On Fri, 26 Jul 2002 01:56:54 UTC, jblu14@... (Jeff Blustein)
opined:

Were seforim generally Levites or did this not make a difference? Is

there an organization in Israel that seforim would belong to? Although
BOKSENBAUM means box tree or Carob tree, could it also be some type of
accrostic that has to do with Levites, seforim, etc? Outside of writing to
every Boksenbaum in Israel is there a more efficient way to find out if
any of them are descnded >from the soferim? Outside of changing the name
to HARUVI, is there another name this may have been Hebraicized into?

Firstly, I hope you will pardon a correction, not trivial in the present
context: *Seforim/Sefarin* means *books*, not *scribes*. The word you are
looking for is *Sofrim*. The point is that the Subject line is misleading,
so that people who might have been interested in helping with your search
may not be tempted to read your message, while others (like me) will read
it to little avail.

I can, however, tell you that scribes are not necessarily Levi'im; I do
not think there is any preponderance of Levi'im among them. My ggf, not a
Levi, was a scribe.

As for name changes, I think *H.ARUVI* is too restrictive, even as a
translation. You would have to consider names like *'ILAN* (tree),
*'ETZIONI* (not a translation, but a phonetic play on another word for
tree), and probably anything beginning with B. I don't know how many
BOKSENBAUMs there are in the Israel telephone directory, but I would
think that a letter typed on your computer, with umpty-leven copies
printed out in one fell swoop, would be your best and most economical bet.
Especially if you can send them all in envelopes to a colleague in Israel
for local mailing.

I wish I could offer advice about a guild of scribes to narrow your
search; perhaps someone else will do so.

Stan Goodman, Qiryat Tiv'on, Israel

Searching:
NEACHOWICZ/NOACHOWICZ, NEJMAN/NAJMAN, ROKITA: >from Lomza Gubernia
ISMACH: >from Lomza Gubernia, Galicia, and Ukraina
HERTANU, ABRAMOVICI, LAUER: >from Dorohoi District, Romania
GRISARU, VATARU: >from Iasi, Romania

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http://www.hashkedim.com
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