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Author: Marvin_Zimmerman
Surnames: Zimmerman
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.zimmerman/2578.4.1/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
Liz, please be a little careful with admonishing KAC695 to not listen to people. I, too,
had my DNA tested and found the migration path of the E1b1b1a1b haplogroup to be out of
northeastern Africa, through Israel to the Balkans, across the Adriatic Sea into southern
Italy to southern Germany and southern England. That does not make me a Jew, even though
in my family tales someone in the past injected a story that we are of Jewish descent. Or,
it makes me as much Jew as it does Italian, Egyptian and Libyen. My ancestry as
established by available records back to the 30 years war is purely German Protestant.
In Germany of the middle ages, it was not forbidden for Jews to learn a trade that would
have led to a family name common to trades such as Muller, Meyer, Schmitt, Schneider or
Zimmerman. Jews, however, were not allowed to become guild members. That is where young
men learned a trade through apprenticeship. Thus allowed, but not possible. Jews were also
not allowed to own land, so there were no Jewish farmers.
Jewish is a religion, not a race. If your ancestry is Israelite, that means that some of
your ancestors were physically located in Israel, but that again does not automatically
make them Jews. According to traditional Jewish Law, a Jew is anyone born of a Jewish
mother. Children born of a Jewish father and non Jewish mother must convert to Judaism in
accordance with Jewish Law. The conversion process is evaluated by an authority, and the
convert is examined on his or her sincerity and knowledge. Converts are given the name
"ben Abraham" or "bat Abraham", (son or daughter of Abraham).
For these reasons, I would think it most likely that any family legend of a member of a
Zimmerman line being Jewish would find its origin in something of this nature.
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