Jennifer Mendelsohn
Someone at adult Hebrew class this morning innocently repeated the Ellis Island name change myth. That was fun.
Dec 4, 2022 at 4:58pmWeb
Show threadSharon Gibson MorganDec 4, 2022

@jmendelsohn

My husband is a rabbi who teaches Bible and Jewish ethics.

He has repeated the story about Ellis Island officials--for some reason, they're Irish-- changing the names of immigrants whose names were hard to pronounce. Consequently, there are a lot of Cohens who aren't kohanim at all.

We're going to have quite the discussion. 🙂

Show threadJennifer MendelsohnDec 4, 2022
@SharonGibson3 always Irish! Never true.
Show threadJennifer MendelsohnDec 4, 2022
@SharonGibson3 Unfortunately I locked down my Twitter so it's not searchable any more but I did a couple threads where people blamed the Irish officer...but the documents completely contradicted that.
Show threadSharon Gibson MorganDec 4, 2022

@jmendelsohn

I wonder how such a story grew legs and took off like that.

I guess the Ellis Island name-change story is one of those great American myths.

Another is the inordinate number of non-native Americans with Native American ancestry--and the antecedent is never just an ordinary member of some tribe. She's always a princess.

Show threadJennifer MendelsohnDec 4, 2022
@SharonGibson3 There's much scholarship on this.
Show threadJennifer MendelsohnDec 4, 2022
@SharonGibson3 My own attempt: https://youtu.be/e3cLduE5aWI
No Names Were Changed at Ellis Island: Debunking a Persistent Myth

YouTube
Show threadSharon Gibson MorganDec 4, 2022

@jmendelsohn

I just finished listening to your YouTube presentation on this matter.

It's really interesting, especially the graph that shows the escalation of this claim decades after Ellis Island closed.

I am definitely sending this to my husband. 😀

Show threadKatmaDec 22, 2022
@SharonGibson3 @jmendelsohn
I also just listened to the YouTube presentation. Previously, I 💯 bought into the myth. It the story my stepfather was told about his family’s name change after immigrating here from Estonia. I might do some digging now
Show threadSéamus McGuireDec 4, 2022
@jmendelsohn I had a friend use use that myth when it came to her family. She was incredulous when I told her no names were changed there.
Show threadDaveJDec 5, 2022
@jmendelsohn oh that poor bastard.
Show threadStephen MooreDec 19, 2022
@jmendelsohn Heard it from a doctor of Hungarian descent in the ER last weekend (he is now Moore (like me), but his ancestors were Mohr). I politely did not correct him.
Show threadRabbi Nathan FarbDec 21, 2022
@jmendelsohn
I have heard that this was a myth, but I just don't understand why so very many people changed their own names or changed the spelling. What were the pressures to do so and why were they so strong? Were immigrants less attached to their family names than we are today?
Show thread🌻 Welcome Back 🌻Dec 22, 2022
@rabbinathan @jmendelsohn
There was a strong desire (and need) to fit in. I figure my husband's Greek ancestor got tired of spelling his name. Probably got teased and harassed too. For many, this was a matter of life and death. For others, their children didn't want to be bullied at school
Show threadTyler CohenDec 24, 2022
@rabbinathan @jmendelsohn I have read that last names were not generally used by Jewish populations in Europe in the way they are now until they were required for taxation purposes (& of course there were rules around what names Jews were NOT allowed to us). But in the US, name changes were usually to make it easier to get employed (assimilating/reducing otherness).
Show threadJennifer MendelsohnDec 25, 2022
@tylerzonia @rabbinathan Jews did not have last names in Eastern Europe until (very roughly, depending on location) about 1800. And there was incredible flux; they weren't wedded them to them and sometimes cast them on and off. You also sometimes see matrilineal/patrilineal surnames back and forth. Changing them in the U.S. was usually an assimilation issue, as you said.