TIL: German family names for Eastern European Jews

[timelets]

“Before the late 1700s, many eastern European Jews did not use family names. The Austro-Hungarian Empire—of which Galicia was then a part—ordered that all Jews take a name so that they could be more readily taxed. Since Yiddish was banished to private life, the Jews chose names that Austrian officials would approve.”

--- Carl Zimmer. “She Has Her Mother's Laugh.”