Horowitz family

The name Horowitz — appearing in numerous variants such as Horovitz, Hurwitz, Horwitz, Gurwitz, or Gurevich — is one of the most widespread and well-known surnames in the Jewish world. Behind this variety of spellings lies a single common origin: the small town of Hořovice in Central Bohemia.

Introduction

The family that traces its name to this place belonged to the Levite caste, and over the centuries it produced numerous rabbis, scholars, kabbalists, and founders of Hasidic dynasties whose influence extended from Prague through Poland, Lithuania, and Hungary to Palestine and, later, the United States [1][2][5].

The formation of names based on places where a family resided (e.g., Izák Žatecký, Markvart z Kolína) and places from which they had originally moved (e.g., Jakub Žatecký Žid z Prahy - "Žatec/Žatecký" as the place of origin, "Prahy/Prague" as a new place of residence, Žalman Hořovský Žid z Prahy - "Hořovice/Hořovský" as the place of origin, "Prahy/Prague" as a new place of residence) is evident in the 1497 census of Jews found in the publication "Prameny k dějinám Židů v Čechách a na Moravě ve středověku" [8].

The Earliest Traces in Bohemia

According to the Encyclopedia of Religious Studies published by the Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the history of the Horowitz family in Bohemia can be traced back to the 15th century; the family derives its name from the small town of Hořovice (German: Horowitz), the place of origin of the earliest documented bearers of the name [1]. A genealogical overview by JewGenPEDIA, based on Prague municipal records and the research of historian Otto Muneles, confirms that at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries, the surname appears in Latin as "Horzowsky" and in Czech as "Hořovský," unambiguously pointing to an origin in Hořovice [4].

The founder of the Prague branch of the family is considered to be Isaiah (Ješaja) ben Moshe ha-Levi, who died in 1517 and is documented as a patron who, in 1514, pledged financial support to the Hebrew printers of Prague for the publication of the Pentateuch [1][5]. He had seven sons, the most notable of whom was Aaron Meshullam (Zalman) Horowitz (1470–1545). In 1535, he founded a synagogue in Prague later known as the Pinkas Synagogue, and he is sometimes identified with Zalman Munka, to whom King Louis Jagiellon granted a privilege in 1525 stipulating that the rabbi and elders of the Prague Jewish community should be appointed from among members of his family [1][5]. A commemorative plaque in the Pinkas Synagogue, today administered by the Jewish Museum in Prague, records that the building was financed by "Aaron Meshullam, son of Rabbi Isaiah ha-Levi, known as Zalman Horowitz," together with his wife. The synagogue remained in the family's possession throughout the 16th century, and it is still part of the exhibitions of the Jewish Museum in Prague, which documents the history and material culture of the Prague and Bohemian Jewish community [3].

Branching Out and Dispersal

Isaiah's sons gave rise to several important lines: Israel died in 1568/1569 together with his son-in-law during a pogrom in Prague, Shabtai Sheftel (d. 1555) served as a leader of the community, and his descendants — including Abraham ben Shabtai Sheftel Horowitz — moved to Poland, where in Kraków and Lwów they held prominent rabbinic and judicial positions [1][5]. Abraham's son, Isaiah ben Abraham ha-Levi Horowitz (c. 1565–1630), became famous as the author of the kabbalistic work Shnei Luchot ha-Brit (known by its acronym, the Shelah), after which he was called "the Holy Shelah" [1][5]. From the line of Israel came Rabbi Pinchas Horowitz, brother-in-law of the renowned Kraków scholar Moses Isserles and, from 1585, head of the Council of Four Lands — the supreme self-governing body of Polish-Lithuanian Jewry [1][5].

Until the beginning of the 19th century, members of the family held rabbinic posts in dozens of towns across Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Austria, Moravia, Hungary, and Germany [1][5]. In the 18th century, the family also produced important Hasidic dynasties, including the brothers Pinchas Horowitz of Frankfurt am Main, author of the work Hafla'ah, and his brother Samuel Horowitz of Nikolsburg (Mikulov) [5]. The descendants of Samuel Horowitz emigrated to the United States in the 1880s. Following a marriage alliance with the Margareten family, they operated the well-known Horowitz-Margareten matzo bakery; the family subsequently established the Horowitz-Margareten Family Association, which currently has approximately 1,500 members. [5].

