NAMES ANALYSIS REPORT
You searched for:"Sarfati",
Here's what we found
The English meaning of Sarfati is The Hebrew word for French.
The name Sarfati is of French origin.
The surname Sarfati is aPersonal Characteristic name, which means that it is derived from a man's given name, usually a father , paternal ancestor or patron.
There are many indicators that the name Sarfati may be of Jewish origin, emanating from the Jewish communities of Spain and Portugal.
When the Romans conquered the Jewish nation in 70 CE, much of the Jewish population was sent into exile throughout the Roman Empire. Many were sent to the Iberian Peninsula. The approximately 750,000 Jews living in Spain in the year 1492 were banished from the country by royal decree of Ferdinand and Isabella. The Jews of Portugal, were banished several years later. Reprieve from the banishment decrees was promised to those Jews who converted to Catholicism. Though some converted by choice, most of these New-Christian converts were called CONVERSOS or MARRANOS (a derogatory term for converts meaning pigs in Spanish), ANUSIM (meaning "coerced ones" in Hebrew) and CRYPTO-JEWS, as they secretly continued to practice the tenets of the Jewish faith.
Our research has found that the family name Sarfati is cited with respect to Jews & Crypto-Jews in at least 38 bibliographical, documentary, or electronic references:
ETSI, Volume 4, No.12 dated March 2001, "Aliases in Amsterdam", by Viberke Sealtiel-Olsen, a list of alias names used by Sephardim in Amsterdam. True Sephardic Name=Alias Name
When the Conversos fled Portugal to settle in Amsterdam they returned openly to Judaism. Because they often still had relatives in Portugal, they tried to protect them by using aliases in their transactions. However, it wasn’t only the Portuguese who wound up in Amsterdam. Even a century after 1492, conversos were finding their way from Spain to Amsterdam. Listing a person as a Portuguese merchant generally meant he was Jewish. Their family contacts worldwide, along with their language skills, were great commercial assets in their farflung business ventures. And in their contacts with family back home, they had to be discreet as to not bring suspicion on relatives left behind This work is a wonderful research tool for Sephardic research in Amsterdam.
ETSI, Volume 4, No.12 dated March 2001, "Aliases in Amsterdam", by Viberke Sealtiel-Olsen, a list of alias names used by Sephardim in Amsterdam. Alias Name=True Sephardic Name
When the Conversos fled Portugal to settle in Amsterdam they returned openly to Judaism. Because they often still had relatives in Portugal, they tried to protect them by using aliases in their transactions. However, it wasn’t only the Portuguese who wound up in Amsterdam. Even a century after 1492, conversos were finding their way from Spain to Amsterdam. Listing a person as a Portuguese merchant generally meant he was Jewish. Their family contacts worldwide, along with their language skills, were great commercial assets in their farflung business ventures. And in their contacts with family back home, they had to be discreet as to not bring suspicion on relatives left behind This work is a wonderful research tool for Sephardic research in Amsterdam.
List of (mostly) Sephardic brides from the publication, "List of 7300 Names of Jewish Brides and Grooms who married in Izmir Between the Years 1883-1901 & 1918-1933". By Dov Cohen.
Dov Cohen has created an index of brides and grooms based on the organization of Ketubot (Jewish wedding contracts) from marriages within the Turkish community of Izmir. From this material we can identify the Jewish families who lived in Turkey since the Spanish expulsion in 1492 in two periods: the end of the Ottoman Empire and the beginning of the secular government of Turkish Republic. Events of these periods forced this community to emigrate to America.
From the publication, "Los Sefardíes" (The Sephardim),by Jose M. Estrugo. Published by Editorial Lex La Habana, 1958.(Surnames common among the Sephardim)
When the Romans conquered the Jewish nation in 70 CE, much of the Jewish population was sent into exile throughout the Roman Empire. Many were sent to the Iberian peninsula. The area became known by the Hebrew word "Sepharad". The JEWS in SPAIN and PORTUGAL became known as "Sephardim" or and those things associated with the SEPHARDIM including names, customs, genealogy and religious rituals, became known as SEPHARDIC.
A Life of Menasseh Ben Israel,by Cecil Roth.
This book contains names from the Sephardic community of greater Amsterdam. Amsterdam was a major haven and transfer point for Sephardim and Crypto-Jews leaving Iberia.
