”) families, Reutraub (“Red Grape Brush”), Eppel (“Apple” – “Apfel”), Birnholz (“Pear Tree”), Stein (“Stone”), Einhorn (“Unicorn”) Stern (“Star”), Oyl (“Owl”), Falk (“Falcon”), Flasch (“Flask”), Goldstein (“Golden Stone”) Frosch (“Frog”) Haz (“Hare”), Gecht (“Cheek”), Horn (“Horn”), Kessel (“Cauldron”), Knoblach (“Garlic”), Korb (“Basket”), Rosenkrantz (“Wreath of Roses)”, Rost (“Spike”), Traube (“Grapes”), Krebs (“Cancer”), Hirsch (“Deer”), Taube (“Dove”), Spiegel (“Mirror”), Wolf (“Wolf”), and others. From the middle and especially from the end of the 18th century we will see the dispersion of representatives of these genera throughout Western and Eastern Europe, up to the Russian Empire.

The socio-historical context of research on tribal history

The study of the historical and social context of the origin of a particular family plays an important role in conducting research on the history of a family. indeed, the key points in the peculiarities of the development of clans largely depend on factors shaped by the influence of specific historical conditions in this or that region, in this or that historical epoch.

Having identified the person who is the founder of a given family (i.e., the first bearer of the surname researched at the previous stage), or simply the first documented bearer of a given surname, we conduct a detailed study of the historical, social, and economic situation in the region of his or her residence.

In parallel, the kinship and professional ties of the studied family founder are identified. Having identified the relevant connections, we investigate the related families in order to establish, if possible, its belonging to the relevant family.

At this stage (and in accordance with the socio-historical and economic profile of the areal), the professional interests of a given family are also investigated (conventionally speaking, “family”, “hereditary” spheres of activity or professions).

Early sources

Speaking of sources of information, besides the relatively modern ones, it is worth mentioning the earliest of them. For example, an important source for the study of Jewish clans is the Tanakh (where many of them are literally described) and the Talmud, in which we find a lot of information about Jewish settlements in Eretz Israel, Babylon and Persia, Rome and the Hellenistic states.

For example, it is from the Tanakh that we get information about the roots of the two oldest Jewish clans – the Cohens (Kogan, Kagan, Kaganovich, etc.) and the Levites (Levitas, Leviticus, Leviticus, Levitsky, etc.). The bearers of these clan names carefully preserved them for centuries, remembering their belonging to the priestly tribe. These clans go back at least about three and a half thousand years.

Since the status of kohen and Levite in Judaism is passed down through the male line, the term became perceived by the nations surrounding the Jews as a family nickname. Accordingly, when Jews began (either voluntarily or by law) to acquire surnames, many “Kohen” and “Levites” were given the surname Cohen or Levi.

As a result of relocations from one area to another, as well as simply over time, the pronunciation of many surnames changed, and the Cohen surname gave, in addition to those already named, such variants as Kann, Kon, Kagan, Kaganovsky, Kaganovsky, Kuhn, Koganer, Koganzon, and so on. All these families belong to the clan of the descendants of the Kohen. The same can be said about the descendants of the Levites.

The unity of the origin of the above Jewish clans (and some others connected with them in one way or another) is confirmed not only by traditional sources, but also by genetic studies in recent years. in particular, we can refer to the studies of Dr. Karl Skoretsky, a professor at the University of Toronto and later at the Haifa Technion. Together with Prof. Michael Hammer of the University of Arizona, he conducted research on DNA analysis in a group of Jews who traditionally belonged to the Kohen. A common set of genetic markers in Ashkenazi and Sephardic Cohens indicated their common ancestry, with the source of their common ancestry existing long before the division of the Jewish community into Sephardic and Ashkenazi. According to Skoretsky and Hammer, the common ancestor of the kohen in these two groups of the Jewish people is about 106 generations removed from our time. Such a period corresponds to the emergence of the chromosome diversity existing in the present-day Cohens, and this period corresponds to 3300 years. That is, we come to the starting point – to the times of the Exodus, when, according to the Tanakh, the high priest Aaron lived.

In researching a number of families, we have repeatedly come across the fact that family/clan tradition associates a particular family with one or another tribe of Israel. The tribes most often mentioned are the tribes of Reuven, Ephraim and Menashe. Without confirming or refuting it (which is impossible – at the current level of science), we, nevertheless, believe that this tradition should be taken into account in research. The tradition of these families / clans can show such a connection not only in clan names. The connection can be manifested associatively, figuratively – for example, “colored” nicknames referring to the color of banners mentioned in the Tanakh (red for Reuven, heavenly for Yehuda, etc.) or precious stones corresponding to each tribe on the breastplate of the High Priest. Of course, we can only presumably speak of such a connection.

