Nathan Kaminsky and Aaron Cohen

[RivkahChaya]

Apologies if this has been covered in an old thread, but I couldn't find it under a number of different search terms.

I came here looking to see if a particular angle on Nathan Kaminsky renaming himself Aaron Cohen has ever been investigated. It's pretty simple, so I'd be surprised if is hasn't, but I've got all the right books (Begg, Fido, Skinner, et al.), and I've only ever seen the suggestion the Kaminsky might have started using the name Aaron Cohen to disassociate himself from "Leather Apron."

There's a tradition, or really a superstition, among Ashkenazic Jews (I'm one), that after surviving a serious illness, you should change your name. The idea is that the angel of death had ahold of you, but you got away; however, he'll be looking for you again, so you should start using a different name to fool him. Yes, it sounds silly, but I know lots of people in the US now who symbolically add another name to the name they use in the synagogue, even today.

Anyway, if Nathan Kaminsky was treated for syphilis, and after six weeks, declared cured, he might have been moved to change his name.

There's something specific about the name "Cohen," though; it's the Hebrew word that means the priests of the temple in Jerusalem, and men who are cohanim have special status during synagogue Torah service. Every Jewish man knows whether of not he is a Cohen, and it is unlikely enough to the point of being absurd, that Kaminsky would have changed his name to Cohen if he wasn't a Cohen (even if he was just trying to avoid the Leather Apron fiasco, it's unlikely he would choose "Cohen" if he wasn't one).

If Kaminsky has any patrilineal relatives on his father's side, or any sons with patrilineal descendents, finding out is as simple as asking any one of them "Are you a cohen?" Otherwise, some research into what, if any synagogue he may have attended would be necessary, and it gets more complicated. But, if he wasn't a Cohen, then the idea that he himself took the name Aaron Cohen on purpose can be dismissed.

However, if he was a Cohen, then "Aaron Cohen" makes a very good alias for him. It affirms his religious identity and status, and moreover, "Aaron" is an obvious choice as a first name once he has already settled on Cohen as a last name, because Aaron in the Torah, the brother of Moses, was the first cohen.

Also, a note on the David/Davis confusion. I can see why an immigrant writing his own name might write "David," and have it read as "Davis." The alphabet used for writing Yiddish and Hebrew does not have upper- and lowercase forms. Someone who isn't really literate in English, but has learned to write his name, may have forgotten the lowercase form of the letter "D," and thinking that as in Yiddish, it isn't that important, joined a scaled down uppercase "D" to the end of the word "Davi-." A scaled down uppercase D, in longhand, would look more like a lowercase "S" to someone for whom reading English was second nature. This is especially true if you are familiar with the way people coming from Yiddish or Hebrew tend to write longhand. Even though they join the letters, they tend to pause between them, and often don't double back on downward strokes, but rather lift up the pen.

I wish I had a working scanner-- I'd post an image.

If anyone has seen information about this anywhere, please point me toward it.

[Robert]

Hi RivkahChaya

Welcome to the boards.

Speaking for myself, I have never heard such an angle explored, but what you say is extremely interesting. Hopefully someone else will give you a better answer, as I am not Jewish.

[Bridewell]

Hi Rikvah,

Welcome to Casebook. Thanks for an interesting and informative first post.

Regards, Bridewell.

[RivkahChaya]

Thanks for the welcome.

It seems like a really obvious point to me, but things that are Jewish are always obvious to me, so maybe it really has flown under the radar all these years. When I think about the inner circle of really knowledgeable, prolific, and non-nutcase writers and researchers, like Begg, Fido, and Skinner, no names strike me as obviously Jewish.

[Errata]

Thanks for the welcome.

It seems like a really obvious point to me, but things that are Jewish are always obvious to me, so maybe it really has flown under the radar all these years. When I think about the inner circle of really knowledgeable, prolific, and non-nutcase writers and researchers, like Begg, Fido, and Skinner, no names strike me as obviously Jewish.

Another Jew! *happy dance*

I never thought about it, but off the top of my head I would agree that the people most likely to change their name TO Cohen would be Cohens. It's a peculiar superstition, one I have never heard of outside of the orthodox community. So if he clings to the superstition and changes his name, he would likely be either orthodox or a fresh-off-the-boat immigrant. Both of those are statistically far more likely to be religiously observant. So if he's a religiously observant Cohen, I don't know how he pulls off a murder.

Another thing to consider is the whole dichotomy between Judaism being matrilineal in inheritance, but patrilineal in caste. His mother makes him Jewish, his father makes him a Cohen, Levi, or Israelite. If his father were not Cohen, he might take it as a last name because his mother's family were Cohens, in caste if not in name. At the time, it would serve as a much more "secret" identity, because no Victorian would imagine a man taking his mother's name or clan outside of exceedingly rare nobility inheritance issues. If he wants to truly distance himself from his previous name in the eyes of the public, the most thorough way would be to take it from his mother. In fact my family did that. My father and uncle became Levis like their mother, not their father who was a Cohen. Although that mostly had to do with becoming doctors, which you can't do and remain a Cohen. You know. All the dead people.

[RivkahChaya]

That's funny.

If it's a secret identity, he's in his head, haAharon, haCohen echad (THE Aaron, the original priest), he might do that whether he were a cohen or not, but if it's a name he intends to use, which is to say, give to the police, I would think a non-cohen wouldn't do that, because of not wanting to be mistaken for a real one.

I really got to thinking about it when I thought that "Aaron Cohen" sounded like something a person would use as an alias, but not an alias that would occur to a gentile.

Also, I realized that the David/s confusion could come about because a lowercase longhand S looks like a scaled-down longhand capital D, and I have had the experience of trying to explain to people who were learning to write English as adults, whose first language was Hebrew, that yes, the distinction between capital and lowercase really does matter.

Now, I am not suggesting that any of this makes Kaminsky/Cohen JTR, just that it would explain the name change.