The Tradition of Spanish Origin

Alongside the well-documented Bohemian origin, the family has also maintained, since the 19th and especially the early 20th century, a tradition tracing its roots back to medieval Spain. Both the Encyclopedia of Religious Studies and the Encyclopaedia Judaica mention this version as "one tradition" holding that the family's beginnings lie in Spain, without elaborating further [1][5]. The English Wikipedia article on the Horowitz family describes this tradition in greater detail, stating that the family preserved a belief that Joseph ha-Levi of Hořovice originally came from Girona in Spain and was a direct paternal descendant of the Girona scholar Zerachiah ha-Levi of the Yitzhari family, whose lineage was believed to trace back, through the biblical line via Yitzhar son of Kohath, to the prophet Samuel [6]. This genealogical tradition became so deeply embedded in the family's identity that it was reportedly invoked on his deathbed by Rabbi Shmuel Shmelke Horowitz of Nikolsburg (1726–1778), who declared that his soul derived from the soul of the prophet Samuel [6].

However, historian and genealogist Avrohom Marmorstein, in a study for the genealogical journal Avotaynu, points out that the link between the Horowitz family and the Spanish Benveniste family (and by extension Zerachiah ha-Levi of Girona) appears in surviving sources only from the late 19th century onward, and he questions where and when this tradition actually originated [7]. A genealogical project focused on Y-DNA analysis of the Horowitz family's male line likewise notes, citing Marmorstein's study, that the Iberian connection was not documented for the family before the late 19th century, and that genetic data gathered so far have not confirmed the tradition of a common ancestor with the Benveniste family [7].

Conclusion

The origin of the Horowitz family in Catalan Girona (Gerona), from which they are said to have moved to Hořovice following the pogroms of 1391, appears in a range of Jewish sources and modern genealogical studies — from older rabbinic traditions to encyclopedia entries and current genealogical and DNA projects that attempt to verify the tradition through Y-DNA analysis of the male line.

For the family's settlement in Hořovice and its adoption of a name derived from the town of Hořovice, we have no direct medieval evidence; however, the recorded names "Žid Hořovský z Prahy" ("the Jew Hořovský of Prague") or "Žalman Hořovský Žid z Prahy" ("Žalman Hořovský, a Jew of Prague") in contemporary registers of Jews are fully consistent with this. The derivation of the Horowitz family name from the town of Hořovice is therefore generally accepted in the literature. The family's presence in Prague is, in turn, well documented — both through written sources and, for example, through the tombstone of Aaron Meshullam Horowitz in Prague's Old Jewish Cemetery.

Direct medieval evidence of the Spanish origin remains limited, and there is no unambiguous written documentation confirming a connection to Girona already in the medieval period; indeed, according to some researchers, the Iberian branch of the family legend appears in surviving sources only from the late 19th century onward. Historians therefore generally treat the Spanish origin of the family as a family tradition rather than an indisputably documented historical fact.

Sources

[1] NOSEK, Bedřich. Horovicové (JKI-J). In: NEŠPOR, Zdeněk R. (ed.). Sociologická encyklopedie [online]. Prague: Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, 2017–. Available at: https://rg-encyklopedie.soc.cas.cz/index.php/Horovicov%C3%A9_(JKI-J)

[2] Horowitz Family. In: The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe [online]. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Available at: https://encyclopedia.yivo.org/article/1178

[3] Collection record on the history of the Horowitz family / Hořovice. In: Digital Collections of the Jewish Museum in Prague [online]. Jewish Museum in Prague. Available at: https://collections.jewishmuseum.cz/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/75317

[4] HOROWITZ (הורװיץ). In: JewGenPEDIA [online]. Available at: https://www.jewgenpedia.com/families/horovitz

[5] Horowitz. In: Encyclopaedia Judaica [online]. Encyclopedia.com. Available at: https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/horowitz

[6] Horowitz family. In: Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia [online]. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horowitz_family

[7] MARMORSTEIN, Avrohom. Does the Horowitz Family from Bohemia Really Descend from the Benvenisti Halevy Family from Spain? Avotaynu Online, 2016. Available at: https://avotaynuonline.com/2016/03/does-the-horowitz-family-from-bohemia-really-descend-from-the-benvenisti-halevy-family-from-spain/; see also Levite DNA – Horowitz Family Trees [online]. Available at: https://sites.google.com/site/levitedna/paper-genealogy/horowitz-family-trees

[8] Zur Geschichte der Juden in Bohmen, Mahren und Slesien von 906 bis 1620. Gottlieb Bondy, Franz Dworský. Prag, 1906