UNGAR Origin of surname

LENGYEL

Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name is a toponymic (derived from a geographic name of a town, city, region or country). Surnames that are based on place names do not always testify to direct origin from that place, but may indicate an indirect relation between the name-bearer or his ancestors and the place, such as birth place, temporary residence, trade, or family-relatives.

A striking example of such a place name is Poland which had one of the biggest and most important Jewish populations in the European Diaspora up to the Holocaust. The Jewish surname Lengyel means "a Pole/Polish" in Hungarian. The terms Pollak (German), Polacco (Italian), Polonais (French), Polacek (Czech), Lengyel (Hungarian) were used to describe a person living in or coming from Poland. Polin (the Yiddish name of the country), Polsky (the adjective in Polish) and their derivatives - including abbreviations and extensions influenced by the languages spoken by the ethnic majorities among whom Jews were living at the time - produced a great number of family names. The family name Pollack is documented in the 15th century in northern Bohemia, where it also appears as Polak in the 16th century. Benedikt Pollak of Prague attended the Leipzig fair in Germany in 1675, as did several Jews called Polack in 1676. The form Poll (which could be an abbreviation of Pollak or Pole) is found in 1693 among Jewish Leipzig fair visitors. Pohlack is documented in 1697 in Mannheim, Germany; Polacke in 1739 in Metz, France, and Pollyak in 1746 in Pressburg (Bratislava) in Slovakia. In 1751 the list of Jews attending the Leipzig fair included Lazarus Polazcsik, and in 1761 Enoch Polatschik. Polonais is documented in Paris in 1780 and Pollonais in 1798 in Nice, France. The variants Bolac, Bol(l)ack, Bol(l)ach and Bolackin were current in Alsace in the late 18th century. Polyakov/Poliakof(f), Polonsky and Polsky became frequent in 19th century Russia and America. Lengyel, the Hungarian for "Pole"/"Polish" was often adopted in the 19th century. The mid 20th century witnessed the birth of new French forms Bollack; Poulain from Pollak, and Poliet from Poliakof. Lengyel could also be associated with Lengyeltoti near Lake Balaton in Hungary.

Distinguished bearers of the Jewish family name Lengyel include the Hungarian composer Miksa Lengyel (born 1859), the 20th century Hungarian jurist and judge Aurel Lengyel, and the 20th century Hungarian-born American playwright and film script writer Menyhert (Melchior) Lengyel.

WEGIER, WENGIER

Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name is a toponymic (derived from a geographic name of a town, city, region or country). Surnames that are based on place names do not always testify to direct origin from that place, but may indicate an indirect relation between the name-bearer or his ancestors and the place, such as birth place, temporary residence, trade, or family-relatives.

This family name is derived from węgier, the Polish term for Hungarian.

Places, regions and countries of origin or residence are some of the sources of Jewish family names. Many of these names, originally based on toponymics, have developed into variants which no longer resemble the form of the original source. Thus, unless the family has reliable records, names based on toponymics cannot prove the exact origin of the family.

Wegier is documented as a Jewish family name with Michael Wegier (b. 1965), Chief Executive of Board of Deputies of British Jews (as of 2021).

Joel of Rechnitz Ungar (1800-1885), rabbi, born in Rechnitz, Austria (then part of the Austrian Empire), where his father, Eliezer, was a merchant. At about the age of 15 he went to the yeshivah of Mordechai Banet in Mikulov (Nikolsburg, now in Slovakia) and finally to the yeshivah of Moses Sofer in Pressburg (Pozsony in Hungarian, now Bratislava in Slovakia). In addition to his Talmudic studies, he studied German, French and mathematics.

In 1824 he married the daughter of the wealthy Joseph Yust of Csejte, who wanted him to devote his life to commerce. Once, however, when traveling to the Vienna fair on behalf of his father-in-law, he called upon his teacher and became so engrossed in halakhic discussion that he arrived too late for the fair, bringing bankruptcy on his father-in-law. As a result, Ungar was compelled to accept the rabbinate of Csejte and became known as an outstanding Torah scholar.

He was later appointed rabbi of Paks, Hungary, where he remained until his death. He maintained and administered a large yeshivah and several of the great Hungarian Talmudists were his pupils. His protest against the resolutions of the Brunswick conference in 1844 was printed in the “Torat ha-Kema'ot” (1845). He was however, opposed to the schism of Hungarian Jewry, and when it took place he withdrew from national Jewish affairs, devoting himself wholly to his own community and teaching.

After Ungar's death, his son-in-law, Susman Sofer, published several of his responsa on the four parts of the Shulhan Arukh under the title “Teshuvat Riba” (Riba being the Hebrew. acronym for Rabbi Joel Ben Eliezer).

Simon (Moshe-Simha) Ungar (1863-1942), rabbi, born in Sighetu Marmatiei (Sziget), Romania (then part of the Austrian Empire) into an orthodox family in which only Yiddish was spoken. He received Jewish traditional education in a heder while at the same time he learned Hungarian as part of his preparation for attending secular schools. He changed his name to Simon and continued his education at the rabbinical seminar in Budapest and studied at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Budapest earning a PhD in Oriental Studies. He was fluent in Hebrew, Latin, Hungarian, German and Croatian. language. Ungar served as rabbi in Szekszárd, a small city in southern Hungary, from 1899 to 1901, when he moved to Osijek in Croatia (then part of Austria-Hungary). Ungar served as chief rabbi and was an outstanding leader of the Jewish community of Osijek. During the 1930s, he was a prominent member of Osijek's "Lodge of the Menorah 1090", and one of the seven envoys of the lodge present at the inauguration of the Belgrade-based Bnai Brit Grand Lodge of Yugoslavia in 1935. He retired just before the outbreak of WW II. After the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis Powers and the establishment of the Fascist regime in Croatia, he was evicted from his home in 1941 along with his wife and in 1942 they both were moved to a retirement home. Together with his wife and other Osijek Jews, he was arrested in the summer of 1942 and taken to a concentration camp in Tenja. He died in a cattle wagon on the way to the Jasenovac camp, while his wife Fani died immediately upon arrival at the camp.