# Rich Jews **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 22, 2007, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rich-jews/408984 "2007-06-22T12:18:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2007, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rich-jews/408984/41 "2007-06-26T23:07:05Z")
Suddenly I’m put in mind of a great exchange from _All in the Family_: **Archie:** That’s something the Hebes do. They change their last names but keep their first names so that they’ll still recognize each other. **Mike:** What the hell are you talking about? **Archie:** Well, you get two Jews meeting on the street. One of them says his name is Smith … _Izzy_ Smith. That’s how it works, see? So you get _Sol_ Nelson, _Morris_ Jones… **Mike** (dryly): Abe Lincoln. **Edith** (astonished): I didn’t know Lincoln was Jewish! ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2007, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rich-jews/408984/42 "2007-06-26T23:16:13Z")
AARGH! No wonder I’m not rich! I chose the wrong last name! 😛 Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Skeptic42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@Skeptic42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skeptic42)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2007, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rich-jews/408984/43 "2007-06-26T23:55:45Z")
[QUOTE=Martin Hyde] That explains why it seems a large percentage of our Jewish population have Germanic surnames, but I wonder why they were never anglicized. [/QUOTE] \ Smith, White, Miller, and most of the other English names mentioned are Germanic. English is a Germanic language. It has borrowed many non-Germanic words, but those are not among them. \ ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rich-jews/408984/44 "2007-06-27T00:11:22Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > Jews are a very small population in the United States (and actually in the world in general), and from my totally anecdotal experience it is rare to meet a Jew with an anglicized last name (at least if his father was also Jewish.) My anecdotal experience is different from your anecdotal experience. Just off the top of my head I can think of Jewish families of my acquaintance named Brandon, Metcalf, Miller, Shore, and Jackson. Yes, I’d say that the Jews I know who have non-anglicized Teutonic or Slavic or Semitic names (including the ones in my own family who share my own extremely non-anglicized name) probably outnumber the ones with anglicized names. But I certainly wouldn’t call the latter category “rare”. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rich-jews/408984/45 "2007-06-27T00:38:04Z")
Am I the only one who’s never heard of Diamond or Dimastein as a last name? Also, I don’t get Archie’s scheme at all. How are they changing first names? ---
**Author:** ![Skeptic42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@Skeptic42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skeptic42)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rich-jews/408984/46 "2007-06-27T01:00:20Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Carrot] Am I the only one who’s never heard of Diamond or Dimastein as a last name? [/QUOTE] Never heard of Neil Diamond (awful popular musician) or Jared Diamond (awful popular author)? ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2007, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rich-jews/408984/47 "2007-06-27T02:56:12Z")
Irene Diamond was a major AIDS benefactor through her Aaron Diamond Foundation (named after her husband). Also found the spec script for _Casablanca_ back in the 1940s, I believe. And you may remember actress Selma Diamond from _Night Court_, the gravelly-voiced bailiff. Well, the first one. > [@](#): > > Also, I don’t get Archie’s scheme at all. How are they changing first names? They’re not, that’s the point – the hypothetical Sol Nelson _et al._ are keeping their first names but changing their last names. Man, I’m really missing that happy Jewish guy smilie right around now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rich-jews/408984.md?page=2)