Zehava’ Dad writes: “Goldstein or Steinberg might be anglosized [sic] but they are clearly jewish [sic]. Ironically, our Goldsteins and Steinbergs probably got their “clearly Jewish” names by coercion. It began on July 23, 1787, at the hand of the Austrian emperor Joseph II. Much of Prussia followed in 1790–1794. Napoleon did the same in 1808 for France and all lands west of the Rhine; many other parts of Germany required it within a few years. In 1812, when Napoleon had occupied much of Prussia, surname adoption was mandated for the unoccupied parts; and Jews in the rest of Prussia adopted surnames in 1845. Concurrently, Jewish surname laws emerged Western Galicia (1805), Frankfurt-am-Main (1807), Hessen-Darmstadt (1808), Baden (1809), Westphalia (1808, 1811), Bavaria (1813), Wurttemberg and Hannover (1828), Posen (1833), Saxony (1834), and Oldenburg (1852). These areas were home to the great majority of European Ashkenazic Jews. (Extracted from Jeffrey Mark Paull and Jeffrey Briskman, “History, Adoption, and Regulation of Jewish Surnames in the Russian Empire: A Review”).
Most Ashkenazi Jews who didn’t adopt Gentile-sounding surnames by coercion did it voluntarily in order to enjoy the benefits of the Emancipation.
Menu