Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Yesterday we went on our first hike since Eliot's injury, the Split Rock Path and he was thrilled at the lack of problems. When we got to Lower Rock Lake, he was ready to continue to Middle Rock Lake but I was too tired so we ate lunch and Eliot fished and was able to reel in with his left arm. Then we went to Middle Rock where he did more fishing and I read. Eliot did much better than I did. I was short of breath and my feet complained as usual. Today we've been so far doing campground chores and my feet are already swollen despite my elastic stockings. After lunch we'll try a quad ride (we got the ATVs when we both couldn't hike as much as we used to).
Celeste, the name Goldfeder is almost always Jewish from the Yiddish, not German. Jews in Europe used to not have last names but were just called like David ben Joseph - David son of Joseph but then in various places at different times they were required to get last names, sometimes it would have to do with their trade or places that they lived or they sometimes had to get it from local jurisdiction where money had to pass hands which accounts for some peculiar names like cat's elbow and there actually is a reporter on National Public Radio named Ashlocke which means asshole. I'm not an expert on this, mostly got it second hand. Names like Cohen and Levy however, I believe are from priestly castes. I'm afraid I know more about Wicca than I do about Judaism.

3 comments:

  1. Karin, here in Portugal, the Jews were either killed, expelled or forcefully converted to christianity during the Portuguese Inquisition of 1540 which lasted until 1750, more or less, when the controversial prime minister Marques de Pombal ended the abominable inquisition. Those jews who stayed under the guise of having converted to christianity - even though they continued to perform their religious rites secretely - changed their names to fruit trees. So today we have many Pereiras (pear tree), Macieiras (apple tree), Cerejeira (cherry tree), etc. Those who left the country went to Amsterdam, Thessaloniki, Istambul, France, Morocco, Brazil. Some of the famous descendants of Portuguese jews are Spinoza, and even Nobel prize winner Harold Pinter, to name a few. The controversial prime minister Marques de Pombal expelled the jesuits from the country, or rather, deported them to Cape Verde Island. Even though he had many people killed for personal reasons, he redesigned and builts Lisbon as it is today, after the 1755 earthquake.
    Sorry about this long message, but I love history, and your comment triggered all these thoughts.
    I am glad Eliot is doing better and you were able to enjoy the day yesterday. Take care of yourself, take it easy, dont be on your feet all the time. Sit with your legs up.

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  2. Thank you for the long message.I love history too. I think if more people knew history
    we'd be less likely to keep repeating it didn't know that anout Spinoza or Harold Pinter. I had a friend who escaped Germany as a child whose name was Feigenbaum which means fig tree and he changed it to Tamari which is Hebrew for fig tree.

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  3. Sorry to butt in, but I enjoyed both history lessons here and discovered that pretty much the same thing happened with the Jews in Spain, who had to become "conversos". I bought a wonderful Sephardic cook book which gives a lot of the history, as well as great Jewish/Spanish recipes. Apparently, if there was any doubt whether people were genuine "conversos", neighbours would watch and smell what was cooking before sundown on Friday.

    Go well, Karin, and I'm now off to find out more about Wiccas. I have a feeling this is popular in the West of England, I shall see....

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