Sephardic names from the magazine "ETSI". Most of the names are from (but not limited to) France and North Africa. Published by Laurence Abensur-Hazan and Philip Abensur.
ETSI (a Paris-based, bilingual French-English periodical) is devoted exclusively to Sephardic genealogy and is published by the Sephardi Genealogical and Historical Society (SGHS). It was founded by Dr. Philip Abensur, and his professional genealogist wife, Laurence Abensur-Hazan. ETSI's worldwide base of authors publish articles identifying a broad spectrum of archival material of importance to the Sephardic genealogist. A useful feature of ETSI is the listing, on the back cover, of all Sephardic family names, and places of origin, cited in the articles contained in each issue
From the civil records of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The Amsterdam Municipal Archives possess a complete set of registers of intended marriages from 1578 to 1811, the year when the present Civil Registry was started. Between 1598 and 1811, 15238 Jewish couples were entered in these books. Both the number of records and the volume of data that may be extracted from them are unprecedented.
From the records of Bevis Marks, The Spanish and Portuguese Congregation of London
Bevis Marks is the Sephardic synagogue in London. It is over 300 years old and is the oldest still in use in Britain.The Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation of London has published several volumes of its records: they can be found in libraries such as the Cambridge University Library or the London Metropolitan Archive
Finding Our Fathers: A Guidebook to Jewish Genealogy, by Dan Rottenberg
In this work Dan Rottenberg shows how to do a successful search for probing the memories of living relatives, by examining marriage licenses, gravestones, ship passenger lists, naturalization records, birth and death certificates, and other public documents, and by looking for clues in family traditions and customs. Supplementing the "how to" instructions is a guide to some 8,000 Jewish family names, giving the origins of the names, sources of information about each family, and the names of related families whose histories have been recorded. Other features included a country-by-country guide to tracing Jewish ancestors abroad, a list of Jewish family history books, and a guide to researching genealogy.
The Sephardic Jews of Bordeaux, by Frances Malino
Describing the tensions that existed between the Sephardic community of Bordeaux and the Ashkenazic Jews of France, the author also depicts their role in the relation of the Jews with Napoleon and the forming of the Grand Sanhedrin
Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation, by Miriam Bodian
This work explores why the Portuguese Jews of northern Europe never established a solid sense of belonging to the wider Sephardi diaspora. It explores how, historically, the Conversos lost the consciousness of being “Sephardi” in the generations after the expulsion from Spain and the mass baptism of Portugal’s Jews in 1497. To be sure, once the Portuguese ex-Conversos organized in Jewish communities, their leaders made efforts to reconnect with the wider Sephardi world, and these efforts had serious symbolic and strategic value. But the Portuguese Jews’ rootedness in the Converso experience meant that their core sense of collective self remained distinct. Contributing factors to their enduring sense of distinctness were these aspects of Converso experience: the absorption of Catholic notions of piety; the “de-rabbinization” of crypto-Jewish belief; and the difficulty for many Conversos of maintaining any stable set of traditional beliefs. The outward image their leaders sought to cultivate may have been one of Sephardi traditionalism, but, at an emotional level, members of these communities continued to regard themselves as members of the “nação”—a term that evoked the Converso past.
Histoire des Juifs de Rhodes, Chio, Cos,(History of the Jews of Rhodes: Chio,Cos) by Professor Abraham Galante, published in Istanbul.
Abraham Galante (1873-1961) was first a teacher and an inspector in the Jewish Turkish Schools of Rhodes and Izmir. He conducted an active campaign for the adoption of the Turkish language by the Jews. In 1914, after the revolution of the Young Turks, Galante was appointed professor of Semitic languages and later of history of the Ancient Orient. His principal field of scientific activity was the study of the Jewish history in Turkey
Apellidos de Judios Sefardies (Surnames of the Sephardic Jews) from the site Comunidad Judia Del Principado de Asturias
The Principality of Asturias (Spanish: Principado de Asturias - Asturian: Principáu d'Asturies) is an autonomous community within the kingdom of Spain, former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages. It is situated on the Spanish North coast facing the Cantabrian Sea (Mar Cantábrico, the Spanish name for the Bay of Biscay). The most important cities are the provincial capital, Oviedo, the seaport and largest city Gijón, and the industrial town of Avilés. No one knows the exact date at which Jews arrived in Asturias. Based solely on the documentation found so far in Asturias, there are clear references to the mid-eleventh century Council of Coyanza held in the Diocese of Oviedo in 1050 which states in Chapter VI: "... no Christian shall live in the same house with Jews or eat with them; if anyone infringes our constitution, they shall do penance for seven days, and if not willing to do it, being a noble person, they shall be deprived of communion for a full year, and if an inferior person they will receive a hundred lashes." But it is in the twelfth century when the rise and importance of the Jewish people is more noticeable in this region. Jewish witness signatures begin to appear more often on donation pledge cards from 1133. Asturias names are not very common among the Jewish population in other parts of the peninsula around the same time, perhaps causing confusion.
