Jews’ Names Were Not Changed at Ellis Island
Dara Horn
2010
[ . . . ] I gave a public lecture at a Jewish institution and casually mentioned that the family story so many American Jews have heard, that their surnames were changed at Ellis Island, is a myth. [ . . . ]
After that talk, I was mobbed by people—angry people, in a scrum. These were well-read, highly educated American Jews, each of whom furiously…
Why do so many American Jews believe their ancestors changed their names at Ellis Island? This excerpt from Dara Horn’s book People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present reflects on this question, based on scholarship on American Jewish history. Horn concludes that the myth developed because American Jews wanted to protect their descendants from the truth that they experienced discrimination as Jews in the United States.
Why do you think so many Jews in America changed their names in the decades following immigration? Do you interpret these decisions as evidence of antisemitism, a desire to integrate, or both?
Is there a difference between changing one’s family name and changing one’s first name or going by a nickname?
Why do you think so many families believed that their ancestors’ names were changed at Ellis Island? Do you know of other immigrants who changed their names or took an additional American name?
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Creator Bio
Dara Horn
Novelist Dara Horn grew up in New Jersey and holds a doctorate in literature from Harvard University. Her first novel, In the Image, deals with the supernatural and received the National Jewish Book Award, the Edward Lewis Wallant Award, and the Reform Judaism Fiction Prize. Her third novel is set in the American Civil War. Horn was chosen by Granta magazine as one of the Best Young American Novelists.
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