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WASSERMAN Origin of surname

WASSERMAN

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 patronymic surname based on a male ancestor's personal name, in this case of biblical origin.

Literally "waterman" in German and Yiddish, this Jewish surname was a personal nickname of the biblical male personal name Moshe, who divided the sea for the crossing of the Jews from Egypt, and drew water from a rock in the desert. This family name derives from an occupation (also connected with raw material, finished product or implements associated with that trade). As an occupational surname, this family name may be based on the nickname of an ancestor who was a "water carrier". In the 20th century, Wasserman is recorded as a Jewish family name with the Polish-born Israeli Shimon Zeev Wasserman (1899-1997). According to his family tradition, the first bearer of the family name Wasserman lived in Worms, Germany, in the 17th century. He was surnamed Wasserman because he was in charge of the water wells in the town of Worms. Distinguished bearers of the family name Wasserman include Rabbi Elhanan Bunim Wasserman (1875-1941).

Elhanan Bunim Wasserman (1875-1941), Rabbi, Talmudic scholar, yeshivah head, and communal leader. Born in Birzai, Lithuania (then part of the Russian Empire), he received his education at the yeshivot of Volozhin and Telz, which were headed at the time by Rabbi Eliezer Gordon and Rabbi Simeon Shkop. Thereafter he studied under Rabbi Haim Soloveitchik at Brisk (Best-Litovsk, now in Belarus). In 1899 Wasserman married the daughter of Meir Atlas, rabbi of Salant, and spent some years studying in his father-in-law's home. In 1903 he was appointed head of the yeshivah of Amtshilov. He joined the kolel of the Hafez Hayyim in Radun in 1907 and remained there until 1910, when he was appointed rabbi of Brest-Litovsk. During World War I he returned to Radun and when the war reached that town the yeshivah moved to Smilovichi, where Wasserman was appointed its head. After the war he moved to Poland. Yeshivah "Ohel Torah" which he established at Baranowicze (now in Belarus), became one of the most famous in Eastern Europe. He was one of the main leaders of the Agudat Israel movement together with Hayyim Ozer Grodzinski and Hafez Hayyim.

At the outbreak of World War II he fled with his yeshivah to Vilna. His effort to transfer the yeshiva to Shanghai failed. In June 1941, while on a visit to Kovno, he was arrested by the Nazis together with 12 other rabbis and sent to his death. On their last journey he encouraged his fellow victims to walk proudly and with head erect. "In Heaven it appears that they deem us to be righteous because our bodies have been chosen to atone for the Jewish people," he is reported as saying. “Let no thought enter our minds, God forbid, which is abominable and which renders an offering unfit. We are now fulfilling the greatest mitzvah. With fire she (Jerusalem) was destroyed and with fire she will be rebuilt. … The fire which will consume our bodies will be the fire through which the people of Israel will arise to new life.

Rabbi Wasserman was editor of the Me'asef Ohel Tora newspaper. His talmudic novellae appeared in the rabbinic journal Sha'arei Ziyyon (1929-34) and in other publications. In 1936, he published the responsa of the Rashba with comments. He had several sons. One of them, Rabbi Simcha Wasserman was head of Yeshiva Bet Yehuda in Detroit in the 1940’s, founded Yehiva Or Elchanan in California and then Yeshiva Or Elchanan in Jerusalem. .

Viesīte

Yiddish: Ekngraf; German: Wessen, Eckengraf

A town in the Jekabpils district, Zemgale region (formerly Kurland), southern Latvia. One of the Baltic states, Latvia lies north of Lithuania and south of Estonia.

At the end of the 18th century Latvia was part of the Russian Empire. The last decades of the 19th century saw heightened nation building in the area of Latvia. In 1922 a republic was proclaimed and the country prospered economically. Latvia had a considerable Jewish population of over 90,000 in the decade prior to the World War II. However, only several thousand Jews remained by the end of the war.

Latvian is the official language with close to a third of the population which speaks Russian. Yiddish is a minority language.

 

21st Century

A Jewish Latvian citizen, born in Viesite in the early 1920s, describes how he survived the Second World War while enduring great suffering. Prior to that, life between the two world wars is described as being influenced by Jewish religion and traditions.

Living as a child in Viesite in the 1930 and 40s, a Jewish woman describes the nice atmosphere in the public school, however also the adversity her family faced during the Holocaust. After the war with much effort she tries to emigrate to the USA and with the support of Eleanor Roosevelt is given a visa. She settles down in the USA in the mid 1960s.

