Goldfoot Genealogy

Halpern and Branches - Results-

This is a group on Family Tree DNA who have found matches that lead to RASHI, who in turn claimed descendency from King David.

Rabbi Samson Wertheimer and his brother, Moshe were one connection.  Halpern is a surname who also leads to Rashi.  

"So far, we have some interesting results.

                                                                     

We have found a Rose Luria Halprin  nee Luria (1895-1978) who was a US Zionist.  She was national president of Hadassah from 1932 to 1934, and again from 1947 to 1952.  From 1946 to 1968 she was a member of the executive of the Jewish Agency.  In 1969, she was appointed to head the American division of the World Jewish Congress.  She's listed on genie.com 

                                                                   

Lawrence Halprin (1916-2009) was a famous landscape architect in Sonoma, CA

A variation might be Albert Halper, born 1904.  He was a US novelist.  During the 1930's, he used personal experiences to write about life among the working class.  He wrote, Union Square, The Foundry, and The Little People.  

Benzion Halper (1884-1924) was also a scholar who was born in Lithuania.  He settled in the US in 1911 and taught at Dropsie College in Philadelphia from 1914.  His published works were on Hebrew and Arabic, including an anthology of post-biblical Hebrew literature and a catalogue of Cairo Genizsah documents.  

Samuel Halpert (1884-1930) was a US painter.  He was born in Russia and taken to the US in 1890, when the US census was destroyed.  Following studies in Europe, he returned to the USA after 194, since WWI had started that year.  He pioneered in the development of modern art in America.  

"The G2c haplogroup seems to be most likely to link to the old rabbinic Heilperin family originally from Germany, c. 1500. One man in this group can trace his tree directly back that far, and at least two others with similar surnames match very close to him."

 Jehiel  Ben Solomon Heilprin was born about 1660 and died in 1746.  He was a scholar and a rabbi at Glusk, which was part of White Russia, and from 1711, at Minsk.  Besides his rabbinical knowledge, Heilprin had a wide secular education as well and was a student of Kabbalah.  His best known work was Seder ha-Dorot.  It was a chronology down to 1696 of an alphabetical list of tannaim and amoraim (very famous rabbis) and a catalog of post-talmudic Hebrew authors and books.

"Jehiel Heilprin, author of Seder Ha-Dorot (The Order of the Generations) (Karlsruhe, 1769), had a similar genealogy and listed his descent from Rashi, Johanan Ha-Sandler, Rabbi Gamaliel the Elder in the title page of his book. Only fragments were saved of this genealogy, which had a number of Rashi's ancestors, but also large gaps. That caused some genealogists to claim that it was a forgery, and that Rashi's descent from King David was a fabrication. Judging from my study of the rabbis of many ages and places, they were of high moral fiber and integrity, and I am certain that the tradition of Rashi's descent is a true retelling of historical facts. Lack of proof is not proof of lack."  So wrote "David Einsiedler has devoted his retirement years to rabbinic genealogical research and is a member of the JGSLA. He is a native of pre-war Poland and lives in Los Angeles, California. This article was originally published in the Spring 1988 edition of Roots-Key: Journal of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles (JGSLA)"

                                                                  

Michael Heilprin (1823-1888) was born in Piotrkow,  and was a linguist, scholar, encyclopedist, and author. In 1842 Heilprin and his family went to Hungary, where he joined the Hungarian liberal movement and became well known as a writer and revolutionary poet during the revolution of 1848.

                                                                   

Angelo Heilprin was born in 1853 and died in 1907.  He was a US geologist, paleontologist, and explorer.  He was the son of Michael Heilprin born 1823-1888.  This man was an author and journalist of Polish birth who went to Hungary in 1842.  By 1856 he immigrated to the USA and settled where he taught in Jewish schools in Philadelphia and was active in the anti-slavery movement.  

A son of Angelo was Louis Heilprin, (1851-1912) who was an editor and wrote the Historical Reference Book in 1884.  He also edited Nelson's encyhclopedia and together with Angelo, edited Lippincott's New Gazetteer in 1905. 

