Indexing Jewish Surnames in the Levant through Facebook

Analysing surnames is an essential component in any attempt or project to describe and characterize a Jewish community. It offers an opportunity to understand the geographic origin of its members, the composition of its institutions and in some cases indicates the level of the internal social integration, reflected mostly in lists of school students and marriage records. While in Europe and in North and South America vital records are accessible, this is not the case for the Levant, e.g., Egypt, Syria, and Iraq.Those communities were uprooted abruptly in the mid-20th century, leaving behind both property and documentation. Thus, one has to find alternative sources for increasing the number of surnames. While in some cases the Jewish press or business directories may provide useful clues, however one has to keep in mind that only a fraction of the Jews made it to the press or were included in the business directories. Records of the Jewish Agency. HIAS and JDC contain only partial data about those who were helped by them.

I have found another untapped source. Since most of the descendants of the Jews from the Levant are currently active in various Facebook groups, they and provide a fertile ground for harvesting surnames. The research methodology will be displayed detailing the different characteristics of those groups.