The roots of many rabbinic families and clans go back to the lawgivers of Pumbedita and Sura (the Sura academy rivaled the Pumbedita academy for several centuries), such as the Paltiel family and its various offshoots (Paltis, Palti, etc.), which trace their roots back to the legendary Babylonian Gaon lawgivers. Many illustrious rabbinic families who headed communities in Italy, Germany, France, Poland, Morocco, etc., had roots in the Babylonian Diaspora. The Friedman, Shakhnovich, Shraga and some other families are believed to be of Babylonian origin (which is confirmed by a number of studies, including those conducted by our Institute).

When studying the socio-historical background against which the history of a particular family (clan) unfolds in a particular region, the starting point of the research of the specialists of the “Am haZikaron” Institute is to establish evidence of the first, earliest appearance of Jews in the region. There are several types of such evidence.

First of all, the evidence is documentary, i.e., references in chronicles and chronicles, in governmental decrees, in private correspondence, and also, of course, in “pinchos”, i.e., in chronicles of Jewish communities and in rabbinical books. The comparison of information from Jewish and non-Jewish sources is important.

For example, back in the days of the Roman Empire, Jewish traders, artisans, financiers and mercenary soldiers marched with the Roman legions and settled in the Roman colonies that sprang up in Central and Northern Europe.

The oldest of these colonies was Colonia Agrippina, present-day Cologne. The Jewish community in this city (first a fort) emerged at the beginning of the fourth century. The Jews of Colonia Agrippina are mentioned for the first time in the decrees of Emperor Constantine of 321 and 331. The Jews of Cologne were engaged in trade, material supply and financing of Roman legionaries. After World War II, when the Allied air force bombed a large part of the city, a Jewish genizah with rare manuscripts was discovered under the ruins of one of the churches.

In addition to this kind of evidence, the information preserved by Jewish tradition also plays an important role. Even if this information is not directly supported by documents or remains of material culture, its importance cannot be overemphasized, since the tradition goes back to the testimonies of eyewitnesses and contemporaries of certain events.

In some cases, toponymy also provides us with often valuable information. For example, today, most historians (in particular, Salo W. Baron) believe that Jews as local inhabitants first appeared in the south of the Iberian Peninsula in the 3rd century A.D., or even earlier. (Thus in the south of Spain, in Andalusia, many areas and settlements bear names derived from Jewish names. It is known that the name of the city of Seville comes from the Hebrew word “Shfela” – lowland; the name “Cordoba” was formed from the distorted Aramaic Carte de Yuba (the city of Yuba – the Numidian king; Cartagena – from Carte Hadash, in Aramaic New City).

It is important for us in connection with the mentioning of some Jewish clans in this context. As the Jewish Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron points out: “In Murviedro (ancient Sagunta) there was even a tombstone with the inscription: ‘Here is buried Adoniram, the servant of King Solomon, who came to collect tax and died. and the clans of Ibn-Dauda and Abrabaneli were proud of their descent from the house of King David; their ancestors settled in time immemorial in the neighborhoods of Lusena, Seville, and Toledo. The latter is said to have been built by the Jews expelled by Nebuchadnezzar during the Babylonian captivity.”

Economic profile of the region

The reasons for the mobility of Jews from ancient times were, in no small part, economic factors. Here it should be specified: by economic factors we mean not only the deterioration of life in one place and an attempt to improve it by moving to another place (as, for example, for Jews from the settler settlements of the Line of Settlement – emigration to America), but also the search for new markets by merchants, the search for new, uncultivated and uninhabited lands by landowners, and so on.

For example, in the 12th century, Prince Bolesław the Pious issued a set of laws (the so-called “Kalisz Statute”), according to which Jews who settled in Polish lands were granted numerous privileges, up to and including permission to have their own armed units. At one time in Poland and Lithuania, the rights granted to Jews differed little from those of the nobility. Thus, the rabbi of Brest, Mendel Frank, was titled “royal official,” and the Jew Shmoylo Israelovich was appointed deputy to the Vilna province. Like the nobles, the Jews carried sabers and, if necessary, were always ready to use them. They also wore gold chains and rings with emblems on them. According to Rabbi Hillel ben Hertz, Lithuanian Jews could even swear in a Christian court with their heads covered. Jews in Lithuania could and did own estates. Wealthy Jews are often mentioned in surviving documents as officials and statesmen.

