User talk:Mortart

Re your article on Jewish surnames.... The Jews in Russia were not required to assume German names, as you report. Actually, most Jews migrated eastward from German-speaking territories to Russia possessing Germanic-sounding names that they had already assumed. Indeed, Jews were barred from Russia proper. Russia acquired a Jewish population only when it took control of areas like eastern Poland, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Bessarabia. These regions became known as the Pale of Settlement--i.e., the only place in the Czarist Russian Empire were Jews were allowed to live. There were exceptions for a few Jews with special occupations the Russians required--like tailors and military band musicians. And, of course, most of them had Germanic names (Goldberg, Epstein, etc.) or Hebraic surnames like Cohen and Levy. Mortart. iankev@att.net