Precious Stones of the Jews in Curaçao; Curaçaon Jewry 1656-1957, by Isaac Samuel Emmanuel (1957)
Names taken from 225 tombstones of 2536 persons, 1668 - 1859, men, women and some Rabbis. Includes cemetery history and plan, biographies including family histories, chronological list of names, alphabetical list of family names + number of members + eldest tombstone year, large bibliography, general alphabetical index, 15 genealogies.
Bernard Allali. La saga des noms des familles juives tunisiennes(The saga of the names of Tunisian Jewish families) en "Le Voyage Loisirs", France, 1977
The story of Jewish surnames in Tunisia.
Robert Attal and Joseph Avivi. "Registres Matrimoniaux de la Comminaute Juive Portugaise de Tunis. XVIII-XIX Siecles" (Matrimonial records of the Tunisian Portuguese Jewsih Community 18th-19th Centuries), Oriens Judaicus, Ben Zvi Institute, Israel 1989
Listing of marriages that occurred in the Portuguese Jewish Community of Tunis which kept itself separate from the local Tunisian Jews and kept careful records. French and Hebrew editions are available.
Marcelo Benveniste. "Origen: La Isla de Rodas" (Origin: The Island of Rhodes), in Boletin No.3, Sociedad Argentina de Genealogia Judia, Buenos Aires, apr 1997.
Matilde Gini de Barnatan. Picciotto, originals, Sao Paulo, 1996.
Genealogy of the descendants of Daniel Pichoto (b.1605), a family originating from Livorno and based in Alepo. It is a branch that became a consular dynasty, representing European powers in the East.
Claudie Blamont (president). Revue du Cercle de Genealogie Juive (The Circle of Jewish Genealogy), Paris, 1998.
The Cercle de Généalogie Juive (CDGJ) located in Paris,France maintains a list of members and the families and areas they are researching.
Synagogue Beth Yaacov Sao Paulo, list of members, Sao Paulo, 1996.
There are about 96,500 Jews in Brazil today. The current Jewish community is mostly composed of Ashkenazi Jews of Polish and German descent and also Sephardic Jews of Spanish, Portuguese, and North African descent. Brazilian Jews play an active role in politics, sports, academia, trade and industry, and are overall well integrated in all spheres of Brazilian life. The majority of Brazilian Jews live in the State of São Paulo although there are sizeable communities elsewhere. Jews lead an open religious life in Brazil and there are schools, associations and synagogues where Brazilian Jews can practice and pass on Jewish culture and traditions. The Beit Yaakov synagogue, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, is an imposing temple, built in the 90s, a gift of the brothers Joseph and Moise Safra to the Jewish community of Sao Paulo. Also known as the Safra Synagogue, it is the largest synagogue in the city of São Paulo.
Paul Armony. "Apellidos sefardies mas frecuentes obtenidos de los cementerios Avellaneda - Lomas de Zamora - Ciudadela (Acis y Asia) - Tablada Sefaradi y Bancalari" (Common sephardic names as taken from the Avellaneda Cemetery). SEFARAires Nº9 / 2003 página 7.
Paul Armony, President of the Jewish Genealogy Association in Argentina, collected and organized 19,060 records from six Jewish Sephardic cemeteries in Argentina. Of the 3682 surnames of deceased found there, 58% were found to have the same 334 surnames.
Sao Paulo Chevra Kadisha, List of people buried, Sao Paulo 1997.