The old Jewish cemetery of Jekabpils is where Jews killed in World War II were reinterred in 1958. A massgrave was laid on a small hill in the vicinity and in the new Jewish cemetery of Jekabpils a monument was consecrated in 1988.

 

History

The settlement was founded in 1890 and was named for its founder, the German Baron Eckengraf. During 1925-26 it received the status of a town and was given its present Latvian name.

A man by the name of Wasserman was the first Jew to settle there, after being invited to do so by the baron. During the course of time additional Jews came to Viesite, and on the eve of the outbreak of World War I they were the majority of the town`s 462 inhabitants. They built a synagogue and opened a cemetery.

In 1915, during World War I, the Jews were expelled, together with the other Jews of Kurland, by the authorities to the interior of Russia. Not all of them returned after the war.

In 1925 there were only 152 Jews in a population of 1,124.

During this period a Jewish kindergarten was opened as well as a Jewish school. The latter was forced to close shortly afterwards because of the small number of pupils. The community opened a library and club, named for Bialik.

Among them were many landlords. In 1935 the number of businesses owned by Jews was out of proportion to their number. The community established a credit society.

In 1926 there were anti-semitic outbreaks after two Jewish smugglers were apprehended. In the same year the cemetery was desecrated.

In 1930 there were three Jewish members of the town council. A number of Jews were active on behalf of Keren Kayemeth L`Israel. In the elections to the Zionist Congress in 1929, 11 voted for the Zionist Socialists.

In 1935 the community numbered 193 out of a total population of 1,340.


The Holocaust Period

Following the Ribbentrop-Molotov accord signed in August 1939 by Germany and the USSR, the Red Army entered Latvia and set up a Soviet government in the summer of 1940. About a week after Germany attacked the USSR (June 22, 1941), German forces captured the town.

On July 1, the Jews were driven out of the town to a camp by the name of Ludani. Shortly thereafter, 5 Jews were taken out to be murdered. On July 19 the rest were taken to a nearby forest, where they were shot.

Subsequent to these murders, the municipal council was called into special session to discuss the division of the property of the Jews.

 

Postwar

After the war Jewish survivors identified the site of the murder and brought the bodies for Jewish burial to the cemetery in the nearby town Jekabpils.

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WASSERMAN Origin of surname
WASSERMAN

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 patronymic surname based on a male ancestor's personal name, in this case of biblical origin.

Literally "waterman" in German and Yiddish, this Jewish surname was a personal nickname of the biblical male personal name Moshe, who divided the sea for the crossing of the Jews from Egypt, and drew water from a rock in the desert. This family name derives from an occupation (also connected with raw material, finished product or implements associated with that trade). As an occupational surname, this family name may be based on the nickname of an ancestor who was a "water carrier". In the 20th century, Wasserman is recorded as a Jewish family name with the Polish-born Israeli Shimon Zeev Wasserman (1899-1997). According to his family tradition, the first bearer of the family name Wasserman lived in Worms, Germany, in the 17th century. He was surnamed Wasserman because he was in charge of the water wells in the town of Worms. Distinguished bearers of the family name Wasserman include Rabbi Elhanan Bunim Wasserman (1875-1941).
Written by researchers of ANU Museum of the Jewish People
Elhanan Bunim Wasserman

Elhanan Bunim Wasserman (1875-1941), Rabbi, Talmudic scholar, yeshivah head, and communal leader. Born in Birzai, Lithuania (then part of the Russian Empire), he received his education at the yeshivot of Volozhin and Telz, which were headed at the time by Rabbi Eliezer Gordon and Rabbi Simeon Shkop. Thereafter he studied under Rabbi Haim Soloveitchik at Brisk (Best-Litovsk, now in Belarus). In 1899 Wasserman married the daughter of Meir Atlas, rabbi of Salant, and spent some years studying in his father-in-law's home. In 1903 he was appointed head of the yeshivah of Amtshilov. He joined the kolel of the Hafez Hayyim in Radun in 1907 and remained there until 1910, when he was appointed rabbi of Brest-Litovsk. During World War I he returned to Radun and when the war reached that town the yeshivah moved to Smilovichi, where Wasserman was appointed its head. After the war he moved to Poland. Yeshivah "Ohel Torah" which he established at Baranowicze (now in Belarus), became one of the most famous in Eastern Europe. He was one of the main leaders of the Agudat Israel movement together with Hayyim Ozer Grodzinski and Hafez Hayyim.

