MELAMED Origin of surname

MULA, MULLAH

Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name derives from an occupation (also connected with raw material, finished product or implements associated with that trade).

This family name is derived from mullah (ملا), originally an Arabic term applied to a man educated in Islamic theology that in parts of the Islamic world, particularly in Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asia, designates a local cleric or mosque leader. The term was borrowed by the Jews of Afghanistan and used as a synonym for the Hebrew term “melamed”, that is "teacher or educator", which was the title of members of the Jewish community who taught religious classes, and of wise scholars.

Mula is documented as a Jewish family name with Reuven “Rubi” Mula (1989-2014), a former resident of Yerucham, Israel.

KNELLER, KNELER

Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name derives from an occupation, profession or trade (also connected with raw material, finished product or implements associated with that trade).

Names indicating occupation, profession or trade are widespread among Jews. The extensive range of Jewish names deriving from occupations illustrates the variety of their activities in all fields.

This family name is derived from kneln (קנעלן), a Yiddish term for “teaching young children”. Kneller is a nickname for a melamed (“teacher”) in a heder – the Jewish traditional elementary school.

Kneller is documented as a Jewish family name with Flora Kneller (1911-1970), a resident of Vancouver, BC.

Nissan Cohen Melamed (1906-1983),cantor and composer, born in Shiraz, Iran, Cohen-Melamed immigrated to Eretz Israel with his family at the age of two. Although he was familiar with the Ashkenazi Bible cantillation and sang with the choir of cantor Shelomo Zalman Rivlin, he adopted the Jerusalem-Sephardi cantorial style from an early age. Upon settling in Tel Aviv, Cohen-Melamed was appointed cantor at the Ohel Mo’ed synagogue. In addition he taught singing in many schools in Tel Aviv and also worked for many years reading the Bible on radio broadcasts at the Kol Yerushalayim radio station, later known as Kol Israel. He was later appointed emissary to Mexico and Iran, where he was responsible for Jewish educational institutions. On his return he became head of the Academy of Sephardic Cantorial Music in Tel Aviv and teacher of Biblical cantillation and Oriental music at the Bar-Ilan Teacher’s Academy as well as at the Rubin Music Academy in Tel Aviv.
Cohen-Melamed is author of a book entitled The Maqama in Oriental Music (still unpublished). He also composed some 300 prayers and numerous songs, many of which became popular. He died in Tel Aviv.

Ezra Zion Melamed Hacohen (1903-1994), rabbi and scholar, the 1987 laureate of Israel Prize for Biblical Interpretation and Rabbinical Literature, born in Shiraz, Iran. Following his father, he immigrated to the Land of Israel along with his mother in 1907. He studied at Doresh Zion beit midrash and at Zion yeshiva in Jerusalem. He continued his studies at the newly established Hebrew University of Jerusalem being one of the first students at the Institute for Jewish Studies whre he earned a Master degree in 1933 and then a PhD in 1941. Melamed Hacohen served as teacher at various educational institutions, including Mizrachi Teachers Seminary (now Efrata College) and at Hebrew Teachers Seminary (now David Yellin College of Education). In 1964 he was appointed associate professor in the Department of Biblical Studies of the Hebrew University, the first Mizrachi Jew to become a university professor in Israel. He later was a professor at the departments of Talmudic Studies at Tel Aviv University and Bar-Ilan University. Since 1956 until his death he was a member of the Academy of the Hebrew Language.

Melamed Hacohen was one of the leaders of the Persian Jewish community in Israel and regularly gave sermons to the members of the community in Jerusalem's Kiryat Moshe neighborhood synagogues and at the Shaarei Rachamim yeshiva founded by his father Rabbi Rachamim Melamed. After the decease of his father he served as rabbi of the Nahalat Zion neighborhood in Jerusalem. A devoted Zionist, Melamed Hacohen was one of the first rabbis to recite prayers for the State of Israel and IDF soldiers, he also composed a special version of the Al Hanissim (“About the miracles”) prayer to be recited on Israel Independence Day.

Melamed Hacohen is the author of numerous articles and books, including an Esperanto-Hebrew Dictionary (1938), Pirkei Halakha U'Minhag (1954), Mepharshei HaMikra (1978), Pirkei Mavo LeSifrut HaTalmud (1973), Misrashei Halakha shel HaTana'im BeTalmud HaBavli (1943), a Hebrew-Aramaic Dictionary for Targum Onkelos (1971), and a Hebrew-Aramaic Dictionary for the Babylonian Talmud (1992).  

Mazyr

Belorussian: Мазыр; Russian: Мозырь; Yiddish: מאַזשיר / Mozir; Polish: Mozyrz

A city in the Gomel region of Belarus, in the Pale of Settlement. The 14th century saw the first Jewish communities. Until the partition of Poland at the end of the 18th century the area had been part of the Polish Kingdom. Before World War II, Belarus was a center of Jewish life.

21st Century

The Jewish community of Mazyr is one of the larger Jewish communities in Belarus. In the early 2000s there were around 1500 Jews living there. The Jewish community of Mazyr was revived in the late 1980s with the consecration of a synagogue. A Jewish culture club and a regional Jewish association were also established. Some Jews deported during the Holocaust returned to Mazyr after the war and some of their descendants live in Mazyr today.

