Ellis Island: A rose by any other name...

If I had only one penny each time I've heard this story.

Do we need a national day to convince people that their names were not changed at Ellis Island? How can we convince people that the romantic myths in their family are simply that - a myth?

No one's name was "stolen," "changed," "Anglicized," "transliterated" or "translated" by an Ellis Island clerk, as stated in a New York Times story and reader comments (see below). Marion Smith of the CIS has always stressed that not one documented case of such an action has ever been found. It is strange that Smith is quoted in this New York Times story (see below) and did not provide that information - or wasn't asked the right question.

Passenger lists were compiled from immigrants' documents before embarkation. Such documents included ship tickets, passports or other travel papers. At Ellis Island, the clerks merely checked off the names from the list.

Every once in a while, another writer or publication - which should know better - stirs up the issue again providing misinformation. This time it was Sam Roberts and the New York Times.

Also perpetuating the myth is a photo caption in the story: An undated photograph from Ellis Island, where officials sometimes transliterated the surnames of immigrants. No, they didn't. The list was written prior to embarkation, and the Ellis Island staff included many who were immigrants themselves and who spoke nearly every language in the world. Since names were merely checked off the list, there was no opportunity to transliterate names.

However, as most genealogists know, there was nothing to prevent an immigrant from changing a surname the minute they set foot in the city. Some had previous relatives who had already changed the name an the newcomer adopted that name. Some were helped to immigrate by relatives and changed their surname to that of the relative who helped.

In my own family, four TALALAI brothers were brought to Philadelpha in the first decade of the 1900s, by their brother-in-law FEINSTEIN. They were so appreciative that they changed their surname to FEINSTEIN. We cannot find them, so if you know of any FEINSTEIN who were TALALAI, please let me know.

In 1898, when Max (Mendl) TALALAI arrived from Mogilev, Belarus, he had already decided on a new name. On the ship coming over, a fellow passenger who knew some English advised him to change it immediately upon arrival. "No one," he said, "would give a job to a Mr. Tell-a-Lie."

Max, the first relative to arrive, wrote home to Mogilev and Voratinschtina and told all the relatives that their new name was now TOLLIN. Most changed to that name after their arrival, although we do have some TALLIN, TOLL, TALL and TAYLOR.

And, of course, FEINSTEIN. A family joke was that perhaps they wanted a less Jewish name than TALALAI.

Other than perpetuating this myth, the story - "New Life in America No Longer Means a New Name" - is excellent as it addresses name changing by immigrants and the reasons why.

For many 19th- and 20th-century immigrants or their children, it was a rite of passage: Arriving in America, they adopted a new identity.

Charles Steinweg, the German-born piano maker, changed his name to Steinway (in part because English instruments were deemed to be superior). Tom Lee, a Tong leader who would become the unofficial mayor of Chinatown in Manhattan, was originally Wong Ah Ling. Anne Bancroft, who was born in the Bronx, was Anna Maria Louisa Italiano.

The rationale was straightforward: adopting names that sounded more American might help immigrants speed assimilation, avoid detection, deter discrimination or just be better for the businesses they hoped to start in their new homeland.

According to the story, the paper looked at more than 500 applications during June at New York's Civil Court. Only some six intended to Anglicize or shorten original surnames; most did it because of marriage, childbirth or other reasons.

Iyata Ishimabet Maini Valdene Archibald of Brooklyn changed her name to Ishimabet Makini Valdene Bryce. Guo Wi Chan of Forest Hills, Queens, changed his to Ryan Guowei Chan. And after Jing Qiu Wu, the Flushing, Queens, mother of 5-year-old Star Jing Garcia, divorced, she renamed her daughter Star Rain Wu, dropping her husband’s surname.

The US is much more diverse culturally than it was a long time ago, and there's less pressure to fit in. In fact, reminds the author, ethnic identity may be an asset for certain reasons, such as affirmative action programs.

In regards to the "name changed at Ellis Island" myth, Marian Smith, CIS senior historian is quoted, but not on this subject. Perhaps Smith wasn't asked the right question about that myth.

Now for the part of the story that the author and, in fact, the New York Times should have known better:

A century or so ago, some names were simplified by shipping agents as immigrants boarded ships in Europe. Others were transliterated, but rarely changed, by immigration officials at Ellis Island. Many newcomers changed their names legally, from Sapusnick to Phillips (“difficulty in pronouncing name, interferes with their business,” according to a legal notice), Laskowsky to Lake (“former name not American”) and from Katchka to Kalin (Katchka means duck in Yiddish and a particular Mr. Katchka was “subjected to ridicule and annoyance because of this”).

