Yiddish names and the secret code

 How Jews got their Names

 DON'T MISS THE YIDDISH POEM AT THE END.

 How Jews got their  Names....  

 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, 

FRANKFURTER, 

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)

 ====================================================================

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 G ould --- 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, 

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 ta lk.  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.)

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