Historical Implications of Jewish Surnames in the Old Kingdom of Romania

Alexander Avram

Published by Penn State University Press 2021

Historical Implications of Jewish Surnames in the Old Kingdom of Romania

Alexander Avram

In the series The Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies: Studies and Texts in Jewish History and Culture

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780271091952

Overview
Contents

About this book

Linguistic and semantic features in names—and surnames in particular—reveal evidence of historical phenomena, such as migrations, occupational structure, and acculturation. In this book, Alexander Avram assembles and analyzes a corpus of more than 28,000 surnames, including phonetic and graphic variants, used by Jews in Romanian-speaking lands from the sixteenth century until 1944, the end of World War II in Romania.

Mining published and unpublished sources, including Holocaust-period material in the Yad Vashem Archives and the Pages of Testimony collection, Avram makes the case that through a careful analysis of the surnames used by Jews in the Old Kingdom of Romania, we can better understand and corroborate different sociohistorical trends and even help resolve disputed historical and historiographical issues. Using onomastic methodology to substantiate and complement historical research, Avram examines the historical development of these surnames, their geographic patterns, and the ways in which they reflect Romanian Jews’ interactions with their surroundings. The resulting surnames dictionary brings to light a lesser-known chapter of Jewish onomastics. It documents and preserves local naming patterns and specific surnames, many of which disappeared in the Holocaust along with their bearers.

Historical Implications of Jewish Surnames in the Old Kingdom of Romania is the third volume in a series that includes Pleasant Are Their Names: Jewish Names in the Sephardi Diaspora and The Names of Yemenite Jewry: A Social and Cultural History, both of which are available from Penn State University Press. This installment will be especially welcomed by scholars working in Holocaust studies.

Author / Editor information

Avram Alexander :

Alexander Avram is the Director of the Hall of Names and Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names at Yad Vashem.

Reviews

“Historical Implications of Jewish Surnames in the Old Kingdom of Romania is an innovative and original contribution to the study of Romanian Jewry based on the study of surnames. In his research, Avram has achieved a very successful combination of different disciplines, showing full mastery of very diverse sources.”
—Raphael Vago, author of Anti-Semitism in Romania, 1989–1992

“Historical Implications of Jewish Surnames in the Old Kingdom of Romania represents an important contribution to the domains of onomastics and history. On the one hand, with scholarly rigor, the author analyzes Jewish Romanian–based and Romanianized surnames. On the other hand, the book is an exemplary study illustrating how onomastics can be used as a major tool to study the social history of a population group.”
—Alexander Beider, author of A Dictionary of Ashkenazic Given Names: Their Origins, Structure, Pronunciation, and Migrations

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
List of Charts, Maps, and Tables Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1. Historical Background Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	8
Chapter 2. Methodological Approach Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	30
Chapter 3. Antiquity of Early Jewish Settlement Through the Prism of Surnames Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	48
Chapter 4. Demographic Aspects: Rural and Urban Settlement; Internal Migrations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	65
Chapter 5. Socio- economic Profile of the Jewish Population Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
Chapter 6. Jewish Identity as Reflected in Romanian Surnames: From Traditional Separation to Integration Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	130
Chapter 7. The Romanian Authorities’ Attitude: From Invited Settlers to Undesired Subjects Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
Chapter 8. A Case Study: Jewish Intellectuals and Romanian and Romanized Surnames Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	162
Chapter 9. A Different Group: The Sephardim in the Old Kingdom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	170
General Conclusions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	174
Appendix 1. List of Jewish Intellectuals and Artists Active in Romania Prior to WWII Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
Appendix 2. List of Surnames Used by Sephardic Jews in the Kingdom of Romania Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	188
Appendix 3. A Dictionary of Jewish Romanian and Romanized Surnames Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
Glossary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	283
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289