The Neu-Raussnitz Tax Book
by Dr. Heinrich Flesch, translated, adapted and with an introduction by Patrick Gordis & Henry Wellisch
Some 90 years ago, a Moravian rabbi and historian, Dr. Heinrich Flesch (1875-1942), annotated a list of Jews from Neu-Raussnitz, Moravia, who paid taxes in 1808, then used the annotated list as a basis for a study on the origin of Central European Jewish family names. His article, “Das Neu-Raussnitzer Steuerbuch,” appeared in the German/Jewish publication Jahrbuch der jiidisch-literarischen Gesellschaft (“Yearbook of the Jewish Literary Society”) in 1931. Reprinted here, Dr. Flesch’s article illuminates the often mysterious process by which Jewish family names were formed.
The article, which may be downloaded here, was published in Shem Tov in December 1992. ♦
