In response to yesterday’s article:
Although it is true that for centuries, European Jewry did not utilize surnames, surnames have existed for a large part of Biblical and post-Biblical history, both among Jews and non-Jews. E.g., The Canaanites divided into “families,” such that a person might be known as Ephron the Hittite or Mamre the Amorite, and in Egypt, the Levites were divided into families with eponymous surnames, and then the rest of the tribes also. There is a whole list of tribal surnames in Parashath Pinehas, and Chronicles has even more for the various Levitic and priestly groups. Hashmonai was apparently the 2nd century BCE version of a surname, and it was to Ashkenazic Jewry’s detriment that they dropped the practice for so long, thus losing a valuable connection to their histories and genealogies…