GOLDMAN Origin of surname

Emma Goldman (1869-1940), political activist, born in Kaunas (Kovno), Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire, in 1869, where she lived until 1882, when her family moved to St. Petersburg, Russia. It was in St. Petersburg that Emma was first acquainted with revolutionary ideas that she would follow throughout her life. She immigrated to the United States in 1885, settling first in Rochester, NY, and after 1889 in New York City. Her experience as a laborer as well as the political unrest in Chicago in 1886 contributed to her adherence to Anarchist circles and becoming a political activist. Before long, she became involved in an assassination attempt and in 1893 was jailed following her call for the overthrow of the political and economic system. In the early 1900's, she started publishing Mother Earth - a radical journal that she used as a stage for advancing her ideas in favor of women's emancipation, birth control and other revolutionary ideas. Her opposition to WW1 and the American participation to it brought about her expulsion from United States in 1918 back to Russia, then in the middle of the Communist Revolution and the Civil War. However, Emma Goldman rapidly became disillusioned with the Soviet regime and returned to the West, obtained British citizenship in 1925 and then settled in Canada, from where she strove to return to the United States. During the 1930's, she endeavored in drawing the attention of the public opinion against the Nazi peril while lecturing both in Europe and in Canada.

Jacob Goldman (1921-2011), physicist who as the chief scientist of Xerox corporation founded the company's Palo Alto research center which invented the modern personal computer. He was born in Brooklyn, to immigrants to the USA from Russia. He attended Yeshiva University and received a master's degree and Ph.D. From the University of Pennsylvania.

With knowledge of magnetism he began to work at Westinghouse in 1945 before becoming a member of the faculty of the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. He was also a faculty member at Carnegie Tech and directed the Ford Scientific Laboratory. He joined Ford in 1955 and went on to head the company's research and development laboratory. He was one of the Ford company's first Jewish executives (Henry Ford, the founder of the company, had been extremely anti-Semitic). Among the projects that Goldman worked on at Ford in the 1960s was the sodium–sםulphur battery for electric cars. He is especially notable for hiring physicist Dr. George Pake to create the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, which produced many seminal ideas in modern computing. Under his Goldman's leadership the Xerox developed many computer technologies including the Alto personal computer, the Ethernet Office Network, laser printing and the graphical user interface. Xerox decided not to try to exploit these technologies. The risks were consןdered too great. The technologies were later commercialized by Microsoft and Apple.

Godman died in Westport, Connecticut.

Manya Botez Argeșanu (born Mania Goldman) (1896-1971), pianist, born in Sulina in the Tulcea County, Romania. She studied in Paris, France, and Berlin, Germany, working as a piano teacher in the German capital until 1939, when she returned to Romania. She was married to the Romanian writer Eugeniu Botez (1874-1933), better known by his literary pseudonym Jean Bart, and after divorcing him in 1926, she married the Romanian general Gheorghe Argeșanu (1883-1940) who served as Prime Minister of Romania during a week in September 1939 and was assassinated by members of Iron Guard – a the far-right nationalist and anti-Semitic party that Argesanu opposed vehemently. Manya managed a music school in Bucharest, and after WW II she moved to France, where she was a piano teacher at the Conservatoire de Paris, and then immigrated to United Kingdom continuing her pedagogical career in London. She died in Richmond upon Thames, England.

Sylvan Nathan Goldman (1898-1984), businessman and the inventor of the shopping cart, born in Ardmore, OK, United States (then part of the Chickasaw Nation’s territory). His father worked at a dry goods store in the Indian territory, one of a number owned by his wife’s family. After serving in US Army during WW I in France, he opened along with his brother Alfred the Goldman Brothers Wholesale Fruits and Produce in Breckenridge, TX. The business was not successful, and following a short period of time spent in California, the brothers returned to Oklahoma where they founded the first supermarket in the state. The first store was opened in Tulsa, OK, in April 1943, and whithin one year it was followed by another twenty-one all over Oklahoma. By 1924 the supermarket chain increased to fifty-five stores. The company changed names a number of times and during the 1940s became known as Standard-Humpty Dumpty.

As a major improvement of shopper’s experience, Goldman invented the shopping cart that was first used in one of his stores in Oklahoma City in 1936. The device underwent a number of improvements and finally became a major development in the history of merchandising popular with shoppers at all supermarket stores worldwide. He patented his idea and, in 1936, founded the Folding Carrier Corporation, to manufacture it. Goldman’s other inventions and service improvements include the the grocery sacker and the handy milk bottle rack.
His philanthropic work includes donations of work of art to Oklahoma institutions and the construction of the portico and western entry of Temple B'nai Israel in Oklahoma City. He was awarded numerous honors, including honorary chief of the Pawnee Indian Tribe (1950), the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanities Award (1965), and the inclusion into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame (1971).  

Pierre Goldman (1944-1979), writer and journalist, born in Lyon, France, to parents who were both members of the French Resistance. During his time as a student at the Sorbonne in Paris, Goldman was drawn to politics and became a supporter of the communist student union. His political convictions led him to flee military service in France. In 1966 he traveled to Havana, Cuba, and from there to Venezuela, where he became a fighter in a local guerrilla for 14 months. 

Upon returning to France in September 1969, Goldman engaged in several robberies and was eventually arrested. To make matters worse, he was charged with the unexplained murder of two pharmacists. These grave offenses resulted in a life sentence for robbery and murder in 1974. 

While incarcerated, Goldman studied Spanish and wrote a book titled Souvenirs obscurs d'un Juif polonais né en France (“Dark memories of a French-born Polish Jew”, 1975). In the book, he provided a unique perspective, shedding light on the vulnerabilities of France, despite being a cradle of modern European democracy, to totalitarian dictatorship. The publication of his book sparked significant controversy, and the French left circles demanded the trial be reopened. During the new trial in 1976, Goldman was acquitted of the murder charges, and his sentence was reduced. This trial became a judicial scandal in France, marred by anti-Semitic hostilities and threats against Goldman and his supporters. 

After serving his reduced sentence and still being on parole, Goldman was shot dead on a Paris street in 1979. The nationalist group Honneur de la Police claimed responsibility for the murder. In a 2006 interview, a former police officer revealed that one of his former informants confessed to killing Goldman on behalf of the right-wing Spanish terrorist group GAL, a pro-Francoist squad set-up to fight the Basque nationalist and far-left separatist organization.