Contested Origins of Eastern European Jewry: Clues from History, Linguistics, and Onomastics. Avotaynu: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy, vol. XXXIII, number 2 (Summer 2017), pp. 6-12. (original) (raw)
Onomastic analysis of the origins of Jews in Central and Eastern Europe
There is abundant literature treating the origins of Jews in Slavic countries, in the region that is designated in Jewish medieval literature by the biblical term Canaan. 1 Unfortunately, due to the extreme paucity of documented sources, that literature is largely polemical. With a lack of direct historical proof, the authors often construct general theories derived from the analysis of particular aspects of Jewish life. The analysis of personal names used by Jews in the region in question represents one of the most powerful tools in this domain. It can corroborate or contradict various conjectures concerning the origins of Jews in different areas. The aim of this paper is to provide a detailed analysis of given names used by Jews in Slavic countries of Central Europe (West Canaan) and Eastern (East Canaan) before the 16th century. The data from the following centuries will be considered only in order to clarify some features for which the available sources from previous centuries are insufficient. Any discussion of South Slavic countries is purposely left out: the roots of the Jewish communities there are different from those discussed here and they are beyond the scope of the present article. Our discussion will be focused on the inventory of given names and their historical aspects. The conclusions about the origins of Jews in Slavic countries that can be made on the basis of the analysis of this inventory will be treated in detail.
Use of Onomastic, Linguistic, and Genealogical Data to Unravel Jewish History
Proceedings of the Symposium on Genealogy and the Sciences: December 17-18, 2018, Weizmann Institute of Sciences, Rehovot, Israel. New Haven, CT: Avotaynu Foundation Inc., pp. 14-24, 2020
By addressing such major aspects of migrations as their directions (that is, regions of origin and destination), time and the size of the demographic contribution in the destination area that we can really understand links between Jewish communities that are distant by geographic and/or chronological criteria. This article discusses major methodological aspects of the linguistic and onomastic approaches to the history of Jewish migrations. It also addresses the importance of genealogical data for history and onomastics.
Historical Linguistics and the Evolution of "Jewish"
Case Study, 2024
This case study explores the historical evolution of the term "Jewish" and its implications for the cultural and ethnic identity of ancient Judahites. The term "Jewish" did not appear in the Bible, Torah, Tanakh or any other sacred works, and its use as an adjective can be traced back to the Middle English period (13th-14th centuries). By examining the linguistic shift from earlier terms like "Hebrew" and "Judahite" to "Jewish," this study argues that the creation and popularization of the term "Jewish" played a significant role in the redefinition and "whitewashing" of the identity of the ancient Judahites. This redefinition aligns with broader historical processes of cultural assimilation and the manipulation of ethnic identities, particularly in the context of the Hellenistic period and the rise of Roman influence. Through a detailed analysis of historical texts, linguistic shifts, and scholarly interpretations, this study examines how the term "Jewish" served not only as a linguistic development but also as a tool for reshaping the cultural and ethnic narrative of the Jewish people. The study further explores how this redefinition contributed to the marginalization of the original ethnic identity of the Judahites, distancing them from their ancient roots and aligning them with a broader, more generalized concept of "Jewishness" that could be more easily integrated into the evolving socio-political frameworks of the ancient world.
Contributions to the History of Concepts, Vol. 7, Issue 2 (Winter 2012), pp. 1-27
The article aims both to present the great potential of the field of modern European Jewish history to those who deal with conceptual history in other contexts and to demonstrate the potential of the conceptual historical project to those who deal with Jewish history. The first part illuminates the transformation of the Jewish languages in Eastern Europe–Hebrew and Yiddish–from their complex place in traditional Jewish society to the modern and secular Jewish experience. It then presents a few concrete examples for this process during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The second part deals with the adaptation of Central and Western European languages within the internal Jewish discourse in these parts of Europe and presents examples from Germany, France and Hungary.
The Origins of Ashkenaz, Ashkenazic Jews, and Yiddish
Frontiers in genetics, 2017
Recently, the geographical origins of Ashkenazic Jews (AJs) and their native language Yiddish were investigated by applying the Geographic Population Structure (GPS) to a cohort of exclusively Yiddish-speaking and multilingual AJs. GPS localized most AJs along major ancient trade routes in northeastern Turkey adjacent to primeval villages with names that resemble the word "Ashkenaz." These findings were compatible with the hypothesis of an Irano-Turko-Slavic origin for AJs and a Slavic origin for Yiddish and at odds with the Rhineland hypothesis advocating a Levantine origin for AJs and German origins for Yiddish. We discuss how these findings advance three ongoing debates concerning (1) the historical meaning of the term "Ashkenaz;" (2) the genetic structure of AJs and their geographical origins as inferred from multiple studies employing both modern and ancient DNA and original ancient DNA analyses; and (3) the development of Yiddish. We provide additional vali...
