Include Hebrew name in Jewish American profile?

Question

I'm still working to connect Alice Golomb to the global tree, and have worked sideways into Baltimore. While writing up notes for Rabbi Ervin Preis, I noticed that his Hebrew name was given in Baltimore's Jewish Times. 

Does this name belong in his profile? Maybe just in the bio notes, or as an alternate name? I interpreted it as being provided for prayers for his health, so I wondered how personal it was and how it should or shouldn't be incorporated.

Thanks!

Comments

What a great question Karen!  Mags

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Although this is not a direct answer to the question, I found that several of the sources are available only through a portal to the Denver Public Library and access is only open to Colorado residents. Is there a way to provide information about the source material that does not require this access? I, for one, do not live in Colorado.

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Good point, Henry! I see now how I can use NewsBank's feature to provide a link with no login required. Let's hope it's a permanent URL! Feel free to give it another try and let us know.

Answer 1

I don't know whether it is necessary to provide data fields for a Hebrew name, but I can provide some enlightenment about why Jewish people have Hebrew names and perhaps that will help people move toward a consensus about the answer.

In the jewish religion, it is very important for a newborn child to be named for a deceased relative for whom no one else has yet been named.  This has something to do with the deceased person not being admitted to heaven until someone living has been give his/her name.

In the Untied States (and perhaps in other countries as well, but I have no knowledge of their practices), like many other groups of foreign immigrants, Jews tend to Anglicize their own names and give children born here American sounding names.  They typically choose a name for a child that starts with the same letter as the name of the relative for whom they are being named, but don't feel any motivation to use the same American first name as the deceased person.  This is the child's legal name.  The child is also assigned a Hebrew name, which is always identical to the deceased relative for whom they are being named. For religious purposes, that is the name that counts for satisfying the requirement.

I have known many American Jews, but have never met one who had any consiousness of their Hebrew name, beyond knowing what it is if asked.  For whatever it's worth, my opinion is that it is completely unnecessary to implement any special means of including a person's Hebrew name.  If someone wants to do that, they can enter it in the nickname field.  Whether or not they do that, something about it can also be put in the biography.

Comments

Karen,

I just looked at the profile - you did a great job on that!  I see that Rabbi Preis belongs in the Holocaust Project.  Would you please add the following on the top two lines of his biography:

[[Category: Holocaust Survivors]]
{{Holocaust}}

THANX!

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Gaile, thank you for your thoughtful response. You're the best!

I did decide to include Rabbi Preis' Hebrew name at the end of the bio, and I added the category & template to his profile as well as his parents and brother. Did you have time to click through to some of the news articles? I really liked ''The Strength,'' which made it so clear what a special person he was. I just stumbled upon his family while trying to fulfill a cousin connection request for the Global Family Reunion, and now I can't stop because I want him in my family. 

 

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Yes, I did see that article.  I looked at all your sources because I am always trying to collect good sources to use for all the Holocaust project profiles.  It was truly moving.

I know how you feel.  I got involved in this the same way.  When I first joined WikiTree, I had no idea what genealogy was all about and my own family (which I still haven't gotten back to) was too difficult.  I answered a G2G request for volunteers to work on unsourced profiles.  I picked a fairly recent person who lived int the US, figuring it would be easier.  He had parents, siblings, wife, children, grandchildren, etc.  and they were all unsourced.  In the process of finding information about him, I found some for the others, so I just kept going.  It turned out that this family was part of a 1,000 member gedcom that was uploaded and promptly abandoned in 2011, so I adopted them all!!!  As I kept going, it turned out to be a Jewish family that went back to German roots and about 200 members of this family died in the Holocaust.  So .... here I am now, coordinator of the brand new Holocaust Project and I've probably learned enough now to be able to find out some stuff about my own family, but I'm too involved in my "adopted" one to leave off what I'm working on now.  By the way, how would you like to join the Holocaust Project?  We could sure use more hands with all the profiles we've got in there now ... and thank you for adding the templates/categories.  If you encounter any others who belong in the project, please, by all means, add it to them also.

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For all intensive purposes the Hebrew/Yiddish name was their real name but not for legal documents.

Answer 2

I'm an American Jew.  The tradition I was raised with was that children are named for decased relatives in their memory, not to get them into heaven.  The reason one only names after deceased relatives is so the Angel of Death doesn't accidentally take the younger one when it's the oldest person's time.  (I've modernized this to: so the insurance company doesn't cancel the child's  insurance when they mean to cancel the olderr person's.)  The tradition of only naming after deceased relatives is so strong that it's a curse if someone expresses the wish that someone be named after you soon. :-)

Hebrew names can be more useful for genealogy than English names, as pointed out by Gaile.  I'm named for my grandmother Eva; we both have the Hebrew name Chava.  My daughter Julia is named for my grandfather Julius; both have the Hebrew name Yonah (which is unisex -- sometimes the name changes with gender).   I can remember the order of deaths and births in my family by knowing who was named for whom.  (Since I was named for my grandmother, she must have died before I was born but after my older sister was.)

I don't think a field is necessary for Hebrew names.  It can go in the bio field or wherever one would discuss namesakes.

My answer would be different for my ancestors who immigrated to this country and had a Hebrew name used by their family and an English name taken up when they entered this country.  That would be an alternate name, of course (just as for the relatives whose last names changed).

Comments

Maybe put the name as Other Name or Nickname?  It would then show up when searched for. Sometimes the Hebrew/Yiddish name is all someone has to go on. A lot of people consider their Hebrew name to be their true name.