Adelman& Edelman - Great Information - Everyone Should Read This!!

The name Adelman is a pronunciation/spelling variant of Edelman or Edelmann.


Adelman is probably the closest spelling to the original sound.


edel in German or Yiddish means "fine," hence Edelweiss flowers are fine, white (weiss) flowers.


When Jews were assigned or took last names in the censuses of the late 18th / early 19th centuries, kohanim (people from the Tribe of Levi who also had the distinction of being descended from ancient priests from the time of the Temple) were given a variety of specialized names to indicate their status. They have the honor of being called to the Torah first in Orthodox or some Conservative synagogues; they perform other ceremonial functions that were integrated into synagogue services after the Temple was destroyed. Some of these functions may date back to the time of the Babylonian exile (587/586 - 540s BCE), when we know that a question was raised as to whether there could be sacrifices outside of the destroyed (First) Temple. Some authorities said yes, and there were sacrifices in some sanctuaries throughout the Diaspora; others said no, and other functions were found.


For instance, kohanim offer the priestly blessing in Orthodox synagogues, the familiar text being:
May YHWH bless you and guard you – יְבָרֶכְךָ יְהוָה, וְיִשְׁמְרֶךָ
May YHWH make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you – יָאֵר יְהוָה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ, וִיחֻנֶּךָּ
May YHWH lift up his face onto you and give you peace – יִשָּׂא יְהוָה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ, וְיָשֵׂם לְךָ שָׁלוֹם


Christian scholars insist on using YHWH, and some Jewish scholars have adopted it. It is the name of God that we do not pronounce, that was pronounced only once a year in the Temple, on Yom Kippur, and only by the High Priest.


If you don't see the Hebrew text, you can find more at www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priestly_Blessing


Anyway, some of the names assigned to Kohanim were:


Kohen or variants Cohen or Cohan.


Kogen or Cogen, because most Russian dialects other than Ukrainian do not have the letter "h;" when I worked with the Jewish community in Ukraine in the 1990s, one heard the former head of the USSR referred to as Horbachov; when Vladimir Horowitz performed in Russia, his name was listed on posters as "Gorowitz," because "h" is customarily transcribed and pronounced with a hard "g."


Elena Kagan, the new Supreme Court justice, provides another variant. Among Jews who use the Litvak or Litvish pronunciation of Yiddish, the vowel long "o" is pronounced as long "a." This is actually a very ancient variant that can be traced to Biblical pronunciation, as can the Litvak/Litvish pronunciation of "s" and "sh" identically, as a kind of mixed sound.


Another name that was assigned to kohanim was "Katz," or "Catz," the Hebrew abbreviation for "kohen tzedek," or "priest of righteousness."


And another was Adelman / Edelman (Edelmann with the doubled "n" at the end conforms more to German spelling, and is less common among Jews, but is found). This designated them as "fine" people.


My own family use the spelling "Edelman," and I have many Edelman cousins. My mother's maiden name was Edelman. I am very close with the Edelman family.


However, since there were kohanim in virtually every Jewish community, the names Cohen, Kohen, Kogen, Kogon, Katz, Catz, Adelman, and Edelman and several others are quite common and do not indicate a close family relationship.


However, a Professor Tudor Parfitt from England did some interesting DNA research on kohanim and Levites in the 1990s, and he showed that they do have certain markers that indicate a consistent lineage for at least 2-3,000 years back.


I hope this information is of help.


Peter A. Stark, son of Ida C. Edelman Stark, of blessed memory, who died at 93 in 1996.