The Chevra Kadisha (Jewish Burial Society) of Sao Paulo is a Society founded in February 25, 1923, to care for the burial of the Jews of Sao Paulo (city and state). The Society currently runs 4 Jewish cemeteries in Sao Paulo. The research was conducted in three ways: reading the tombstones, a consulting the list of deaths until 24 September 1997, and from the society's records and books. The list of deaths, organized by Prof. Solomon, has the name of the deceased, the grave location and the date of his burial. The books are more detailed, with biographical data, which includes the city of origin, thus enabling it to be confirmed as Sephardic. This is a formal record of one of the most important Jewish communities in Latin America, showing how the country was very attractive for Jews from different and distant locations.
Dov Cohen. "Fuentes para la Genealogia de los Judios de Izmir (Esmirna)(Sources for the Genealogy of the Jews of Izmir (Smyrna)" Boletin n° 2 p. 18-9 Sociedad Argentina de Genealogia Judaica, Buenos Aires, dec 1996.
Nissim Elnecave. Los Hijos de Ibero-Franconia. Breviario del Mundo Sefaradí desde los Orígenes hasta nuestros días(The Children of Iberia-Spain: World Sephardic Breviary from the beginning to today), Editorial "La Luz", Buenos Aires, 1981.
In this work on Sephardic history, the author argues his main thesis: Sephardic is a cultural concept, and therefore should not be restricted to descendants of Portuguese and Spanish Jews, but should also extend to France, Italy and the Arab world.
List of surnames of Jews residing in Toledo prior to expulsion edict.
From Nahman Family Research.
La Designation d' un Grand Rabbin de Tunisie en 1928 (The appointment of a Chief Rabbi of Tunisia in 1928), in Revue des Etudes Juives, CLI, Paris, jan/jun 1992.
From literary and archaeological sources, evidence has been gathered of a rich Jewish communal life in Tunisia going back some 2300 years. This article discusses the changes that came about with the introduction of the French protectorate in 1881. The French intervened in all areas of Jewish communal life, so far as to decide on the appointment of the chief rabbi of all Tunisia, which was to be a French Jew. This decision aroused a revolt in the community, who strongly opposed it, demanding the appointment of a Chief Rabbi of Tunisian origin. The Conservative Party took the lead in drafting a petition calling on the entire Jewish population of the Regency to support this view and won: Rabbi Youssef Guez, a Tunisian Jewish native, was elected in 1928 to the post of Chief Rabbi of Tunisia, and remained so until his death in 1934.
List of buried people in the Cemetery "Mt. Hebron Cemetery", Queens, N.Y.C., Website, New York, 2000
Mount Hebron Cemetery has been serving the Jewish community of New York City since its first burial on April 14, 1909. Since then, over 217,000 burials have taken place.
Jacques Carasso (editor). List of Greek Jews Killed in Auschwitz, La Lettre Sepharade, Gordes, France.
As soon as the Germans entered Greek mainland, they implemented anti-Jewish policies. In 1943 deportations began. In total, over 54000 greek Jews were sent to Auschwitz. Only a handful survived.
Joseph Toledano. La Saga des Familles. Les Juifs du Maroc et leurs noms (The story of the families: The Moroccan Jews and their names).
Lionel Lévy, Itinéraires portugais de Tunis, de Livourne et d'Amsterdam au XIXe siècle, Nations, Communautés, familles, entreprises (Portuguese itineraries from Tunis, Leghorn and Amsterdam in the 19th century: Nations, communities, families, businesses], published under the title "La Nation Juive Portugaise, 1591-1951, Livourne, Amsterdam, Tunis", ed. l'Harmattan, Paris 1999
From seventy-four families of Portuguese merchants Marrano origin mentioned in the seventeenth century in the archives of the consuls of France in Tunis, Lionel Levy reconstructs the channels of commerce and family networks that unite, Amsterdam, Leghorn and a their counters privileged, Tunis, from the late sixteenth century to the early twentieth century, the descendants of New Christians returned to Judaism.
Michele Luzzatti, Liana Borghi (ed.), Ebrei di Livorno tra Due Censimenti (1841-1938) (The Jews of Leghorn Between Two Censuses), Belforte Editore Libraio, Livorno, 1990.
This work tells the story of one upper-class Italian family: The Salmon - Cave Bondi Jews of Leghorn in between two censuses (1841-1938). Family memories and identity.
Maria Jose Pimenta Ferro Tavares. Os judeus em Portugal no seculo XIV (The Jews in Portugal in the 14th century), Lisboa, 1979.
This study includes a name and place index.
