Balsam. There are other occupational names that are more distinctively related to Jewish culture and religious roles: Dayan (Jewish religious judge in a Beth din); Parnass, Gabbay, Singer, Cantor, Voorsanger, Chazan, Cantarini, from the synagogue officials who were so called; Shochet, Schaechter, Schechter, from the ritual slaughterer (also Schub or Shub: Hebrew acronym for shochet u-bodek, ritual slaughterer and kosher meat inspector); Shadkun, a marriage-broker; Rabe, Rabinowitz, Rabinovich, Rabinowicz, and Rabbinovitz, rabbis (occasionally Anglicized to Robinson or Robbins); Benmohel (one variant of which is Mahler), son of one who performed circumcision, the sacred rite of Abraham. A number of Arabic names are of similar origin: Al-Fakhkhar, a potter; Mocatta, a mason or possibly a soldier (Al-Muḳatil). See also Family name etymology German family name etymology Hebrew name Jewish Encyclopedia articles Jewish name List of Jewish nobility Polish surnames Citations General bibliography Eva Horowitz and Heinrich Guggenheimer: Jewish Family Names and their Origins: an etymological dictionary. KTAV 1992, , 882 pages What’s in a Name? 25 Jewish Stories. Jewish Museum of Switzerland, Biel 2022. ISBN 978-3-907262-34-4. German Jewish surnames Lars Menk: A Dictionary of German-Jewish Surnames. Avotaynu, Bergenfield, 2005. Franz D. Lucas and Margret Heitmann: Stadt des Glaubens. Olms, 1992, . A. Heppner: "Die Stamm-Numeranten". In: Breslauer Juedisches Gemeindeblatt, Amtliches Blatt der Synagogengemeinde zu Breslau. Breslau 1928. Leopold Zunz: Namen der Juden: Eine geschichtliche Untersuchung. Leipzig 1837. Johann Jakob Schudt: Jüdische Merkwürdigkeiten. Vorstellende, was sich Curieuses ... mit denen ... Juden zugetragen. Frankfurt & Leipzig, 1714–18. Other regions Alexander Beider: A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from Galicia. Avotaynu, Bergenfield, 2004, . Alexander Beider: A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Kingdom of Poland. Avotaynu, Bergenfield, 1996, . (first edition) Alexander Beider: Jewish Surnames in Prague (15th–18th Centuries). Avotaynu, Bergenfield, 1994, . Alexander Beider: A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire: Revised Edition, two volumes. Avotaynu, Bergenfield, 2008, , 10,008 pages First edition: 1993, . External links "Names and Naming" by Alexander Beider, The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe Surname