tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post2416824610151246128..comments2024-03-27T23:53:59.771-04:00Comments on SleuthSayers: Hiding in Plain Sight, or, Oh, My God, Everyone’s Jewish! by guest blogger Kenneth WishniaLeigh Lundinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07921276795499571578noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-41058238548325357822022-09-20T11:04:33.763-04:002022-09-20T11:04:33.763-04:00I (Robert Lopresti) am the anonymous commentor abo...I (Robert Lopresti) am the anonymous commentor about John Diamond above. First time the blogger software decided to anon me.Robert Loprestihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08844889305615182897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-36678524080595131572022-09-19T23:24:18.747-04:002022-09-19T23:24:18.747-04:00Also me, not this Anonymous person.Also me, not this Anonymous person.Kenneth Wishnianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-31327276092483613172022-09-19T23:23:05.954-04:002022-09-19T23:23:05.954-04:00Sorry, that was me, not Anonymous.Sorry, that was me, not Anonymous.Kenneth Wishnianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-86596016751304777392022-09-19T23:22:15.343-04:002022-09-19T23:22:15.343-04:00And it took several generations before the Irish (...And it took several generations before the Irish (followed by the Italians and the Jews) were truly considered American. At least this period has shortened a bit for many recent immigrants.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-9435944311395418702022-09-19T23:15:33.169-04:002022-09-19T23:15:33.169-04:00Ha! I don't know about the UK, but over here i...Ha! I don't know about the UK, but over here it was probably true: film noir director William Schloss became William Castle, and there are many other examples.Kenneth Wishnianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-50429398356916222442022-09-19T23:10:38.112-04:002022-09-19T23:10:38.112-04:00Good for your nephew! The arbitrariness of such ch...Good for your nephew! The arbitrariness of such changes can really rankle today. (Sounds a bit like the old Monty Python routine: "Mind if we call you Bruce to keep things clear?") FYI, folks--Jeff is also going to be on the Jewish Noir II panel at NoirCon on October 23.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-67344441319199411972022-09-19T23:05:42.566-04:002022-09-19T23:05:42.566-04:00Yes, I've learned the hard way about being &qu...Yes, I've learned the hard way about being "down in the Ws" at bookstores, but since the family name reached these shores more or less unaltered, I felt I had to honor it. It depends on when your family arrived. My mother's parents came before 1909, and both names were shortened (from Finkelstein to Fink (oy vey) and from Pacovski to Passoff, which doesn't sound like a name in any language). My father's parents came in 1930, and by then Greenberg was so common it didn't need any alterations, and they even left Vishnya pretty much alone, though the spelling was anglicized. In our case, the Vishnya name was invented in the old country by Polish authorities in the mid-to-late 19th century, allegedly because some patriarchal progenitor used a walking stick made of cherry tree wood, and vishnya means "sour cherry"--the kind that vishniak, cherry brandy, is made from.Kenneth Wishnianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-31398685909367848792022-09-19T22:54:53.794-04:002022-09-19T22:54:53.794-04:00Thanks, Art. If anyone wants to hear more and/or d...Thanks, Art. If anyone wants to hear more and/or discuss thus further, I will be giving an interactive presentation on Jewish contributions to Film Noir following a virtual panel on Jewish Noir II at NoirCon on Sunday, Oct. 23. (A certain Elizabeth Zelvin will be joining us on the panel on Jewish Noir II.)Kenneth Wishnianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-9732114763392594382022-09-19T22:16:28.530-04:002022-09-19T22:16:28.530-04:00Given that in many cases the immigrants arriving f...Given that in many cases the immigrants arriving from Eastern Europe and Russia were trying to translate their names from the Cyrillic alphabet to English, spelling changes were probably inevitable. Also, with the illiteracy of the poorest immigrants and language differences between officials and immigrants, it's not surprising names ended up with different spellings.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-23087250919046263652022-09-19T21:40:21.844-04:002022-09-19T21:40:21.844-04:00Ken, as I read your article, names kept popping in...Ken, as I read your article, names kept popping into my head, almost all pre-1933 personalities– Marx Brothers (French/German), Mel Brooks (Poland), David O Selznick (Russian) and his father-in-law Louis B Mayer (Russian/Ukraine). Little wonder McCarthy targeted Hollywood.