A d s t r a c t . Witkowski Rafał, Jew s in m ed iera l Polami: ctilfure. rc/igion a n dlan gn agc as rejiec te d in sources, Studia 11istoricn Slavo-Gcrmanica, vol. XVIII, 2008-2010, Poznań 2011. pp. 87-139. Wydaw nictwo Poznańskie. ISDN 978-83-7177-772-1. ISSN 0301-6420. The articlc dcals willi llic bisiory o f llic Jcwisli pcoplc in tlic medicvul kingdom ofPoland. T he nutlior presents llic most important aspecls o f t lici i lilc and culturc as well as crucial facts in tlicir history from tlie early mcdicval period to (lic formation o f pcrnianeiit Jcwisli scltlcmcnts and city cjuartcrs in tlie 15th ccntury. Rafał Witkowski, dr, wicedyrektor Instytutu Historii Uniwersytetu im. Adama M ickiewicza The hislory of llic Jews in the medieval kingdom of Roland has been llie subjcct of numerous studies.1 Mowever, no modern, extensive monograph was produced * I would likc to tliank Dr. lidward l.ult. Washington. USA, for his kind assistancc in preparing tlie finał vcrsion o f lliis paper. 1 Cf. M.W. Goldstein. Zur wirtschaftlichen G cschichte d er polnisehen Judea im M itlclaltcr, "Zcitschrifl fiir Gcschichte der Juden in Deulschland" 4 (1908), pp. 168-172: S. Kutrzeba, Stanowisko prawne Żydów u-Polsce w .XI'stuleciu, "Przewodnik Naukowy i Literacki" 29 (1901). pp. 1007--1018, 1147-1156; M. Gumplowicz. Początki re/ig ii żydow skiej u-Po/sec. Warszawa 1903; R. Gródecki. Dzieje Żydów w Polsce do końca .VII' wieku, in: R. Gródecki. Polska piastow ska. Pism a pośm iertne. red. J. Wyrozumski. Warszawa 1969, pp. 595-702; A. Gieysztor, Początki osadnictw a żydow skiego na ziemiach polskich, in: Z dziejów Żydów w Polsce, red. W. Tyloch, Warszawa 1983. pp. 5-7; A. Gieysztor, The heginnings o fJ e w ish Sefflement in the Polis/i Lands, in: The Jew s iti Polarni, ed. Cli. Abramsky, M. Jachimczyk, A. Polonsky. Oxford 1986, pp. 15-21; II. Sam sonowicz, TheJewrsh Population in P olandduring the M iddle Ages. "Dialectics and Humanism. The Polisli Philosophical Quartcrly" 16/1 (1989). pp. 35-42; J. W yrozumski. Ż ydzi w Polsce średniow iecznej, in: Żydzi w daw nej R ze czypospolitej. red. A. Link-Lcnczowski. T. Polański, Wrocław-Warszawa-Kraków 1991. pp. 129-135; J. Wyrozumski, D zieje Żydów Polski średniow iecznej w historiografii, "Studia Judaica" 1998, nr I, pp. 3-17; 11. Zarcmska, O rganizacja w czesnośredniow iecznych gm in żydow skich ir E uropie Srodk/iwcj: Ostrzyhom i Kraków, in: Ludzie. Kościół. Wierzenia. Studia z dziejów kultury i społeczeń stw a Europy Środkowej (średniowiecze -w czesna epoka nowożytna). Warszawa 2001, pp. 303-312; II. Zarcmska, Aspekty porów naw cze w badaniach nad historią Żydów w średniow iecznej Polsce, "Rocznik M azo wiecki" 13 (2001). pp. 177-191; II. Zarcmska. Żydzi w średniow iecznej Europie Środkow ej -w C ze chach. Polsce i na Węgrzech. Poznań 2005: cf. also ILI). Wcinryb. The Bcginning o f East-Europcan Jcwry in Legend an d Historiography, in: Studies a n d E ssays in Honor o f Abraham A. Neuman, ed. M. Rcn-Ilorin. B.D. Weinryb. S. Zcitlin, Lciden 1962, pp. 445-502: B.D. Wcinryb, The Jew s o f Poland. A S o cia l a n d Economic H istory o f the Jew ish C om nm nity o f Poland from 1100 to 1800, Pliiladelphia 1976; J. Litmnn. The econom ic role o f Jew s in m ed iera l Poland, Landlutm-Ncw York-London 1984; H. Iłaumann. H istoria Żydów w Europie Ś rodkow ej i Wschodniej. Warszawa 2000 f first published as G eschichte d er O stjuden, MUnchcn 1990): f. Abrahams. Życie codzienn e Ż ydów w średniow ieczu, przcl. B. Gadomska, Warszawa 1996 (first published as Jew ish Life in the M iddle Ages. London-New York 1896): cf. also S. Dubliny, H istory o f the Jew s in R nssia a n d Polam i from the E arliest Times to the Present D ays, Vol.
