Horowitz

Horowitz (Hebrew: הוֹרוֹביץ‎, Yiddish: האָראָװיץ‎, YIVO Horovits) is a surname that has its origin in the Yiddish name for the town of Hořovice (German: Horschowitz or Horowitz) in Bohemia. The patriarch of the family line is thought to be Aaron Meshullam Horowitz, founder of Pinkas Synagogue in Prague (itself named after his grandson Rabbi Pinchas HaLevi Horowitz[1]), who lived in Hořovice and Prague in the 16th century, and had eight sons who spread the family throughout Europe, which later spread to the Middle East, the Russian Empire and the Americas. Today there are some 50,000 people around the world – mostly of Jewish and more specifically Levite ancestry – carrying a variation of the Horowitz surname.[2]

The Horowitz family is one of the most illustrious rabbinic families in Jewish history. Tradition quoted by scholars traces this family to the "sons of Korah" mentioned in the Bible: Numbers 26:11 and Psalms 47.[3] A family tree exists which traces Horowitz origins back to the 12th century.[4] This family produced some of the greatest rabbinic scholars of Hachmei Provence, France, and Italy in the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries.[5] The original Sephardic surname of this family was Benveniste.[6] Already a wealthy merchant family, they fled the Iberian peninsula in the early 15th century, decades before the Alhambra Decree, and settled in the town of Hořovice in central Bohemia.[7] Initially, they had presented outwardly as Christians, as Jews were not permitted to own land, but continued to practice Judaism. With the growth of the Jewish community in Prague and the Böhmischer Landtag passing land rights reform in 1501, allowing for more real estate in the city to be built and owned by Jews, the family sold their holdings in Hořovice and moved to Prague in the early 16th century, taking on the Horowitz surname.[8] The family adopted Ashkenazi customs as they integrated into the Prague Jewish community. From that time forward, prominent rabbis of this family were found in virtually every European country. In 2016 historian and genealogist Edward Gelles established through Autosomal DNA the traditional belief concerning the descent of the Levitic Horowitz lines from the Halevi and Benveniste of Spain.[9] In 2017 Nature (Journal) Scientific Reports confirmed the allocation of Horowitz Levite samples was consistent with their proposed lineage and their genealogical claim could not be refuted.[10]

Other variants of the name include Harowitz, Harrwitz, Harwitz, Horovitz, Horvitz, Horwicz, Horwitz, Hourwitz, Hurewicz, Hurwicz, Hurwitz, Gerovich, Gurovich, Gurevich, Gurvich, Gourevitch, Orowitz and Urwitz.[11]