<br /><br />On a personal note, I met Ken just once, but his personality carries a distinctive stamp. Ken struck me as exceptionally kind and a… mensch.Leigh Lundinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07921276795499571578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-42256399574965292842022-09-19T16:29:42.338-04:002022-09-19T16:29:42.338-04:00Great article! When my husband's 100% Polish C...Great article! When my husband's 100% Polish Catholic parents stopped at Ellis Island in 1958 on their way to the dad's new job in the Midwest, he refused to let them change the spelling of his last name, which ends in -wicz. Evidently when some folks came through Ellis Island, their name spellings were changed to end in -vitch or similar.Elizabeth Dearbornnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-5117777030553002532022-09-19T16:23:07.355-04:002022-09-19T16:23:07.355-04:00That's not so far-fetched. I'm pure Ashken...That's not so far-fetched. I'm pure Ashkenazic Jewish, but I had to learn about Sephardic Jews, including Sephardic names, for my historical series set in the 15th-16th centuries. In the course of my research, I learned that the well known West African poet Léopold Sédar Senghor, who was President of Senegal when I was in the Peace Corps in a neighboring country in the 1960s, acknowledged his Jewish ancestry. It seems Senghor is a variant of the Sephardic surnames Senor, Senhor, and Senior. Elizabeth Zelvinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13944424094949207841noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-22981321892263968692022-09-19T12:13:44.703-04:002022-09-19T12:13:44.703-04:00Great piece, Kenneth, and I look forward to the bo...Great piece, Kenneth, and I look forward to the book which is next on my TBR pile. You reminded me of an essay by a late great British journalist, John Diamond, who talked about his Great-Aunt Kenia, who scoured the credits of every TV show looking for Jewish names. Or names that she was convinced had been changed from Jewish names. "Robinson?" "Rubinstein." "My grandmother... used to refer to Norman Cowans, the Black cricketer, as Cohen."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-11719174587100670422022-09-19T11:21:25.998-04:002022-09-19T11:21:25.998-04:00Yes, as Ken notes, I am free to use my foreign-sou...Yes, as Ken notes, I am free to use my foreign-sounding, polysyllabic name (and by the way, I'm thrilled to have a story in this excellent anthology) but it might be interesting to know that my family name was NOT Markowitz. When my grandfather left Roumania at the start of the twentieth century, the family name was Marcou. Officials on Ellis Island changed his name to Markowitz. One of my nephews has recently reclaimed the family name.Jeff Markowitzhttps://jeffmarkowitz.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-85146803321722974402022-09-19T10:26:14.391-04:002022-09-19T10:26:14.391-04:00Thanks for the blog post! I knew about many of the...Thanks for the blog post! I knew about many of these, but not all. Let's face facts, in America, it's always been assumed that WASP is the norm, and everyone else kind of scuttles in. Even the Irish, whiter than white, had trouble because they were - gasp! - Catholic. Eve Fisherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03015761600962360110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-31579591271382514442022-09-19T09:13:08.145-04:002022-09-19T09:13:08.145-04:00Thanks for joining us this morning, Ken. Zelvin is...Thanks for joining us this morning, Ken. Zelvin is the name of my first husband, which I took 55 years ago, before I knew it would relegate my novels to the floor in bookstores and libraries where one day people old enough to read actual books wouldn't be able to bend far enough to reach them. My maiden name is Lapidus, a name I've been told (by a Lapidus genealogist) some folks changed theirs not from but to when they emigrated to Israel, because it "sounded so Jewish."Elizabeth Zelvinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13944424094949207841noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-1554929129729932262022-09-19T09:10:02.224-04:002022-09-19T09:10:02.224-04:00Ha! Love that last line, Ken —and the entire post,...Ha! Love that last line, Ken —and the entire post, of course. Fascinating histories throughout.Art Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02409008167752619352noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-75994669710294379112022-09-19T09:04:40.344-04:002022-09-19T09:04:40.344-04:00Good blog. Sometimes Jewish names got changed at E...Good blog. Sometimes Jewish names got changed at Ellis Island not because the person was trying to hide their identity but because the workers at Ellis Island couldn't figure out how to spell the immigrant's name. (Issues related to accents perhaps.) I understand that my family name was originally Hoffman but for whatever reason the person in Ellis Island wrote it down as Goffman, and we've been Goffmans ever since.Barb Goffmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02172124872936856806noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-63060500059777140122022-09-19T08:16:10.547-04:002022-09-19T08:16:10.547-04:00A really interesting blog.A really interesting blog.Janice Lawnoreply@blogger.com