At the outbreak of World War II he fled with his yeshivah to Vilna. His effort to transfer the yeshiva to Shanghai failed. In June 1941, while on a visit to Kovno, he was arrested by the Nazis together with 12 other rabbis and sent to his death. On their last journey he encouraged his fellow victims to walk proudly and with head erect. "In Heaven it appears that they deem us to be righteous because our bodies have been chosen to atone for the Jewish people," he is reported as saying. “Let no thought enter our minds, God forbid, which is abominable and which renders an offering unfit. We are now fulfilling the greatest mitzvah. With fire she (Jerusalem) was destroyed and with fire she will be rebuilt. … The fire which will consume our bodies will be the fire through which the people of Israel will arise to new life.

Rabbi Wasserman was editor of the Me'asef Ohel Tora newspaper. His talmudic novellae appeared in the rabbinic journal Sha'arei Ziyyon (1929-34) and in other publications. In 1936, he published the responsa of the Rashba with comments. He had several sons. One of them, Rabbi Simcha Wasserman was head of Yeshiva Bet Yehuda in Detroit in the 1940’s, founded Yehiva Or Elchanan in California and then Yeshiva Or Elchanan in Jerusalem. .

Viesite

Viesīte

Yiddish: Ekngraf; German: Wessen, Eckengraf

A town in the Jekabpils district, Zemgale region (formerly Kurland), southern Latvia. One of the Baltic states, Latvia lies north of Lithuania and south of Estonia.

At the end of the 18th century Latvia was part of the Russian Empire. The last decades of the 19th century saw heightened nation building in the area of Latvia. In 1922 a republic was proclaimed and the country prospered economically. Latvia had a considerable Jewish population of over 90,000 in the decade prior to the World War II. However, only several thousand Jews remained by the end of the war.

Latvian is the official language with close to a third of the population which speaks Russian. Yiddish is a minority language.

 

21st Century

A Jewish Latvian citizen, born in Viesite in the early 1920s, describes how he survived the Second World War while enduring great suffering. Prior to that, life between the two world wars is described as being influenced by Jewish religion and traditions.

Living as a child in Viesite in the 1930 and 40s, a Jewish woman describes the nice atmosphere in the public school, however also the adversity her family faced during the Holocaust. After the war with much effort she tries to emigrate to the USA and with the support of Eleanor Roosevelt is given a visa. She settles down in the USA in the mid 1960s.

The old Jewish cemetery of Jekabpils is where Jews killed in World War II were reinterred in 1958. A massgrave was laid on a small hill in the vicinity and in the new Jewish cemetery of Jekabpils a monument was consecrated in 1988.

 

History

The settlement was founded in 1890 and was named for its founder, the German Baron Eckengraf. During 1925-26 it received the status of a town and was given its present Latvian name.

A man by the name of Wasserman was the first Jew to settle there, after being invited to do so by the baron. During the course of time additional Jews came to Viesite, and on the eve of the outbreak of World War I they were the majority of the town`s 462 inhabitants. They built a synagogue and opened a cemetery.

In 1915, during World War I, the Jews were expelled, together with the other Jews of Kurland, by the authorities to the interior of Russia. Not all of them returned after the war.

In 1925 there were only 152 Jews in a population of 1,124.

During this period a Jewish kindergarten was opened as well as a Jewish school. The latter was forced to close shortly afterwards because of the small number of pupils. The community opened a library and club, named for Bialik.

Among them were many landlords. In 1935 the number of businesses owned by Jews was out of proportion to their number. The community established a credit society.

In 1926 there were anti-semitic outbreaks after two Jewish smugglers were apprehended. In the same year the cemetery was desecrated.

In 1930 there were three Jewish members of the town council. A number of Jews were active on behalf of Keren Kayemeth L`Israel. In the elections to the Zionist Congress in 1929, 11 voted for the Zionist Socialists.

In 1935 the community numbered 193 out of a total population of 1,340.


The Holocaust Period

Following the Ribbentrop-Molotov accord signed in August 1939 by Germany and the USSR, the Red Army entered Latvia and set up a Soviet government in the summer of 1940. About a week after Germany attacked the USSR (June 22, 1941), German forces captured the town.

On July 1, the Jews were driven out of the town to a camp by the name of Ludani. Shortly thereafter, 5 Jews were taken out to be murdered. On July 19 the rest were taken to a nearby forest, where they were shot.

Subsequent to these murders, the municipal council was called into special session to discuss the division of the property of the Jews.

 

Postwar

After the war Jewish survivors identified the site of the murder and brought the bodies for Jewish burial to the cemetery in the nearby town Jekabpils.