Mazel Tov!
stark contrast to their ancestors who, in an
understandable eff ort to assimilate, chose
names that didn’t sound as Jewish.

Today, in a society with more inter-
marriage than it used to have, even “the
non-Jewish partner seems to be comfort-
able with a Jewish name,” said Krauss.

“It’s a step in the direction of peo-
ple feeling more comfortable with their
Jewishness,” he added.

No matter what the modern trends are,
though, Jewish naming practices continue
to take on timeless qualities, according to
local rabbis.

First and foremost, there’s a divine inspi-
ration, they say.

A couple of months ago, Rabbi Moshe
Brennan of the Chabad of Penn Wynne
and his wife did not know what to name
their newborn son. So before leaving the
hospital, Brennan wrote Nehenya, mean-
ing comfort, on his son’s form.

Ten days later, Brennan’s cousin,
who was doing some research on their
great-grandmother, sent him a picture of
their great-grandmother’s grandfather’s
grave. It said Mordecai, son of Nehenya.

“It was a name in the family,” the rabbi
said. “No one else in the family for fi ve
generations.” “You’re going to pick a name and you
feel and think you’re making the choice,”
he added. “But it’s simply being revealed
to you.”
Th ere’s also a more conscious element,
according to Rabbi Abe Friedman of Temple
Beth Zion-Beth Israel in Philadelphia.

Oft en, parents will tell Friedman before
a naming ceremony that they picked a
moniker to honor a relative. Th e rabbi will
respond by asking them to think about
why they wanted to honor that relative,
and then to explain those reasons to the
child in a letter they read aloud during the
ceremony. By the time they stand up to speak, they
understand what stories, qualities and les-
sons they want to pass down from the elder
to the child.

“I think parents are very aware of what
they’re choosing,” he said. “Th is name is a
container of meaning.” JE
jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com
Cantor Mark Kushner with a couple and a new baby at a naming
ceremony. Mazel Tov!
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