THE GUARDIAN - GILES FRASER - HAUNTED BY FAMILY'S PAST by GILES FRASER
"The Lusitania sinking in all likelihood triggered the process by which the family rabbi became, a century later, the family priest."
EXCERPT:
When the Liverpool-registered ocean liner the RMS Lusitania was torpedoed by U-boats on 7 May 1915, the Rev Samuel Friedeberg was serving as a rabbi at the Princes Road synagogue in Liverpool. For days following the sinking, anti-German riots plagued the city. Shop windows were smashed and factories believed to be owned by Germans were attacked. Foreigners were roughed up on the street, often with little discrimination as to their place of origin.
The chief constable of Liverpool contacted the government to request the assistance of the army. A few months later, the Rev Friedeberg changed his surname to Frampton. Other parts of the family followed suit and became Freemans or Frasers. It became a pretty common thing to do. A few years later, Battenberg became Mountbatten.
For my family, the change of name occasioned by the public reaction to the sinking of the Lusitania, 99 years ago this week, was probably the crucial move in 300 years of cultural assimilation – a process by which the family rabbi became, a century later, the family priest. And this feels extremely odd, almost like something of a betrayal. I am Giles Fraser, son of Anthony, son of Harold, son of Louis, son of Mark, son of Moses, son of Jacob, son of Judah, son of David. All English Jews stretching back to the early 18th century.
