A Rosenberg by any other name : a history of Jewish name changing in America / Kirsten Fermaglich.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Sean Ferguson, Winona Ryder, and other Jewish names -- Part I. The rise of Jewish name changing in New York City. 1. Too long, too foreign ... too Jewish?: developing a pattern of Jewish family name changing, 1917-1942 -- 2. What's Uncle Sam's last name?: Jews and name changing in New York City during the World War II era -- Part II. The impact of Jewish name changing after World War II. 3. Changed my name: cultural debates over name changing, passing, and Jewish identity after World War II, 1945-1965 -- 4. Has your surname been changed?: name changing and the politics of Civil Rights activism, 1945-1965 -- Part III. The decline of Jewish name changing in the 1970s and beyond -- 5. My resentment of arbitrary authority: the decline and erasure of name changing in American Jewish society, 1965-2001 -- 6. Not everyone is prepared to remake themselves: name changing in the 21st century.

Print version record.

Our thinking about Jewish name changing tends to focus on clichés: ambitious movie stars who adopted glamorous new names or insensitive Ellis Island officials who changed immigrants' names for them. But as Kirsten Fermaglich elegantly reveals, the real story is much more profound. Scratching below the surface, Fermaglich examines previously unexplored name change petitions to upend the clichés, revealing that in twentieth-century New York City, Jewish name changing was actually a broad-based and voluntary behavior: thousands of ordinary Jewish men, women, and children legally changed their names in order to respond to an upsurge of antisemitism. Rather than trying to escape their heritage or "pass" as non-Jewish, most name-changers remained active members of the Jewish community. While name changing allowed Jewish families to avoid antisemitism and achieve white middle-class status, the practice also created pain within families and became a stigmatized, forgotten aspect of American Jewish culture. This first history of name changing in the United States offers a previously unexplored window into American Jewish life throughout the twentieth century. A Rosenberg by Any Other Name demonstrates how historical debates about immigration, antisemitism and race, class mobility, gender and family, the boundaries of the Jewish community, and the power of government are reshaped when name changing becomes part of the conversation. -- Publisher's description

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