Beeri Or Puah?

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE 42 LIFE THEJC.COM 20 OCTOBER 2017 ACTING LIKE A GROWN-UP HISTORY Your guide to making it up as you go along, with Susan Reuben Beeri or Puah? The choice of a Secret Jewish treas ures hidden in plain sight ARTEFACTS REBECCA mum’s lifetime ABRAMS N THE sleepy market town of Shadova in Lithuania, an HORTLY AFTER the was born, people said to each hour’s drive from Kaunas, birth of our third other: “He’s calling him Ephraim? or Kovno as it’s called in and final baby, You’ve got to be kidding. No one’s Yiddish, a small statue has I realised to my been called that since the 2100s.” recently been erected in the dismay that a key Or maybe King David said to his main square. The slight fig- part of my life was wife: “Shall we call the new baby ure of a young girl stands over. I had spent Solomon? It used to be really out in silent commemoration of the the previous 37 of fashion, but I’ve heard it’s com- Itown’s Jewish children, who in 1941 years planning what I was going ing back in again.” were marched out to the nearby Sto call my children — and now I’d Although it is so common to forests and murdered en masse used up all my chances. name children from the Torah or by the Nazis and their Lithuanian As a lover of words, I have always other parts of the Tanach (for our accomplices. been obsessed with names. They boys, we chose the increasingly- Long empty roads spider off the seem to me a particularly potent popular “Isaac” and the more unu- town-square out into the country- and fascinating area of language. sual “Boaz”), it seems to me that a side beyond, lush in early summer The idea of actually being able to disappointingly small selection of with long grass and studded with bestow a name on another human the available names are ever used. wild flowers. The silence is sudden- being has always struck me as Why is no one called Haggi, Bun- ly broken when the doors of the really exciting. ni or Mushi, for example? Why do community centre are flung open Therefore, if you had asked me you never meet a Jeezer, a Pispah and an excited crowd of local chil- at any point from my early child- or a Madmannah? Where are Er dren pour out into the watery sun- hood what I planned to call my and Ner, Uz and Buz, Gog and shine filling the square. They are children, I would have been able Magog? Surely these folk deserve all dressed as flowers to celebrate to answer immediately. (Though it to be remembered, too? the start of spring. should be said that, until I reached Often, of course, the reason is The children stream in colourful my teens, I would only ever con- that the characters in question motley past the silent Jewish girl, sider girls’ names — the idea that I are either extremely minor — they her presence unnoticed. Even their might ever have a boy being com- might only be mentioned because parents are too young to remem- pletely beyond the pale). they’re related to someone more ber. But, when pressed, a few of the When it came to planning a important — or else morally ques- older people do recall the round- family for real, I was so keen to tionable. Cain and Jezebel, for up. One old man told an interview- discuss potential names with my instance, are uncom- er about a story he’d heard of two husband, Anthony, that he insti- mon for good reason. boys who’d followed the forced gated a rule: he wasn’t prepared to Some names march out to the forest. They’d hid- talk about it unless I was actually have meanings you den and watched. As he was tell- pregnant. This seemed unduly wouldn’t necessarily ing this story, his granddaughter harsh — but he was unbending on wish on your child. piped up: “But granddad, you told the subject. Where One of David’s wives me, you saw it!” Reluctantly, the I am always amazed at the many are Er was called Eglah, old man admitted that, yes, he was people who don’t decide what and Ner, meaning “heifer”. actually talking about himself. to call their child until after it’s Uz and Other biblical fig- Hidden stories seem intrinsic born — and, even then, not always Buz, ures, however, fulfil all to the Jewish narrative. My great straight away. People often say that Gog and the criteria for having grandmother, Annie Isaacoff, left they want to meet the baby first Magog? people called after Lithuania long before the Holo- and decide what name will suit them: they are sig- caust, moving to Leeds and then it. That does make sense to me — nificant, heroic, and their actions London in the late 19th century, except that I’m far too