Benzion Kagan's book, "A Dictionary of Jewish Names and their History," is a
pioneering book on Jewish surnames. Like many pioneer efforts, it is
obsolete by today's standards. Much has been learned about the origin and
evolution of Jewish surnames in Central and Eastern Europe since the
Kaganoff book was published. The new standard is the works of Dr. Alexander
Beider: A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames >from the Russian Empire, A
Dictionary of Jewish Surnames form the Kingdom of Poland, A Dictionary of
Ashkenazic Given Names.

Two new important works on Jewish names will be published by Avotaynu some
time this year. "A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames >from Galicia" by Dr. Beider
and "19th Century Jewish Surnames >from the German Empire," by Lars Menk. The
Menk book has been previewed by Dr. Beider who says it is "excellent."

Gary Mokotoff Northern New Jersey garymokotoff@...