KNELLER Origin of surname

MELAMED, MELAMET, MELAMEDE

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). The Jewish family names in this group come from the Hebrew Melamed, that is "teacher or educator", which was the title of members of the Jewish community who taught religious classes, and of wise scholars. Other Jewish surnames belonging to this group are Malamed and Malamud.

Distinguished bearers of the Jewish surname Melamed include the 15th century Spanish financier, Meir Melamed, the 18th century Persian poet and philosopher, Siman Tov Melamed, and the Iranian-born 20th century Israeli Talmud scholar and philologist, Ezra Zion Melamed.

Distinguished 20th century bearers of the Jewish family name Melamet include the South African attorney, Abraham Marcus (Max) Melamet, and the French writer, S. Melamet.

MELAMEDOV, MELAMEDOVICH

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).

The Jewish family names in this group come from the Hebrew Melamed, that is "teacher or educator", which was the title of members of the Jewish community who taught religious classes, and of wise scholars. The Slavic suffixes "-ov" and "-ovich" mean son of.

Other Jewish surnames belonging to this group are Malamed and Malamud.

MORI, MUKARI, MUALEM, MUALLIM

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 Jewish communal functionaries or titles.

Mori is the Jewish traditional title of a teacher used in Yemen, equivalent of Melamed and Mualem. Mori is Arabic for "teacher" or "rabbi", and as a family name it is the Arabic equivalent of the Hebrew Melamed. The teacher/rabbi played an important role in the Jewish community life, maintaining the Jewish tradition by teaching Hebrew and the Torah. The family name MorI is recorded as a Jewish family name in a list of Jewish Yemenite families, made by Rabbi Shalom Gamliel, who was sent from Israel to Aden in 1949 to assist in the organization of the mass aliya from Yemen. Other related family names are: Mukari, Mualem, Muallim. A family called Mori, who came to Israel from Yemen during the 1950s, changed its name to Maor. Another Mori family changed its name to Hilel.

MUALEM, MUALLIM, MOALEM, ALMAALEM

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 Jewish communal functionaries or titles.

Mualem is Arabic for "teacher, scholar or rabbi", and as a family name it is the Arabic equivalent of the Hebrew Melamed ("teacher"). The teacher/rabbi played an important role in the Jewish community life, maintaining the Jewish tradition by teaching Hebrew and Torah. Moalem was the title of heads of Jewish communities in Syria and Iraq, equivalent to Naguid or Cheikh in Morocco. In the 18th century, Moalem is recorded as a family name in Meknes, Morocco, with Shimon Moalem, son of Itshak, mentioned in Rabbi Yossef Messas 's book 'Le Tresor des Lettres' and is said to have lived in Meknes in the first half of the 18th century. Mualem is recorded as a Jewish family name in a list of Jewish Yemenite families, made by Rabbi Shalom Gamliel, who was sent from Israel to Aden in 1949 to assist in the organization of the mass aliya from Yemen. Other related family names are Mukari and Mori. A family called Mualem, who came to Israel from Yemen during the 1950s, changed its name to Melamed. Another Mualem family changed its name to Gamliel.

Distinguished bearers of the family name Muallim include the 18th century leader of the Jewish community of Mardin in Kurdistan, 'Nasi' Muallim Moses.

Rolf Michael Kneller (1921-2005), photographer, cameraman and film director, born in Berlin Germany. During the 1930s he began working for UFA (Universum Film AG) before he fled Nazi Germany and immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1939. He was part of the team that produced film diaries in the early 1940s, then he served in the British army during WW II. After the establishment of the State of Israel he developed a career as a film cameraman, along with Milek Knabel and Yaakov Yunilovich he filmed the trial of the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem in 1961. Kneller’s films are preserved at the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive in Jerusalem while his large collection of photographs is kept at the Oster Visual Documentation Center at ANU – Museum of the Jewish People. Kneller died in Jerusalem, Israel.