Soon there were settlements (villages, towns) in Poland that were governed by Jews appointed by landowners-magnates (the Wahl family, for example), and even settlements where 100% of the population was Jewish. At the very beginning of the 16th century, the general lords (in Poland the heads of Jewish communities were called heads of entire regions rather than individual settlements) were representatives of the Mintz, Frank, Margaliot, Fishel and other families. By the middle of the 16th century, such families as Rashal, Isserles, Bach, Kopelman, Horowicz, Sirkis, Izraelowicz appeared.

Later, already in the 18th and 19th centuries, after the partition of Poland in the Russian Empire, the trade in grain, sugar and other agricultural products, the production of alcoholic beverages, banking and some other professions, became the arena of activity of enterprising Jews, in particular such families as Vinokurs, Bravermans, Goreliks, Weiners, Weizmans, Korens, Khlebniks, Polyakovs, Gintsburgs, Warshawskis, Peretzes, Tseytlins, Rafalovichs, Brodskis, Zaitsevs, Bliochs. As a result and one of the consequences of the rapid growth of economic activity, old rabbinic families and clans (Pozners, Gurevics, Katzenelenbogenes, Epsteins, Bakharakhs, Efrusi, etc.) appeared within the Russian borders.

Another example of the influence of the economic factor on Jewish migration is the appearance of Italian Jews in Crimea in the 13th-15th centuries. The Genoese colonies in Crimea were very promising regions from an economic point of view: there was an intensive trade in grain and wine, and a number of roads built by the Rakhdanites, which carried goods from Central Asia and the Far East. There was an active trade in slaves captured by the Tatars during their raids on Poland and Russia. Weapons, jewelry, fabrics, etc. were imported here. All this led to a fairly rapid migration to these colonies (Soldaya – Sudak, Cembalo – Balaklava, Kafa – Feodosia, etc.) of Jews from Genoa and other cities of Italy. These communities include the present-day Crimean Jews with Italian roots – the Lombroso, Angeli, Manto, Piastro and some others.

After the conquest of the Italian colonies by the Ottoman Turks, the Jewish communities were largely preserved here and were partly replenished by Turkish Sephardim (for example, the rather ramified Crimean families of Mizrahi, Izmerli, Kurkchi, Bakshi), and partly continued to be replenished by natives of the same Italy and Germany.

One of the most striking examples of the influence of economic incentives is, of course, Jewish immigration to the New World, beginning in the 16th century. Although one of the reasons for the appearance of Jews in Latin America was the decree of exile, economic factors played an equally important role – after all, an entire continent had been opened up, the newly created colonies needed economic development. and thousands of Jews rushed across the ocean. They were not even frightened by the possibility of facing the persecution of the Inquisition, from which they had previously fled from Spain. And Jamaica in general, thanks to the patronage of the Columbus or Colon family, as the family was called in Spain, became for a whole century a refuge for the “Portuguese” – Spanish and Portuguese Jews. On the islands of Jamaica, Surinam, Barbados to this day live descendants of the families of Kuriel, Moshiach, Cohen-Enriquez and some others. Here, in the countries of South and Central America, one can find the roots of the later famous Jewish families Caceres, Cartagel, Castro, Franco and some others.

Migrations of clans and families

At the next stage of the research, the migration of representatives of a given family (clan) is studied. This study is conducted in a comprehensive manner: it is supposed to investigate both general factors (economic, geopolitical and demographic) that may affect the migration of Jews from a given region, and personal factors (for example, the invitation of a rabbi from a given family by a community from another region; trade ties between specific regions, etc.).

Among the reasons that caused the mass movements of Jews, of course, one of the main ones must be considered to be the violent actions of the conquerors or the authorities, i.e., the expulsion of the Jews.

For example, Provence, located between France, Spain and Italy, was a major Jewish center in the 13th and 15th centuries. Accordingly, the roots of some famous Jewish families lie in these lands. These include the families of Machaut, Montreal, Ha-Yarhi, Anatoli, Ibn Caspi, Todros, Bendig, and branches of the famous families of Calonimus, Provençal and others. In other regions of Southern Europe (Languedoc, Roussillon, etc.) such Provençal families as the Lattes, Posquier, Astruc, Kimhi, Bedersi, etc. settled in Provence. In 1498 Jews were forbidden to stay in Provence. The expelled Jews began to settle in the County of Venesse, France, Italy, and Salonika.