There's also a modicum of humor in the article concerning legal name changes. While most requests were generally granted, one case seems to have been simply bad luck as to the assigned judge:

... as recently as 1967, a Civil Court judge in Brooklyn refused to change Samuel Weinberg’s family name to Lansing “for future business reasons, such that my sons shall not bear any possible stigma.” The judge’s name was Jacob Weinberg.

The story continues and touches on some celebrities, ethnic individuals wishing to retain their names after marriage, easier names or spellings adopted.

Author Sam Roberts’s grandfather arrived as Samuel Rabinowitz, then Rubin and tchanged it to Roberts.

Read the complete story and all the comments.

Los Angeles: The Jewish Body, Feb. 15

Emory University professor anthropology Melvin Konner will explore traditional Jewish and non-Jewish views about the Jewish body at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Los Angeles, on Monday, February 15.

The free event begins at 7.30pm, at Sha'arei Am -The Santa Monica Synagogue, 1448 18th St., Santa Monica.

The Jewish Body: An Anthropological/Genealogical View" will explore such issues as circumcision, menstruation and other religious issues, Jewish strength and weakness, anti-Semitic ideas about Jewish physique and diseases, the revival of the body in Zionism, cosmetic surgery and the myths and realities about Jewish genes.

Konner will trace the historical trajectory from strength (the great warriors of ancient times) to weakness (the deliberate submission of the Diaspora), back to strength (the "muscle-Jews" of Europe, the people's army of modern Israel). While the Jews invented Hollywood, they held up to the world an Aryan ideal of beauty.

His new book "The Jewish Body" examines the "body Judaic" through the prism of Jewish culture and provides an anatomical history of the Jewish people with insights into how our ancestors viewed their bodies and themselves in the scope of Jewish history.

There will be a book sale and signing.

Konner (PhD, MD) is the author of nine books and is the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Anthropology at Atlanta's Emory University.

For more information, see the JGSLA site.

California: Imperial Russia Jewish geographies, Feb. 10

The Center for Jewish Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz will present a colloquium - "The Right to Remain: Jewish geographies in Imperial Russia" - on Wednesday, February 10.

The event begins at noon, in room 210 of Humanities 1.

Professor Nathaniel Deutsch (Literature, History and Jewish Studies) is the speaker.

Unlike others who became a part of the Russian Empire as a result of the partitions of Poland, Jews were not viewed as native to the newly colonized territories.

Many accepted their doubly alien status; however, there also emerged Jewish views that rejected the assumption that they were necessarily alien.

Professor Deutsch will discuss the significance of these views against the backdrop of internal Jewish politics and Russian policies.

The event is free and open to the public.

For more information, click here. See future events in the top bar - click the small red arrow at right or left to move back or forward.

DNA: Numerous Cohanim lineages?

According to Dr. Michael Hammer, new research indicates that Cohanim descend from several lineages, that the "bloodline comes from more than one source."

Recent research on the Cohen Y chromosome indicates the Jewish priesthood, the Cohanim, was established by several unrelated male lines rather than a single male lineage dating to ancient Hebrew times.

The new research builds on a decade-old study of the Jewish priesthood that traced its patrilineal dynasty and seemed to substantiate the biblical story that Aaron, the first high priest (and brother of Moses), was one of a number of common male ancestors in the Cohanim lineage who lived some 3,200 years ago in the Near East.

Hammer is a University of Arizona population geneticist in the Arizona Research Laboratory's Division of Biotechnology. The study includes such collaborators as Dr. Karl Skorecki of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Rambum Medical Center (Haifa); Dr. Doron Behar, population geneticist and senior physician at the Rambam Medical Center Department of Critical Care Medicine (Haifa), who is also FamilyTreeDNA's Chief mtDNA Scientist and Scientific Advisory Board member, as well as collaborating scientists from Tel Aviv University and the Russian Academy of Sciences.

According to the story, a decade ago Hammer and Skorecki were part of the first research group that found the DNA marker signature of the Cohanim - the Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH) - using a much smaller number of markers. Today, they are able to use a much larger battery of DNA markers and are able to develop a more complete CMH, called the Extended Cohen Modal Haplotype.

Hammer says that the findings should motivate renewed interest in historical reconstructions of the Jewish priesthood as well as high resolution DNA marker analyses of other populations and ‘lost tribes' claiming ancient Hebrew ancestry.

The team was able to pinpoint geographic distribution of a genetically more resolved CMH and "tease apart a multiplicity of male lines" that founded the priesthood in ancient times.

The Extended Cohen Modal Haplotype accounts for nearly 30 percent of Cohanim Y chromosomes from Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi Jewish communities and likely traces to a common male ancestor who lived some 3,200 years ago in the Near East. It is virtually absent in non-Jews.

