Extension:Ex-2.2.2
Surnames on Jewish Tombstones in Galicia and Bukovina
Ilia Lurie
For many centuries, deceased Jews were identified on their gravestones by first name and father’s name only. Rare exceptions were the names of notable families (such as Rapoport, Landau, Shapiro), which occasionally appear on monuments from the 17th and 18th centuries but selectively and inconsistently in epitaphs. This practice generally continued in Galicia and Bukovina until the early 20th century.
From the mid-19th century onward, however, some Jewish gravestones in the region began to include the family name of the deceased. Apparently, this was a result of the slow gradual implementation of the Josephinian decree of the compulsory adoption of surnames by Jews. Particularly noteworthy in this regard is the new Jewish cemetery in Brody, where the indication of family names became a widespread practice as early as the 1830s. It may be connected with the intensive processes of acculturation in the Jewish environment of this most essential trading center of Austrian Galicia ( Fig.1).
As usual, surnames were not part of the epitaph, which still retained its traditional character; instead, they were engraved on the back of the tombstones (Fig.2, Fig.2a). In cases where the family name was mentioned in the epitaph, it often followed the name of the deceased’s father, becoming part of the patronymic.
There was no consistent method of displaying family names on Jewish monuments in the region; the approach seems to vary depending on the family’s preferences or local tradition. On the Buchach tombstones, for example, which featured numerous surnames, the deceased’s given name and family name appear together, followed by the father’s name (Fig.3, Fig.4).
A unique way of displaying surnames that one sometimes encounters in Galician cemeteries from the early 20th century onward is their inclusion in the standard Yiddish formula: Do ligt [Here lies...], followed by name and surname. This formulation is graphically set apart from the rest of the epitaph (Fig.5, (Fig.6).
Family names appear less frequently on women’s tombstones than on men’s and the family name attested is usually the husband’s, although sometimes the maiden name of the deceased is also indicated as part of her patronymic (Fig.7).
In the late 19th and early 20 centuries, surnames in Latin transcription began to appear on Jewish tombstones in Galicia and Bukovina. They were inscribed separately from the Hebrew epitaph as an independent text on the façade or the back of the monument. The epitaph was thus divided into two independent blocks: the traditional Hebrew text, comprised of the Jewish name of the deceased and the name of his father, and the text in the local language, indicating the given name (not always coinciding with the ritual given name) and surname of the deceased. This duality reflects the split self-identification of Jews, oriented simultaneously toward internal tradition and toward the codes of the modern surrounding society. Notably, the surname was often perceived as the external, non-Jewish component of this binary identity (Fig.8, (Fig.8a, Fig.9, (Fig.10).
The appearance of surnames on 19th century gravestones in Galicia and Bukovina demonstrates the Jews’ gradual adoption of modern identification practices initially imposed by state structures. Family names gradually became a generally accepted marker of Jewish self-identification, alongside given names and patronymics.
This transition, however, was slow; until the First World War, most Jewish epitaphs, particularly in small towns, maintained their traditional character, which did not require a surname to identify the deceased. This pattern is evident in data gathered from seven Galician and Bukovinian cemeteries:
Table: Surnames on Jewish tombstones in Galicia and Bukovina
| Town | Documented tombstones, 1860–1918 | Tombstones with surnames, 1860–1918 | % | Documented tombstones, 1919–1939 | Tombstones with surnames, 1919–1939 | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bolechiv | 673 | 37 | 5 | 293 | 83 | 28 |
| Buchach | 467 (1888 on) | 200 | 43 | 1,066 | 422 | 40 |
| Kuty | 969 | 35 | 3 | 545 | 314 | 58 |
| Kalush | 798 | 17 | 2 | 60 | 10 | 17 |
| Solotvin | 1,061 | 24 | 2 | 207 | 71 | 34 |
| Pidhaitse | 945 | 84 | 9 | 295 | 114 | 39 |
| Siret | 1,122 | 55 | 5 | — | — | |
| Total | 6,035 | 452 | 7 | 2,466 | 1,014 | 41 |
The data in the table demonstrate the duration and difficulty of acculturation within Jewish society, particularly in areas of daily life where economic necessity and external administrative pressure were not significant factors. The authorities neither standardized nor enforced a particular way of commemorating the deceased; this remained the responsibility of the family and traditional community institutions. Therefore, its slow change reflects internal shifts in the Jewish collective consciousness and can accurately indicate the depth and pace of acculturation in the Jewish society of the region.