impatient to have far-reaching effects down the where she met and married her wait that long to decide. generations. Yet they are ignored, brother’s best friend, my great By the time, I was about halfway because they don’t have decent grandfather, Abram Abramovitch. through each pregnancy, we had names. What happened to those who a boy’s and a girl’s name lined up. An example is Puah, one of the remained behind was never men- It was very much in Anthony’s midwives who defied Pharaoh’s tioned in our family stories. It Pisarro’s like Jewish people themselves, their heads down, not drawing interests that we reach a decision, command to kill all the male was only in my late twenties that I Vue de ma come to England from elsewhere attention to themselves. Set within because it meant that I would Hebrew babies. Without her, learnt that many of our Polish rela- fenetre, and, over time, become thoroughly the larger “culture” of the museum finally shut up till the next time. Moses would not have survived. tions had been killed during the Eragny. assimilated into the museum’s col- itself, they were no longer imme- A few weeks ago, the BBC pub- Another is Hoglah, one of the Second World War. Below: lections. Their relevance to Jewish diately identifiable as Jewish. And lished a searchable database of daughters of Zelophehad who When I began to research the Rebecca history had been while this helped locate Jewish his- baby names. You can enter any campaigned for the rights of wom- Jewish objects in the Ashmolean Abrams obscured. They tory in its wider geographical and name, and it will tell you how en to inherit property. She was a Museum in Oxford for my book, The had become cultural context, it also ran the risk many babies it was given to last feminist several thousand years Jewish Journey, it was in response typical rep- of erasing, however unintention- year. It’s a lot of fun to play with. before her time. These two women to a growing realisation that, here, resenta- ally, their specifically Jewish sig- Obviously, the first thing I did — deserve to be remembered, and too, right on my doorstep, there tives of nificance. that anyone does — was to put in yet the modern world is not highly were hidden Jewish lives and Anglo- But who was I to complain? the names of myself and my fam- populated with Puahs or Hoglahs. untold Jewish stories. With help Jewry: Within five years of arriving ily. It turns out only 21 babies were My husband was particularly from fellow members of Oxford keep- in England in 1904, my Roma- called Susan in 2016. I found it fas- fond of Beeri the Hittite as a poten- Jewish Heritage, I embarked on ing nian great-grandfather had cinating that a name that was part tial baby name, on the grounds a quest to find these objects, and changed his name of the standard British canon a few that he sounded like he’d be a good two things quickly became clear: from Herman decades ago (it was the most popu- person to have at a party. Luckily, first, that the museum contained Jaghar to Harry lar girls’ name of 1964) should the choice of names for our chil- Jewish artefacts in abundance, and Yager. His have become almost obsolete. dren wasn’t only up to him. secondly, that they were peculiarly son-in- It made me wonder whether hard to find and, once found, hard law, names have always gone quickly in @susanreuben to understand, even though they my and out of vogue. Does the tenden- BBC searchable baby names were on display in plain view in the cy go right back to biblical times? database: www.bbc.co.uk/news/ museum’s galleries. Perhaps, when Joseph’s first son uk-england-41160596 The majority of the objects had, THE JEWISH CHRONICLE 20 OCTOBER 2017 THEJC.COM LIFE 43 Secret Jewish treas ures hidden in plain sight PHOTOS: ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM artefacts in the Ashmolean. The A late 16th- Christian scholars and funeral plaque of a Jewish sausage century collectors. With supreme seller, who lived in Rome in the 5th Italian viol irony, the Nazis themselves century, tells an important story of de gamba in some cases helped to pre- immigration and integration. The made by serve Jewish artefacts, which plaque is inscribed with a meno- Girolamo they collected with the rah, leaving us in no doubt it was Amati for intention of show-casing made for a Jew, but the inscription the Medici their success in eradicat- is in Latin, and the dead man’s family ing both the Jewish peo- name, Alexander, reminds us that, ple and Jewish culture.

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