Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Shinu es shemam

Someone should make a list of the Hebrew names of notable Jewish scholars and academics who are better known by their shem chol.

Let's start.

Cecil Roth - Betzalel.
Salo W. Baron - Shalom.

49 comments:

  1. Mississippi - Mordechai
    Fred - Chaim
    Macdowell - ?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mississippi - מיינסטר
    Fred - פרוים
    MacDowell - איש לייקווד

    ReplyDelete
  3. Martin Buber - Mordechai
    Franz Rosenzweig - Levy

    ReplyDelete
  4. Richard Cohen - Yerachmiel
    Marc Shapiro - Melech

    ReplyDelete
  5. Adolf Jellinek - Aharon
    Moritz Steinschneider - Moshe

    ReplyDelete
  6. Gershom Scholem's shem koydesh was Gerhardt. (Haha.)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Leopold Zunz - Yom Tov Lippman Tzuntz
    Isadore Twersky - Yitzchak Asher Twersky

    ReplyDelete
  8. Curly Howard = Yehuda Leib ben Shlomo Nosson Halevi

    http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=511

    Top that one!

    ReplyDelete
  9. וידאל די טולושא (Vidal of Tolosa)
    a.k.a as the author of Magid Mishne

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We don't know what his Hebrew name was.

      Delete
    2. Isn't Vidal Chaim?

      Delete
  10. does anybody have Moritz Steinschneider's hebrew name?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Bonastruc de Porta = Moshe

    ReplyDelete
  12. Noted scholar Gene Simmons - Chaim Weiz

    DF

    ReplyDelete
  13. Alexander Kohut = Chanoch Yehuda
    Marcus Jastrow = Mordechai
    Louis Finkelstein = Eliezer Arye
    Heinrich Graetz = Tzvi Hirsh
    Franz Kafka = Anshel

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Louis Ginsberg- Levi.

      In one of his books on the Rav, R' Schachter refers to his colleague "Resh-Kaf-Bet". Unless you knew that Kenny Brander was "Catriel," you'd be lost.

      Delete
    2. IIRC it is R. Kasriel Yehoshua (Kenneth J.) Brander.

      Delete
  14. You mean Krusty, not Kristy.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofski.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Harry Houdini = Should I continue?

    ReplyDelete
  17. Kirk Douglas - Isser Danielovitch
    Paul Muni - Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund
    Sammy Glick - Shmuel Shmelke Glick

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  18. Curly was a yachsen - "Horowitz"

    http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=5831094

    ReplyDelete
  19. It seems we have veered away from scholars and academics, so here are some ancients:

    Philo - Yedidiah
    Josephus - Yosef ben Matityahu
    Paul the christian - Shaul
    R. Akiva - Akavya
    Resh Lakish - Shimon ben Lakish
    Mar bar Rav Ashi - Tavyomi

    And of course,
    Esther - Hadassah

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Akiva is Aramaic for Yaakov.

      Mordechai ain't Jewish either. One Midrash has him as Malachi.

      Delete
  20. Now, the other way.

    Imagine if some of our greats would have emigrated to the US via Ellis Island and given Americanized names. People like Moses Maimonides would have become Morris Macintosh.

    I will stop here before this gets irreverant.

    One example is enough.



    ReplyDelete
  21. Harry Wolfson- צבי הירש
    Avicebron- Ibn Gabriol
    Saul Lieberman- Shaul
    Tobias Stern- שו"ת השביט
    Peter- שמעון
    Louis Jacobs- לייב
    Jonathan Sacks-יעקב צבי

    ReplyDelete
  22. How about:

    Samson Raphael Hirsch: Shimshon ben Rephael. (A common practice.)

    ReplyDelete
  23. Prof. Louis H. Feldman - Magister :).

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  24. Not necessarily.

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  25. I meant to reply to MP's "Shamshon."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Someone sent me a copy of a German letter (in Hebrew letters) which the patriarch sent to his grandson - he signed Shamshon, with nikkud.

      Delete
  26. Richard Tucker - Reuven Ticker
    Harold Arlen - Haim Arluk

    ReplyDelete
  27. "..he signed Shamshon, with nikkud."

    No way! Maybe his pen slipped.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Way! It's specific and, I suppose, interesting. I'll keep you posted.

      Delete
  28. Just found a reference to this letter in your previous Shamshon/Shimshon post. Fotheringay-Phipps, who had a copy, noted that "he wrote the letter using German words and Hebrew letters. So it might be that he used his German name Shamshon, but that his Hebrew name could have been Shimshon." So I still wonder how he was called up to the Torah in Frankfurt-am-Main.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nope. It was Shamshon.
      The Yekkes were careful not to name after somebody with a shortned life. Hence the slight change.

      Delete
  29. Rabbi Louis Jacobs = יהודה לייב

    ReplyDelete
  30. Falk Katz = Yehoshua (Derisha and Me'iras Aynayim, among other)
    Löwe of Prague = Yehudah (Maharal)
    Leo Levi = Yehudah

    ReplyDelete
  31. "If you look for Master Leo Abarbenel, you won't find your man. Your man, in fact, being Yehuda ben Yitzhak Abravanel, also known as Judah Leon Abrabanel, Isaacus Abravanel, or even simply as Leone Ebreo—Leon the Hebrew. Damn those polyonymous Jews."

    From: http://vunex.blogspot.co.il/2008/04/armchair-history.html

    ReplyDelete
  32. Mattisyahu = Mathew Miller
    Marvin Hier = Moshe Chaim (learned that in this month's zman mag)
    Bob Dylan = Zimmerman (Jewish 1st name?)
    Norman Lamm = Nochum (i think)
    Richard Joel = Yerachmiel
    Abba Hillel Silver = Avrohom Silver
    Jack Benny = Binyomin Kubelsky
    Leon Trotsky = Lev Davidovitch Bronshtein

    ReplyDelete
  33. Oh, Moses Mendelssohn: Moshe ben Menachem. :-)

    ReplyDelete

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