Other lineages that are shared among Cohanim from diverse Jewish communities are distinct from the extended CMH, which reveals, says Hammer, that the priesthood was established by several unrelated male lines.

The Human Genetics journal published the Hammer team's newest findings in their article entitled "Extended Y chromosome haplotypes resolve multiple and unique lineages of the Jewish priesthood."

Some statistics: The team used a sample of 215 Cohanim from various Jewish communities; 1,575 Jewish men from across the Jewish Diaspora; and 2,099 non-Jewish men from the Near East, Europe, Central Asia, and India. Here's a bit of the abstract:

While Cohanim from diverse backgrounds carry a total of 21 Y chromosome haplogroups, 5 haplogroups account for 79.5% of Cohanim Y chromosomes. The most frequent Cohanim lineage (46.1%) is marked by the recently reported P58 T->C mutation, which is prevalent in the Near East.

Based on genotypes at 12 Y-STRs, we identify an extended CMH on the J-P58* background that predominates in both Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi Cohanim and is remarkably absent in non-Jews. The estimated divergence time of this lineage based on 17 STRs is 3,190 +/- 1,090 years.

Notably, the second most frequent Cohanim lineage (J-M410*, 14.4%) contains an extended modal haplotype that is also limited to Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi Cohanim and is estimated to be 4,200 +/- 1,300 years old.

These results support the hypothesis of a common origin of the CMH in the Near East well before the dispersion of the Jewish people into separate communities, and indicate that the majority of contemporary Jewish priests descend from a limited number of paternal lineages.

Hammer says that the findings should motivate renewed interest in historical reconstructions of the Jewish priesthood as well as additional high resolution DNA marker analyses of other populations and ‘lost tribes' claiming ancient Hebrew ancestry."

Read the complete University of Arizona article here and the Human Genetics article here.

The Jewish dimension of 9/11

An interesting column appeared in the New Jersey Jewish Standard posing the question if there was there anything distinctly Jewish about the suffering that resulted from the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack.

Orthodox Rabbi Howard Jachter wrote in his Torah Commentary column that there was a uniquely Jewish facet to this horrific event despite it being an undiscriminating attack on all Americans.

The terrorist attacks left hundreds of individuals whose remains were not found or only small remnants of their bodies were discovered. Besides families waiting for a measure of clarity that their loved ones perished in order for them to begin the formal process of mourning, the plight of the women who wish to one day remarry loomed large in the wake of the World Trade Center attacks.

These women remained agunot, unable to remarry until a bet din (rabbinic court) was able to amass sufficient evidence to issue a ruling verifying the death of the husband and thereby permitting the wife to remarry. As a result of this tragedy, 15 cases of agunot were presented to batei din (rabbinical courts) in the New York metropolitan area.

Throughout history, rabbis have tried to resolve agunot cases. According to the rabbi, the Otzar Haposkim encyclopedia (1982 edition) devotes eight volumes and 1,500 pages to summarize responsa on this topic.

Throughout history, rabbinical authorites have wrestled with this problem during the Holocaust, Israel's various wars and following terrorist attacks. The New York tragedy, writes Jachter, also saw the rabbis focus on months of research, to find evidence that could be used to reach decisions.

The material used - including records for telephones, cellphones, subways, elevators, dental and DNA testing - connects the city's rabbinical court investigations with CSI.

This is a fascinating example of how the rabbinic courts tackled this problem:

The first plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m., between floors 93 and 98. Rabbinic courts determined (after consultation with experts) that this immediately destroyed the elevators and all stairways from the 92nd floor and above. Thus, anyone who was located in this part of the building at the time of the plane’s impact could not escape. Indeed, there are no known survivors from the 92nd floor or above. Thus, anyone who was determined to have been above the 92nd floor or above at 8:46 a.m. was presumed dead by Jewish Law.

The second plane hit the South Tower at 9:02 a.m. between floors 84 and 87. Of those who were at floor 78 and above at the time of impact, only 10 are known to have survived. The 10 who survived were standing by stairwell “A.” The elevators and stairwell “B” were destroyed by the impact of the plane. It seems that stairwell “A” remained intact only for a very brief time after the impact, and that only people who were standing immediately next to it were able to survive. The 10 survivors sustained very serious injuries and would not have survived without immediate hospitalization. Thus, anyone determined to have been in the South Tower at 9:02 a.m. regarding whom there was no record of being hospitalized on Sept. 11 was presumed by Jewish Law to have perished.

He goes further into the sources and presents specific examples such as a husband's phone call to a friend. DNA evidence was accepted and US rabbinic courts were authorized by eminent Israel rabbis to use that evidence.

Read the complete column for more details at the link above.