The most famous Jewish expulsion of the late Middle Ages was the expulsion of Jews from Spain. In 1492, the Catholic kings of Aragon and Castile, Ferdinand and Isabella, signed the infamous “Edict of the Alhambra”. According to it, Jews had to either leave Spain or be baptized. Many of those who did not want to change their faith moved to the neighboring country of Portugal, where Jews were allowed to keep the Jewish faith.

However, five years later – in 1497 – a law similar to the Spanish “Alhambra Edict” was passed in Portugal, and even stricter: according to the Portuguese law, all Jews were obliged to be baptized. There was no question of voluntary exile, Jews were not allowed to leave the country: either baptism or immediate death. It so happened that the Jews who did not want to be baptized in Spain were forcibly baptized in Portugal. A great many of today’s famous Jewish families are descended from Spanish and Portuguese exiles, in particular the families of Portugal, Abarbanel, Señora-Coronelli, Aboav, Cordovero, Acosta, Spinoza, Caro, Mendes, Belmonte, Castro, Zacuto and others.

Don Yitzhak Abarbanel led the Spanish Jews during the exile. His descendants subsequently spread throughout many countries, so that we find separate branches of this ancient and respected family in Germany, France, Holland, and the Russian Empire. Often, in the process of migration from Spain to the north-east of Europe, Jewish families changed their surnames, thus giving rise to new, later known families. Thus, for example, as we have already indicated, some Benvenistas became Epstein’s and Porto’s became Ginzburgs. One of the branches of the family of Ha-Levi from Gerona received the surname Horowitz (Horwitz, Gurevich, Gurvich, etc.), and one of the branches of the Abarbanels became Pasternaks.

Some other “Spanish” families reached the lands of Eastern Europe – Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine – in the course of their wanderings and settled there. It is in this connection that we find the presence of characteristic Sephardic surnames on the territory of the Russian Empire, such as Kuriel, Lombroso, Delgado, Mizrahi, Pinto, Abugov (Abu-Gof), Hetsgori, Binun (Bin Nun), Abarbachuk (Abarbanel). Some surnames changed their sound, and at the same time gave birth to new offshoots of old clans – quite independent Eastern European clans Gaitsgory (Khetsgory), Paperny (Paperna), Donyakhin/Donyakhov (Don Ihye), Perets/Persky (Perez), etc.

It is also worthy of special attention that it was the Spanish exiles who, by virtue of being numerous and educated, eventually formed the basis of the Jewish community of the Ottoman Empire. Before the Sephardic wave, there were the old “Romei” (i.e. Byzantine) Jewish communities (“Romaniot” in Hebrew), into which hundreds of years earlier refugees from Arabia – the surviving members of the old Jewish clans of Medina and Khaybar, Banu Nadir and Banu Qaynuq, who had been expelled by Mohammed – had also joined. The Romish communities had their old liturgy, their prayer books. The Sephardim absorbed and assimilated these communities (in Thessaloniki, Rhodes, etc.), so that today, among those families and clans that we consider to be of Sephardic origin, one can find the descendants of the “Romaniots”, Byzantine Jews who have dissolved among the more numerous Sephardic communities. These include the famous Jewish clans of Katz (descended from Akiva Katz of Thessalonica), Taitatzak, Danon, Pierleone, Finzi, Paltiel, Pisa, Lull, Sicilian Haguel, Alcabez (a branch of the famous Spanish rabbinical family).

When the Spanish exiles moved into the Ottoman Empire, they assimilated not only the Greek (“Romeo”, “Romaniot”) community. The Sephardim actually absorbed the North African communities, which had old roots dating back to the Roman Empire, but which had withered after the invasion of the Germanic barbarians and then the Muslim conquerors. For example, Spanish exiles gave rise to numerous Jewish communities in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. It is in these communities of North Africa (or Maghreb) that the roots of such famous families as the Moroccan families of Aboulafia, Abargil, Aviazer, Ouanon, the Algerian Palacci (Palazzi), Hazan (one of the branches of the famous family), the Tunisian family Burgel, etc., lie.

