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Friday April 23, 1999

Congregants are happy to choose Hebrew names

JOSHUA SCHUSTER
Bulletin Staff

In the process of fleeing from the Nazis and later declaring United States citizenship, Andrew Moser has had to shorten his name twice.

Last month, he elected to expand his name. The 71-year-old from Mountain View, born Paul Andrew Moser-Benedikt, chose a Hebrew moniker.

On the bimah, he's now Uri.

Moser, along with 15 other members of Reform Congregation Etz Chayim in Palo Alto, took Hebrew names at a special Shabbat service led by Rabbi Ari Cartun.

While a handful of informal traditions serve as guidelines for choosing a name, it's up to the individual to pick a Hebrew handle, Cartun explained. Most people are named after a family member or Hebraicize their English name. Changing one's given name is allowed.

Moser, a native of Czechoslovakia, was raised in an assimilated family that didn't put much stock in Jewish labels. He never knew his parents' Hebrew names.

But Moser did not completely toss out his Jewish identity, and said he felt at home when he joined Cartun's synagogue.

Since Moser's son will be married soon, and Moser will be called for an aliyah, a Jewish name seemed an important item for the occasion. Moser latched on to "Uri" because he liked the ring of it, he said.

"It feels natural, as if chosen out of a hat," said Moser, who plans to use the name only for ritualistic purposes and on his gravestone. "It adds to very positive feelings I've always had toward Judaism."

Mark Gregory Cartun knows plenty about changing names himself.

Cartun's original Hebrew name was Avraham, but when he entered rabbinical school, he feared using the patriarch's signature would be too lofty.

He contemplated using his English first name, but in Hebrew the root letters of Mark spell "soup." Cartun, a Leo, dubbed himself a lion in Hebrew, or Aryeh. He clipped the name to Ari, and legally adopted the Hebrew appellation as his first name.

"I felt more like an Ari than a Mark, although it took a while for everyone else to get used to," Cartun said. "For people who don't like their Hebrew names, they can change or add to them."

Congregant Eileen Soffer's son and daughter already had Hebrew names. But she found there was no stopping a kid who wants to be named after Moses.

Moshe, Brian Levenson's new Hebrew middle name, fit the 11-year-old like a glove. Rachel Levenson, age 8, searched voraciously for her own in her parent's Hebrew naming book. The modern Israeli ones seemed exciting. No'omi finally sounded right.

Soffer, who lives in Mountain View, said having the kids choose their own names "revealed something about their personality. It became a statement of who they are and who they would like to be."

It became a fun twist on the usual naming system in which parents agonize over picking a name of someone they want their kids to be like, Soffer said.

"Kids just take for granted their name. They had a lot of fun being involved in finding a new name. It's a little piece of identification. They look for their names in stories and prayers."

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