The Pope (JPII) was Jewish says historian

Mayer, Maier,Meyer Mayer, Meier and all its variations come from the word for “steward” or overseer (the equivalent in English was “reeve”.

Schulz/Schultz/Schulthess meant for village spokesman or village head. The Meier could be the nobleman’s main overseer for the manor or could simply the foreman of any farm or undertaking, large or small. Surnames were not common until the late Middle Ages and early modern era. Not all the people with the name Schultz are descended from people who were village headmen, but the position was ubiquitious and the name became common. It’s more possible that those named Meyer have a “steward” of some sort in their background because it could apply to such a wide range of economic activities.

People who live outside German cultures where sizeable Jewish populations are found think of these as "Jewish" names. But this is misleading. If you live in a German-speaking culture, you realize that these are far more common as a non-Jewish name. Because Jews were kicked out of many parts of western Europe (all of England as early as 1295, if I recall correctly) and because the expansion (frontier-like) of bringing new land under cultivation was taking place under German dominance in central and Eastern Europe--what was the old East German zone and further east to Poland etc. Many of the new "settlers" in this "East Colonization" came from the Rhineland/Westphalia area but also many Jews settled there. That's the background of German becomeing the colloquial language of Jews (Juedisch, Yiddish) alongside Hebrew as the sacred language.

So with Yiddish being essentially a medieval German dialect, where lots of Jews live in non-German-speaking areas, common German names seem to be simply "Jewish" names because people don't know a lot of other people with these names. Katz, Meyer, Schulz etc. are simply not more common among Jews than among the general German population. But in America or England they seem to be "Jewish" names. Because a lot of non-Jewish Germans emigrated to the US, we ought to realize that Schultz or Mayer are just as common among German Catholics or Protestants as among Jews. But we don’t.

Kaczorowski is not Katz, as Katz is a common surname in Central Europe, and not an abbreviation an immigrant with a long difficult to pronounce name might adopt in America. Katz, of all the names mentioned, is the only one that hints of Jewishness because its slightly derogatory meaning of "kitten" is known to be given to Jews who would not state a surname on their own during the assimilation drives in 19c.

Scholz, or Schulze is plain German name, not indicative of Jewishness. Rent, by the way, a wonderful movie Shultze Gets the Blues and tell me if the main character, a retired miner from Lower Saxony, seems even remotely Jewish.

Rybicka, or Ryback is Slav and means "little fish" or "fisherman". The stupid author sees R and B and thinks "rabbi". Not so.

Maklinowska -- what is Jewish about that?

The author's premises are as wrong as his methodology.

Mayer, Maier,Meyer Mayer, Meier and all its variations come from the word for “steward” or overseer (the equivalent in English was “reeve”.
For Germans, yes. However, It means "light" in Hebrew. Hence, it was quite popular.

eople who live outside German cultures where sizeable Jewish populations are found think of these as "Jewish" names. But this is misleading. If you live in a German-speaking culture, you realize that these are far more common as a non-Jewish name. Because Jews were kicked out of many parts of western Europe (all of England as early as 1295, if I recall correctly) and because the expansion (frontier-like) of bringing new land under cultivation was taking place under German dominance in central and Eastern Europe--what was the old East German zone and further east to Poland etc. Many of the new "settlers" in this "East Colonization" came from the Rhineland/Westphalia area but also many Jews settled there. That's the background of German becomeing the colloquial language of Jews (Juedisch, Yiddish) alongside Hebrew as the sacred language.
1. The expulsions of Jews started far earlier than 1295. The Rhineland Jewish communities were decimated during the First Crusade.

2. Last names are a relatively new concept. They were imposed on people in Eastern Europe in the 19th century, by which time many Jews lived in the Prussian and Austrian Empires. Those who could pay officials got good names, others had generic names, and some have derogatory names.

3. Yiddish is actually a collection of dialects based on Low German, High German, Hebrew, Romanche, and Slavic languages. (My mother used to teach Yiddish.)

All good corrections. My point was that Mayer and Schultz etc. are names held by large numbers of non-Jewish Germans because they reflect common occupations and positions. That people outside German-speaking areas view them exclusively as "Jewish" is misleading. If one goes to German areas and sees someone named Meier and thinks he must be Jewish, that would be a mistake because there's plenty of reason for non-Jewish Germans to carry the name.

The Rhineland pograms of the late 11thc did not lead to government expulsions because there were no governments centralized enough before the 1200s to carry out an expulsion such as was done in England in 1295.

Last names may have been slower coming to Eastern and Central Europe and to the Jewish communities of those regions--18th and 19thc, but in western Europe in general, surnames were becoming common in the later Middle Ages and early modern period, from the 1300s and 1400s onward. Systematic imposition I'm sure was practiced in the highly centralized, "enlightened" Prussian and Austrian regions during the 18th and 19thc, but surnames developed much earlier and less systematically and more spontaneously in western Europe. I don't question that what you describe fits the Eastern European Jewish population but I would have serious doubts about it as an explanation for Western Europe.

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