The expansion of the Ottoman Empire from the late 15th to the early 18th century had a serious geopolitical impact on the migrations of Jewish clans in Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Jews were quite actively involved in the organization of the Turkish military machine, participated in the activities of the Turkish administration, established trade and crafts. as a result, entire Sephardic communities were formed in Bessarabia, Hungary and Galicia. There is a hypothesis according to which many Jewish Galician families have Sephardic roots. Simply at some point, again, as a result of changes in the geopolitical situation (the loss of the Ottoman Empire, the return of the Austrian authorities), these families (or local officials) translated Sephardic surnames into German: Oliveira (“Olive Tree” in Spanish) became Elbaum (the same, but in German), Pereira (“Pear Tree” in Spanish) became Birnbaum (“Pear Tree” in German), and so on. In any case, it can be confidently asserted that the connections between such families as the Tennenbaum or Rosenfeld families living in Krakow and Lublin, and the Klugerman, Abraham and Sephardic families of Turkey living in Lvov (Lemberg) are undeniable.

In the Russian Empire, during the existence of the so-called “Jewish Settlement Line”, i.e., the list of permitted and prohibited Jews in Russian provinces, there were both deportations and expulsions. For example, the resettlement of Jews from the countryside to the towns and cities of the Settlement Line (several times such decrees were issued by the tsarist government, motivated by the pernicious influence of Jews on the peasantry) were more like expulsions.

The Jewish population of Galicia, which was occupied by Russian troops in 1914-15, was in a particularly difficult situation. Thanks to these grandiose deportations, we trace the emergence of Belarusian and Ukrainian Jewish families (Ryvkin, Malkin, Khariton, Rabinovich, Hatzkelevich) far from their places of origin – in the Middle Belt, over the Ural Ridge – in Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk.

The most severe causes of Jewish migration were undoubtedly wars and Jewish pogroms. Here are some examples of such events and their impact on migrations. Bohdan Khmelnitsky’s war (1648 – 1649) shook Ukraine and Poland. The flourishing Jewish communities were exterminated, and the survivors of the massacre fled to the West, deep into Poland and Austria. The remnants of the early “Kenaanite” communities, which still retained their identity in some places, perished. The Jewish families that had previously existed in the Ukraine (e.g., the Hanoverians, the Belyavkers) appeared and settled in Austria.

About two generations later, Jews moved to the Ukrainian lands again – and they were Jews of Galicia and Poland (Ostrovsky, Belsky, Grodner, Litvak, etc.).

The pogroms of 1881-82 broke out against the background of the unstable political situation that had developed in Russia after the assassination of Alexander II by the Narodovists (March 1, 1881).

The result of the pogroms was a dramatically increased emigration of Russian Jews to the United States, Argentina, Western Europe, Great Britain and Eretz Israel.

It was in the late nineteenth century that many thousands of Jews moved to the United States. Some of them changed their Jewish surnames to new, Americanized ones. For example, the family of the famous American science fiction writer Robert Sheckley originally bore the surname Shklovsky and belonged to this old and famous Jewish family from Poland. Another family, Danilovich, then evolved into Douglas and gave, as we know, two superstars of American cinema. The offspring of the Sukhovlansky family from Grodno became Meir Lansky in the USA and received the “honorable” nickname of “Mafia accountant”. in the process of immigration to the USA, the old clans of Gurevich-Horowitz, Levinsky, Polak-Pollak, Azimov, Miller, etc. found themselves and started a new life here.

Also, after the wave of pogroms that swept across Russia in the 1880s, a fairly massive wave of emigration of Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe to Latin America began. The activity of the prominent Jewish philanthropist Baron de Hirsch largely contributed to this. With his help, the JCE (Jewish Colonial Society) was created, which aimed to establish Jewish agricultural colonies in South America, primarily in Argentina. Thus, new branches of the old Jewish families emerged on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Many representatives of these families have become part of the political and cultural elite of Argentina, despite the significant growth of anti-Semitism in some periods of recent history. Such families include the Grinshpun, Aginis, Gass, Stubrin, Yaroslavsky, Meyer, Leventhal, Kantor and others. The Jewish community in Argentina at the end of the 1990s numbered about 195,000 people.

A somewhat smaller, but also numerous, Jewish community was formed in Chile, Argentina’s neighboring country.