The city of Mazyr has a Jewish cemetery. There are monuments commemorating mass executions of Jews, a mass grave and also several tributes to the victims of the Holocaust. There is also a monument for the victims of the Belarussian Massada (1942) for those who perished inside a building which they set on fire to avoid execution by the Nazis.

  
History

Mazyr is on the banks of the Pripet river, one of the tributaries of the Dneper river, a main waterway used for transportation. Already at the beginning of the 17th century Jews lived there. They were victims of the massacres against the Jews by Ukrainians under the leadership of Chmielnezki in 1648. In 1766, 896 Jews were registered as tax payers in Mazyr and its environs. In 1847, 2251 Jews lived there. At the end of the 19th century the number had doubled and they comprised 70% of the population.

Even though most of the Jews in Mazyr were Chassidim and most of the synagogues and prayer-houses were affiliated to different Chassidic courts, the rabbis who were the leaders of the community from the end of the 19th century till the Second World War were Mitnagdim. Rabbi Gershon Anzilevitz was rabbi of the community for 40 years. After him his son, Rabbi Schneur Zalman Anzilevitz, renowned as a genius, was rabbi of the community for the next 40 years. Rabbi Elchanan Melamed succeeded him. He was the author of Shivtei Israel (The Tribes of Israel) and had great influence on the local Jewish intellectuals. At the Oneg Shabbat gatherings, the rabbi lectured on Jewish history.

Rabbi Raphael the Maggid of Mozyr (the Preacher of Mozyr) who lived in the city in the 19th century was famous in Russia for his sermons and commentaries.

Since the majority of the population of Mazyr were Jews, work ceased on the Shabbath and Jewish holidays. The fire-fighters association and its band most of whom were Jewish organized official welcoming ceremonies for visiting representatives of the authorities. Under their patronage Jewish theatrical groups performed plays in Hebrew and Yiddish in the theater hall in the city park.

At the beginning of the 20th century a conference on Hebrew education was held in Mazyr. Most of the participants even the non-Zionists voted for Hebrew as the language of instruction in the schools of the community.

The second conference of Hebrew teachers in the Soviet Union was held in Mazyr under the patronage of Rabbi Anzilevitz.

Wood manufacture was the main industry of Mazyr and Jews played a leading role. They established several lumber mills and factories for matches. They employed many workers, mostly Jews. The artisans in the town were organized in trade-unions. The Jewish building workers were known for their professionalism and often employed in government projects. Many Jewish families were engaged in trade and services.

During the 30s of the 20th century, the Soviet authorities built many factories in Mazyr and the population grew.

In the census of 1926 there were 5,900 Jews in Mazyr. The total population was 20,000.

At the beginning of the 20th century the Bund and the Socialist Party (S.S.) were the most influential in the community probably because the Jewish population consisted mainly of workers and artisans. During the same period, the Zionist movement was gaining ground in certain secular circles and among the Jewish students after the First World War (1914-1918) the inclination towards nationalism gained momentum among the Jews of Mazyr and Zionism spread. Branches of several Zionist parties were founded in the town.

Rabbi Dov Anzilevitz (1888-1957) the son of Rabbi Schneur Zalman Anzeilevitz and the last of a rabbinical dynasty that numbered 18 generations, was responsible for the growth of Zionist activity in Mazyr and Belorussia. From his early youth he was a writer. His poems and articles were published in Hebrew periodicals like Shiloach and Zfira. He founded an organization to propagate Hebrew culture. He lectured before many Jewish groups in his efforts to support Zionism and the Hebrew language. He had many supporters. His Zionist activities were opposed by the ultra-Orthodox and the Bundists. He was forced to flee and settled in the Ukraine where he continued his Zionist activities. In the Zwehil Book, his success in saving Jews, victims of the Petlura Pogroms (1918-1924) are documented. He was at the head of a delegation that went to meet the leaders of the bandits.

In 1925 Rabbi Dov came to Eretz Israel with his wife and children, and once again was active in communal affairs. He settled in Magdiel and in 1957 when he was still alive, a street was named after him. His daughter Hava Anzilevitz Fruner, a native of Mazyr collected all his writings.

On the eve of World War II there were 6,000 Jews in Mazyr. The total population was 20,000.

The Holocaust Period

In June 22, 1941 after Germany attacked the Soviet Union, the conquest of Belorussia began. Within a few days, Mazyr was occupied by the Germans. The Jews of Mazyr and the vicinity were concentrated in a ghetto which consisted of a few streets in the city. The ghetto was overcrowded, the sanitary conditions disastrous and there was very little food. Jews were taken for forced-labor camps and various discriminatory decrees forced upon them.

In January 1942, the Jews in the ghetto were taken in small groups to the Pripet river where they were all murdered, either shot or drowned.

Rabbi Schneur Zalman Anzilevitz and his wife Hana emigrated to Eretz Israel in 1935. Until his death in a traffic accident a year later, he served as the Rabbi of the Shehunat Machlul in Tel Aviv.