Words in Space and Time: A Historical Atlas of Language Politics in Modern Central Europe., 2021
Main Author: Agata Reibach In the Middle Ages, Jews used to refer to different parts of Europe with biblical Hebrew terms such as Ashkenaz, Sephard, Tsarfat, Javan, or Canaan. The ethnonym Tsarfat referred to France, Javan to Ancient Greece, and Canaan to the Slavicspeaking territories. Over time most of these names fell out of use, with the exception of the two toponyms of Ashkenaz and Sephard. Both strongly influenced how Jews perceived their European homelands. Ashkenaz was a placename employed for denoting the Germanic-speaking areas inhabited by Jews, for example, the Rhineland (Rinus) or the Land of King Lothair, or Lotharingia (Lotir). As Jews migrated into the Polish– Lithuanian Commonwealth (Poland-Lithuania), the meaning of the term Ashkenaz was broadened to include Central and Eastern Europe. The Jews of early Ashkenaz brought their Judeo-Germanic vernacular to the Slavophone territories, together with their customs and religious practices. Sephard initially meant Iberia (Spain and Portugal), before it came to encompass the Balkan Peninsula as well. After the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, Sephard denotes all descendants of the Iberian (Spanish and Portuguese) Jews who subsequently settled in the Ottoman Empire’s Balkans and Anatolia. This Ashkenaz-Sephard dichotomy has split the European Jewry to this day, resulting in the two groups of Ashkenazic Jews and Sephardic Jews. Both groups differ not only due to the fact that they tend to reside in different regions. Even more importantly, they speak two different Jewish languages, namely Yiddish (“Jewish German”) and Spanyol (“Jewish Spanish,” also known as Ladino, or “Jewish Latin”). Furthermore, they pray and celebrate Jewish holidays differently, cultivate different customs, and developed distinctive cuisines. By the late nineteenth century, Ashkenazic Jews had developed a vibrant and complex Yiddish-language culture (cf Fishman 2005)
The Birth of Yiddish and the Paradigm of the Rhenish Origin of Ashkenazic Jews
Revue Des Etudes Juives, 2004
This paper introduces a methodology to approach the question of the origins of Yiddish. It stresses the importance of the defining the exact geographical locations and time frames of various elements of Yiddish, distinguishing between those peculiar to that tongue as a whole and those of only regional significance. Also of interest is the distinction between elements unique to Yiddish and those shared with German and Slavic languages. These methodological principles are applied for several purposes: (1) to compare different theories of the origins of Yiddish; (2) to introduce formal definitions allowing to address the question of mono- or polygenesis of Yiddish; (3) to extract the onomastic layer of Proto-Yiddish. The paper shows that important differences between various Yiddish linguists are partly related to purely methodological aspects of their analysis: these authors use (implicitly or explicitly) distinct definitions for several key terms. Concerning the historical conclusions about the origins of Ashkenazic Jewry drawn by linguists from their theories about Yiddish, it is shown – using the analysis of personal names - that the descendants of Jews who lived in the Middle Ages in the Rhine-Moselle valley played an important role in the formation of the Ashkenazic communities in various German and Slavic countries. As a result, contrary to the claim of certain Yiddish linguists, the Rhenish paradigm of Ashkenazic history should not be rejected
2023
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Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung, 2021
This article reexamines the evidence of Jewish presence in Poland from the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries in connection with problems of origins, periodization, and localization of Jewish settlement in Poland. It deals inter alia with questions regarding the balance be-tween Jewish and Christian evidence, as well as with reports of Jewish presence from neighboring areas of Eastern Europe such as Kievan Rus’.