  

There is another E1b1b1c1a cluster that appears to have originally been from Kurenets, Belarus c. 1700, or even earlier. They may trace to the rabbinic family of this name, since they appear to have gone by "Alper", "Alperovich" and similar names since 1700. Surnames were very uncommon in that time, unless one was from a note family.

There is a small J1 cluster as well, with folks of Austrian, Romanian, and western Ukrainian descent. These folks appear to have had a common origin around 1700, but unlike the E1b1b1c1a case, there is no documentation to prove it. 

Rabbi Samson Wertheimer (1658-1724) was not only a rabbi but a financier as well.  He was born in Worms, Germany, a center of the period where rabbis congregated and lived.  He moved to Vienna in 1684 to join the bank of his uncle, Samuel Oppenheimer, and he soon became a court banker.  

Joseph Von Wertheimer (1800-1887) was an Austrian educator and author as well as a businessman.  He studied educational problems and established the first kindergarten in Vienna in 1830.  

                                                                     

Max Wertheimer (1880-1943) was a psychologist and taught in Germany until 1933 when the Nazis started their attacks on Jews.  So he moved to New York where he taught at the New School for Social Research.  He was a founder of the Gestalt theory of psychology.  

                                                                        

Rabbi Samuel Oppenheimer or Oppenheim  (1630-1703) is another connection.  He was a Philanthropist and Court Jew, meaning that he loaned money to Kings and Queens.  He was the 1st Jew to settle in Vienna after the 1670 expulsion of all Jews.  Then he became Leopold I's agent and financier, helping to finance his wars with the Turks and the War of the Spanish Succession. One way to not have to pay back loans was to accuse the loaner of something and this happened.  In 1697 he was accused of conspiring to murder his " rival"  the court said, who was his nephew, Rabbi Samson Wertheimer!!  This rabbi was imprisoned until vindicated.  He was a wonderful man who supported the poor.  Jewish scholars and Judah Hasid's movement to settle in Palestine, a true Zionist!  

Rabbi David Oppenheim or Oppenheimer (1664-1736) was a bibliophile and rabbi, and was a nephew of Samuel Oppenheimer.  He was also born in Worms, Germany and served as rabbi Nikolsburg, and from 1702, in Prague.  He built up a library of books and spent much money in obtaining them.  However, there was a censorship of books in Prague, so he had to keep them in Hanover.  5,421 printed books from his collection were finally bought by the Bodleian Library Oxford in 1829 and served as the basis of its Hebrew section.  

                                                                            

Robert J. Oppenheimer (1904-1967) was the famous physicist what was a professor of physics at the U of California and the California Institute of Technology.  From 1929 to 1947, he was the Director of the Atomic Energy research and the making of the atom bomb during WWII.  He was later accused of being a left-winger.

Update: 9/30/15 As for Goldfoot's connections, I have found that we have Goldfus-Oppenheim connections that happened in Telsiai, Lithuania where the Goldfus line lived for so long.   I found Opengigm, Iontov, a tavern keeper in 1881 in Plunge, Telsiai, Lithuania.  Telsiai was the Uyezd.  I had found that Guta Golda Goldfus had married Jontaf "Iontov"? Openheim in 1859 who was born in 1839.  His father was Sender Opengeim.    Sender Opengeim's father was Gersh.  The information said that either Sender or Gersh, not certain, was well to do and had a house!  This was listed in box tax pages in May 1881 in Telsiai.  He had a 3 sons;   Shaya, Iontov and Leyb.
                                            Surnames Important to Project

Albert, Alpern, Alperovitch, Alperowicz, Alpert, Galpern, Guggenheim, Hailperin, Halperin, Halpern, Halpert, Heilbron, Heilbrunn, Heilman, Heilperin, Heilpern, Heilprin, Hillman, Rubenstein, Wertheim

Resource: Halpern & Branches Group on FTDNA