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In 1993,
Avotaynu published A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from
the Russian Empire by an unknown author, Alexander
Beider. Beider, at that time, was a 29-year-old Russian expatriate
living in Paris who had a doctoral degree in applied mathematics from
the University of Moscow. His interest in Jewish surnames was as a
hobbyist.
Today, at the age of 44, Dr. Beider
is recognized as the leading authority on Jewish names from Eastern
Europe by virtue of his authorship of four major works:
A
Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire (1993)
A
Dictionary of JSee Map Group offer below.ewish Surnames from the Kingdom of Poland (1996)
A
Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from Galicia (2004)
A
Dictionary of Ashkenazic Given Names (2001)
Now Dr. Beider is about to publish
his fifth major work, the Revised Edition of A
Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire. It will be the definitive work on
this subject for decades to come. How does it differ from the original
work? It could be said that the difference is between a book written by
a brilliant 29-year-old hobbyist and a 44-year-old scholar with two
doctorates and an additional 15 years of research and analysis to study
the subject.
The Revised Edition has:
* more than 20,000
additional surnames or variants--74,000 in total
* a 200-page introductory
portion that is
the definitive work on the origin and evolution of Jewish surnames in
Eastern Europe
* an index to the more than
5,000 Russian Jewish surnames referenced in the introductory portion of
the book. Their description in this portion gives greater insight into
the particular surname
* references in
the Dictionary portion to the other works by Beider when the surname
likely migrated from other portions of Eastern Europe to the Russian
Empire
This is in addition to the contents
that existed in the original work:
* the etymology (origin) of
nearly all of the 74,000 surnames
* in which districts in
Czarist Russia the
surname was found (expanded based on additional research)
* within the description of
a root surname, a list of all other surnames derived from the root name
The
book is published in two volumes. Volume 1 is
the heart of the book. It includes the 200-page
introductory portion and the dictionary itself. Volume 2 is an index to the
74,000 surnames indexed by the
Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex System (as was the original edition).
Both volumes: $118.00
Volume 1: 8½" x 11" 1040 pp. hardcover $99.00
Volume 2: 8½" x 11" 190 pp. softcover $20.00
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