Jews and Slavs vol.25 Ukrainian-Jewish Cultural Dimensions
This collection of essays focuses on how ethnic Ukrainians and Jews, living side by side over centuries, have interacted in various cultural domains. This perspective illuminates important aspects of the Ukrainian-Jewish relationship generally missed in historical and chronological accounts that tend to leap from crisis to crisis, from one episode of violence to another. Cultural interaction unfolded over time through daily, diverse, and localized encounters that had an enduring impact on both communities. Culture shapes so many key aspects of life, develops over long stretches of time, and brings to light the long periods of normal coexistence and the complexity and multifaceted nature of the relationship. There are a number of challenges, however, in fashioning an account of Ukrainian-Jewish cultural interaction that avoids generalizations and the distortion of historical realities. Firstly, one has to take into account the considerable diversity in cultural interaction in the different regions that constitute the territory of contemporary Ukraine. Both Jews and ethnic Ukrainians, as stateless peoples, each in their way, were at different times subjects of several empires, regimes, and dominant cultures-each of which had farreaching impact on their lives, including their internal cultural experience and their interaction with others. Prior to the First World War, the experience of Jews living in Tsarist Russia's Pale of Settlement contrasted starkly with that of Jews living in the Habsburg-ruled Austro-Hungarian provinces of Galicia and Bukovina and the region of Carpathian Rus'-as elaborated in Paul Robert Magocsi's context-setting essay for this volume. During the interwar years, the Jews on the territory of present-day Ukraine found themselves residing in four countries-in Polish-ruled Galicia, Romanian-ruled Bukovina, the Soviet Union, and democratic Czechoslovakia. This fluid and diverse historical experience encompasses a range of cultural interaction that cannot be understood without an appreciation of the broader political and social contexts in which these two peoples lived. Key considerations in this regard are the degree to which Jews and Alti Rodal _______________________________________________________________________ from Israel, Ukraine, North America, and elsewhere, with expertise in a range of disciplines, to focus on aspects of Ukrainian-Jewish cultural interaction. The essays in this volume-largely based on the presentations given at the Jerusalem conference-treat a wide range of topics that may be grouped around the following three questions: • In what ways did the Ukrainian and Jewish cultures, which existed in all their diversity side by side over centuries, influence each other? More specifically, what evidence is there of parallels or cross-cultural influences in particular cultural domains-for example in folklore, folk art, architecture, music, and language? • What were the prevailing perceptions or images of the "Other" as depicted in the respective cultures-specifically in artistic representation, folklore, and literature? • What approaches have been adopted by Jews and by non-Jews, both in the past and in recent years, to the study, preservation, remembrance, and revival of (or reconnection with) the Ukrainian-Jewish cultural heritage? Responding to the first question above, many of the authors in this volume describe specific instances of cross-cultural influences, for example, Lyudmila Sholokhova on the influence of Ukrainian folk songs on Hasidic music; Wolf Moskovich on mutual borrowing between the Ukrainian and Yiddish languages, whether directly or through a third language; Boris Khaimovich on the presence of elements of Ukrainian folk art in synagogue wall paintings; and Thomas Hubka on the exterior architecture of eighteenth-century wooden synagogues as predominantly a product of the eastern European Polish/Ukrainian context Also worth mentioning in this regard is a paper presented at the Jerusalem conference by lryna Serheyeva (Vernadsky National Library, Kyiv). This paper (not included in this volume) describes the influence of Ukrainian folk art traditions on Jewish ornamental folk art, as illustrated in pinkasim (Jewish community record books) from various regions in Ukraine and dating from the late eighteenth to the first quarter of the twentieth centuries. The decorations on these pinkasim reflect elements reminiscent of medieval Hebrew manuscripts and the art of European Jewish printing, combined with the traditions of illumination of Ukrainian manuscripts and folk motifs characteristic of Ukrainian folk ornament and decorative art. This example of Ukrainian influence on Jewish Alti Rodal _______________________________________________________________________ included in this volume because of commitments to publish elsewhere. They should be mentioned in this introduction, however, because they illuminate significant aspects of cultural interaction in the realms of folklore and religious life on the territory of Ukraine. Fialkova's paper examined how the legendary Ukrainian Robin Hood figure, Oleksa Dovbush, who is said to have roamed the Carpathian Mountains in the eighteenth century, is depicted in both Ukrainian and Jewish folklore and literature. Interestingly, the Jewish sources-in which Dovbush is said to have encountered the Ba'al Shem Tov, the legendary founder of the Hasidic movement are influenced by the Ukrainian sources, but introduce modifications and changes in emphasis. For example: the "noble robber" plunders the rich of all backgrounds, including wealthy Jews, but not poor Jews; there is mutual recognition by the two legendary heroes of each other's powers-the Ba'al Shem Tov acknowledging the prowess of the Ukrainian folk hero and Dovbush perceiving the holy Jew's spiritual force; and there are miraculous interventions and encounters in which the robber's worldview is changed, causing him to repent in the presence of the Jewish holy man. These legends are picked up, and modified once more, in post-World War II Jewish literature, including Israeli ballad poems and fiction and Yiddish poetry, generally produced by Jewish writers originating from towns in Galicia or other locations in Ukraine, in what Fialkova refers to as a "cross-cultural migration of plots and images" and "two sides of a single phenomenon in neighbouring cultures." 