J. Mendes dos Remedios, "Os Judeus Portugueses em Amsterdam" (The Portuguese Jews in Amsterdam), 1911, Coimbra
A compilation of Judeo-Portuguese texts published in Amsterdam can be found in this book and can now be downloaded. http://www.archive.org/details/osjudeusportugue00mend
Yves Fedida & Avraham Malthete, "Montefiore Census: Jews in Alexandria", 1840
This census taken in 1840 amongst Jews in Alexandria Egypt can be viewed online with data including family names, first names, age, economic wealth,occupation, marital status, and offfspring. In the 19th and 20th community the Jewish community in Egypt was vibrant and growing, to which existing documents and records can testify. The Jewish population grew to over 90,000 poeple in the first half of the 20th century but virtually all the Jews fled the country in 1948. Today only a handful remain.
Sephardic House, newsletter, New York, 1999.
Daniel M. Swetschinski. Reluctant Cosmopolitans: The Portuguese Jews of Seventeenth Century Amsterdam, London, 2000.
Several thousand "New Christians" (the descendants of Portuguese Jews who had been forcibly converted some two centuries before) emigrated to Amsterdam in the 17th century. Subsequently the community decided to remanifest themselves as Jews. The author focuses on the social dimension of Jewish economic and religious life, formal and informal, as well as their interactions with the Dutch authorities and populace (an exceptionally cordial relationship for that time). Also explored is the contradictions that arose from Jews that often retained, sometimes without realizing it, Catholic ideas and views.
Maria Jose Pimenta Ferro Tavares. Os Judeus em Portugal no seculo XV (The Jews in Portugal in the Fifteenth Century) Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Lisbon, 1984.
Includes biographic data, maps and bibliography.
Gyorgy Ujlaki. Most Common Names from the Sophia (Bulgaria) Jewish Cemetery, compiled in Budapest August 30, 1997
Distinguished Jewish bearers of the Sarfati name and its variants include : Semah Sarfaty (1624-1717) Tunisian Rabbi ; Abner Israel Sarfaty (1827-1884) Grand Rabbi of Fez ; Andre Daniel Sarfaty (1944), French Journalist ; Vidal ben Salomon ben Israel Jacob Sarfaty (1797-1856) Moroccan Rabbi
Around the 12th century, surnames started to become common in Iberia. In Spain, where Arab-Jewish influence was significant, these new names retained their old original structure, so that many of the Jewish surnames were of Hebrew derivation. Others were directly related to geographical locations and were acquired due to the forced wanderings caused by exile and persecution. Other family names were a result of conversion, when the family accepted the name of their Christian sponsor. In many cases, the Portuguese Jews bear surnames of pure Iberian/Christian origin. Many names have been changed in the course of migration from country to country. In yet other cases "aliases", or totally new names, were adopted due to fear of persecution by the Inquisition.
Here are some locations where registries of Sephardic or Christianized Jewish families with this surname have been traced: Florence, Italy,Hamburg, Germany,Chaves, Portugal,Porto, Portugal,Castelo de Vide, Portugal,Alexandria, Egypt,Amsterdam, Netherlands,Buenos Aires, Argentina,Istanbul, Turkey,Lisbon, Portugal,Livorno (Leghorn), Italy,Monastir, Tunisia,Portugal, ,Rome, Italy,Sao Paulo, Brasil,Smyrna, Netherlands,Sofia, Bulgary,Temuco, Chile,Dutch Brazil, Brasil,Rhodes, Greece,La Goulette, Algeria,New York, USA,
Some interesting facts about the name this name are : The name Sarfati existed before 1492.
Some common variations of Sarfati are Sarfatis, Tsarfati, Sarfate, Sarfaty, Serfaty, Serfati, Sarfatti, Zarfati, Sarphati,
The following websites are relevant to the surname Sarfati:
http://www.turkishjews.com/history/history.asp
http://www.naqshbandi.org/ottomans/protectors/protectors.htm
http://ha-historion.blogspot.com/2007/03/sephardic-jews-of-ashkenazic-descent.html
http://www.sephardicgen.com/databases/malkheiRabananSrchFrm.html
http://www.sefardies.org/component/easytable/easytablerecord/7-amsterdam-1757-1813/109
http://www.sephardicgen.com/databases/MeknesFamiliesSrchFrm.html,