Today, Jewish communities are virtually non-existent in many Muslim countries. Meanwhile, these communities (sometimes called “mizrahim” – “eastern”) have a long history. Accordingly, many living Jewish clans, whose representatives live in Israel, Europe, the United States, etc., have roots in the Iraqi and Iranian communities. For example, in Iraq, under the influence of the Jerusalem Mufti Hajj al-Husseini, active anti-Semitic propaganda began, which intensified after the formation of the State of Israel. Iraqi and Kurdish Jews were taken to Israel in a special operation by the Israeli Air Force. Today there are almost no Jews left in the country. But Iraqi roots are now recognized in the families of Kaduri, Barazani (a family whose representatives headed the Jewish community of Iraqi Kurdistan for centuries), Haddad, Haham, Shoshi, Bavli, Sassoun and others.

The history of the Jews of Iran in the 20th century is similar to that of their neighbors from Iraq. Especially since for a long time the two communities were closely linked – so much so that even the head of the Persian (Iranian) Jews was appointed by the head of the Baghdad community. After a relatively peaceful life under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Jews experienced severe persecution after Ayatollah Khomeini came to power and turned Iran into the Islamic Republic of Iran. The vast majority of Jews left the country by any means necessary, so today in Israel live representatives of many ancient clans of Persian Jews – Bannai, Asgoraladi, Larian, Samadi, Katsav, Farouz and others.

When we look at the families and clans who repatriated to Eretz Israel and now live in the State of Israel, we encounter a certain phenomenon: the surnames of many clans sound neither Ashkenazic nor Sephardic, but as if taken from the Tanakh. In fact, these are neither ancient nor ancient, but the most modern of the currently existing Jewish surnames. They appeared as a result of the ideology of the complete negation of the “galut”, the revival of the Hebrew language and the very image of a proud and free Jew, unbound by the complexes of the period of dispersion, which had previously dominated Zionism.

The first to change his “halut” surname to a Hebrew surname was the “father of modern Hebrew” Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, who previously bore the surname Perelman. By the twenties of the twentieth century, this phenomenon had already become widespread among the Zionists who moved to Palestine. Some surnames had no connection with the old surnames of the owners and carried a purely ideological charge – Gilboa in honor of Mount Gilboa, Golan – from the Golan Heights, Amishav – “my people have returned”, Amihai – “my people are alive”, etc. Some surnames had no connection with the old surnames of the owners and carried a purely ideological charge – Gilboa in honor of Mount Gilboa, Golan – from the Golan Heights, Amishav – “my people have returned”, Amihai – “my people are alive”, etc. Others tried to maintain at least an external, phonetic similarity Halperin – Har-El, Feldman – Peled, Berlin – Bar-Ilan, Brugh – Barak. Others translated their former surname into Hebrew. Thus appeared Har Shoshanim (Rosenberg), Shoshani (Rosenblat), Gafni (Weiner), Vilnai (Vilensky) and so on. In this way, new Israeli clans emerged with close ties to the old clans – despite the outward dissimilarity of the surnames.

III. The final stage of the study.

This stage involves, as a rule, archival work, i.e. comparison of the obtained data with existing archival and other documentary sources. A social, professional and geographical “portrait” of specific bearers of a given surname and their connections with the family under study is drawn.

At the same stage, we establish the known personalities belonging to the family and clan, their roles in history and their place in the overall picture of the family tree. The family tradition of descent (in particular, the tradition of attributing the family to the descendants of King David or other famous historical figures, or the lack thereof) is also considered and evaluated here.

Conclusion

Here we would like to note some of the features and advantages that the research method we describe provides and to emphasize the novelty of a number of fundamental approaches to the nature and direction of research. For example, when using this methodology, not just the meaning (original) of the studied surname is established, but also the peculiarities of its emergence and distribution. This, taking into account the socio-historical context, allows in turn to visualize the ways of Jewish migration, to establish kinship ties not only between individual families, but also between different communities (German and Polish, German and Austrian, Polish and Russian), as well as between two Jewish macro-communities – Ashkenazi and Sephardic. The resulting picture provides a fairly detailed picture of the relationship of Jewish communities with the states in which these communities were located and with the peoples who lived in these states. Among other things, the use of this methodology makes it possible to use elements of family history in mass educational programs.

In conclusion, it should be mentioned that in this article we have described only the basic principles on the basis of which the Am haZikaron Institute is engaged in the study of Jewish family history. The study of Jewish family history itself seems to us to be an extremely important and relevant topic. Such studies provide an opportunity not only to connect modern Jews with their ancestors (and some studies have a depth of more than 10 centuries), but also to trace some patterns of social, economic and psychological characteristics of the members of the studied clans.

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