תשובה: [Cz-L] czernowitz-l digest: October 11, 2014

Jews didn’t have surnames,
 As in the Bible the son of Moshe was Ben Moshe,
  Just look at the gravestones.
   Late in the 19 century European states enforced new names
  First selling the attractive names like Diamant and Blumenfeld
   Then the - son and -vici series as son of Hebrew style.
      The destitute got all the rest :trades and whatever occurred to the
    City hall man.
Free of charge.

Hardy
-----הודעה מקורית-----
מאת: bounce-118187628-3499476_at_list.cornell.edu
[mailto:bounce-118187628-3499476_at_list.cornell.edu] בשם Andy Halmay
נשלח: Sunday, October 12, 2014 5:36 AM
אל: Czernowitz Genealogy and History
נושא: Re: [Cz-L] czernowitz-l digest: October 11, 2014

Regarding change after WWI and changing of names, etc., I had never
thought about this before. Of course, there was change. There would
have been less change when the Romanians took over than when the
Russians came in because Romania was far less totalitarian. Throughout
history, minorities changed their names and adopted some cultural
traits of the majority, including their names. Wasn't there a period
in some countries where Jews could not even have names? The Rothchild
dynasty took their name from a red shield over a store on their street
in perhaps a little ghetto. Jews in Europe were always a minority so
the changing of names to some degree was inevitable. This adoption of
'roles' may have led to a disproportionate number of Jews becoming
actors; and great actors, at that, because they, or their ancestors,
had been forced to play roles in their normal lives. I'll never forget
my amazement on learning that the British actor, Leslie Howard,the
most quintessential Brit, was, in fact, a Hungarian Jew. I had a black
musician friend in New York who was married to an Italian American
girl. For some reason they couldn't have children so they adopted a
little mulatto girl who was light skinned but had negroid features. At
one point they moved from a primarily black neighborhood in Jamaica,
Queens to White Plains in Westchester county which was primarily
white. My friend came to me in tears once because he had seen his
little girl playing with white children and shed had said to them,
"I'm not black. My daddy is black, but I'm not." I explained to him
that if they had lived in China and all her friends were Chinese, she
would want to be Chinese. It is human nature to want to be a part of
the majority even when the majority doesn't put any pressure on the
minority (which is also rare in our world)
Andy Halmay - nee Greenberg from a Hungarian great-grandfather, nee
God knows what in earlier generations.
Andy Halmay
Veni Vici Entertainment Inc.,
Toronto, Canada
1-416-925-1271 * Skype: Pronto711
venivici.andy_at_gmail.com

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Received on 2014-10-12 11:24:17