Jewish tartan?

[gilmore]

I came across some info that has lead me to resurrect this thread.

There are quite a Jewish families from Lithuania, as well as from Latvia and other parts of the former Tsarist empire, named Gordon. How this came about is unresolved and subject to some discussion, but may be close enough for some to choose a Gordon tartan to wear.

There are several stories as to the origin of Jewish Gordons.

One, most favored by some, is that the name comes from Grodno, a city in what is now Lithuania.

Another is that it originated with "the Russian adverb gordo (proudly) or the adjective gordyy (proud). Tack an 'in' to the stem 'gord' and you get a prideful person."

A third possibility is Lord George Gordon (26 December 1751 - 12 November
1793), third and youngest son of Cosmo George Gordon, 3rd Duke of
Gordon, who converted to Judaism in 1787 at age 36. He took the name
of Yisrael bar Avraham Gordon. It appears that he died without issue,
but interestingly lived shortly before Jews on the Continent started
taking surnames in large numbers. Russian Jews were required to take surnames starting in 1804. For a brief accound of Gordon's life, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_George_Gordon

A fourth alternative is that it came from Scottish merchants and mercenaries in the Baltic in the 1600s/1700s, eg in Kedainiai, Lithuania.

A fifth sounds quite improbable, but may have a bit of truth somewhere in it: "Huntly House [on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh] was the home of the Earl of Huntly, chief of Clan Gordon. who gave money in the 16th century to start the University of Aberdeen, the 2nd oldest university in Scotland. The Earl of Huntly gave this money on condition that three of the students would be Jewish. Out of gratitude and honor, a Jewish person took the name GORDON...and thus the Scottish Gordon clan was born."

I will post more info as I come across it.

[Prester John]

For what it's worth, my wife's Jewish side hails from Lithuania, and as a Robertson on her Scottish side, we wear that tartan.

If nothing else, you're welcome to join us!

[Ozman1944]

I recall some Jewish families in Adelaide/Australia immigrated from Scotland. They had Tartan wall hangings (Fly Plaids?) of predominantly white & blue, with a hint of black and a hint of red.

[gilmore]

I came across this in "Between Two Worlds" by Benjamin L. Gordon, published in 1952. It is the autobiography of a Lithuanian Jew who was born around 1870 and emmigrated to the US.

The author's father's great-grandfather took the surname Gordomy, form the village where he lived. It was changed to Gordon by the author's grandfather:

"In the latter part of the eighteenth century there lived an English [sic] nobleman in London named Lord George Gordon (1751-1792), son of the third duke of Gordon. He accepted the Jewish faith.... It was customary in those days for pious Jews to travel abroad, in order to see with their own eyes the actual living conditions of their brethren in the Diaspora, so Lord Gordon traveled to the lands where most of his new co-religionists lived. He visited the city of Vilna, known as the Jerusalem of Lithuania, and there he became known as the Ger Tseddek (the Righteous Proselyte). His name quickly became a byword in the Jewish world. Parents came to use his name when blessing their sons, and many families adopted his name as a surname. It was thus that my grandfather changed Gordomy to Gordon."

[gilmore]

I recall some Jewish families in Adelaide/Australia immigrated from Scotland. They had Tartan wall hangings (Fly Plaids?) of predominantly white & blue, with a hint of black and a hint of red.

White and pale blue or azure would make sense from the colors of the flag of Israel. Don't know about the red and back.