3 Assaf's presentation on Hasidism in the Pale of Settlement refers to Ukraine as "the cradle of Hasidism…where its historic image was shaped." Assaf also notes, however, that the attempt to portray Hasidism-a Jewish revivalist movement that originated in Podolia and Volhynia in the mid-eighteenth centurywithin the framework of a political geographic entity is methodologically problematic, as this religious movement was not circumscribed by political boundaries. Other scholars have observed that while Hasidism drew its inspiration essentially from earlier Jewish sources (in particular the Kabbalah or Jewish esoteric mystical religious tradition), it also incorporated features prevalent in the surrounding cultures. For example, the traditions of faith healers and natural medicine, common in Ukrainian culture, have a direct parallel in Hasidism; and as the movement grew, other cross-cultural influences were manifest, such as the adaptation of Ukrainian folk melodies as Hasidic nigunim ("melodies"), described in Lyudmila Sholokhova's presentation in this volume. From a cultural perspective, it is noteworthy that Hasidism originated in and flourished on Ukrainian lands. Hasidic writings were published in dozens of Alti Rodal _______________________________________________________________________ stereotypes. Noteworthy also in the literary domain are instances of cooperation between Ukrainian and Jewish writers in Soviet Ukraine during the 1920s; prewar and postwar writers of Jewish background who have identified as Ukrainian; and the treatment of Holocaust-related themes in Ukrainian literature since independence. In her focus on the literary depictions of Jews, Amelia Glaser examines the literary influence that the Ukrainian-born Russian writer Nikolai Gogol had on one of his readers, the celebrated Ukrainian-born Yiddish humourist Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich (Sholem Aleichem). While noting the commonalities in the use of humour and the adoption of the "tears through laughter" stance in the face of fateful situations, Glaser describes how the two authors inevitably depict Jews very differently, with Rabinovich creating characters that are at times a foil to Gogol's anti-Semitic caricatures. In addition to differing perspectives, Gogol and Sholem Aleichem reflect the realities of two different periods-the beginning of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century-the latter marked by major socioeconomic upheavals and pogroms against Jews in the Russian Empire. Yaroslav Hrytsak (Ukrainian Catholic University, Lviv) presented a paper at the conference on the depiction of Jews in Ukrainian folklore. [Regretfully, this paper is not included in the present volume because a completed version was not available in time for publication.] Drawing on Ivan Franko's rich collection of Galician Ruthenian folk proverbs, Hrytsak found many Judeophobic stereotypes, including the depiction of Jews as cowards, inept, impure, exploiters and tormentors of Christians, alien because of their religion, dishonest, inherently corrupt, and undeserving of sympathy. Hrytsak observed that the high concentration of Jews in Galicia, the widespread poverty among both Jews and Christian peasants in the region, and the challenges of modernization and nation building gave rise to anti-Jewish (as well as anti-Polish) sentiments, which were reflected in the local folklore. Hrytsak noted, however, that there were also proverbs that presented Jews in a positive manner, such as the superstition that seeing a Jew was a good luck omen, or admiration for...
Naharaim, 2021
This article examines the dynamics that allowed the derogatory term "Ostjuden" to reappear in academic writing in post-Holocaust Germany. This article focuses on the period between 1980's and 2000's, complementing earlier studies that focused on the emergence of the term "Ostjuden" and on the complex representations of Eastern European Jews in Imperial and later Weimar Germany. It shows that, despite its well-evidenced discriminatory history, the term "Ostjuden" reappeared in the scholarly writing in German and has also found its way into German-speaking public history and journalism. This article calls for applying the adjectival term "osteuropäische Juden" (Eastern European Jews), using a term that neither essentializes Eastern European Jews nor presents them in an oversimplified and uniform manner. The information concerning Gustav Landauer (footnote 21) is incorrect. Ludger Heid whom I quote here misinterpreted Landauer. It was not Landauer, but two German publicists Wolfgang Heinze and Georg Fritz who wrote of Eastern European Jews as “Carthaginian ghosts,” who “swarmed at the East gate” of Germany. Landauer was in fact criticizing both publicists. See Gustav Landauer, “Ostjuden und Deutsches Reich.“ Der Jude 1, (7) 1916, s. 436.