OPINION
Mention has been made of the recent Brazilian book "Dicionário Sefaradi de Sobrenomes" (Dictionary of Sephardic surnames). Having just received my copy I thought to share some of my early impressions because of the great interest in this publication.
This superb bilingual addition to the library of essential books for Sephardic Genealogy has 528 pages divided into several sections. The first section, dealing with a brief Sephardic history and explanations of Sephardic onomastics is printed on 150 pages of glossy paper, beautifully illustrated and reminiscent of an "art book". The right hand page is in Portuguese and the left hand in English, which - though translated by someone for whom English is obviously not a first language - is quite enjoyable and informative.
The remainder of the book, printed in non-glossy paper, consists of the dictionary of 16,000 Sephardic surnames. For this, the authors modeled themselves on Beider's Surnames of the Russian Empire, albeit with a few modifications necessitated by dealing with surnames written in a variety of alphabets and languages (instead of just Cyrillic), and covering a period of 6 centuries and 335 sources instead of the much narrower period and sources used by Beider.
The dictionary section presents the surname, some spelling variants, geographical locations, type (patronymic, descriptive, etc.), meaning of, and sources where found. The dictionary does not include the rich individual biographic data and name variants occasioned by country and language changes due to the mobility of Sephardic Jews over the centuries as found in Abraham Laredo's landmark "Les Noms the Juifs du Maroc". That would have required several volumes instead of one. On the other hand, Faiquenboim's book includes a much larger number of surnames difficult to find elsewhere and is a remarkable achievement for which we owe the authors a debt of gratitude.
I would highly recommend this book as essential in any serious library of Sephardic genealogy books.
JEFF MALKA
author of "Sephardic Genealogy: Discovering your Sephardic Ancestors and their World", Avotaynu, 2002.
(...) O projeto ambicioso e extremamente elegante que os autores realizaram ultrapassa em muito algumas dificuldades próprias de obra tão arrojada, porque o papel de lien a que está fundamentalmente destinado, esse será largamente cumprido (...)
DANIEL LACERDA
Latitudes - Cahiers Lusophones, Paris, dezembro de 2004
(...) uma luxuosa ferramenta para conhecer suas origens (...)
MÁRVIO DOS ANJOS
Folha de S. Paulo, janeiro de 2004
(...) Bravo et merci à l´equipe brèsilienne! (...)
MATHILDE TAGGER
Revue de Cercle de Généalogie Juive, Paris, maio de 2004
(...)I highly recommed this book as essential in serious library of sephardic genealogy books (...)
JEFFREY S. MALKA
Avotaynu, winter 2003
(...) mais um trabalho no resgate da história do nosso povo (...)
NESSIM HAMAOUI
ComShalom, S. Paulo, dezembro de 2003
(...) In conclusion, I want to thank the Brazilian staff in there iniciative and successful conclusion of the project - with a great deal of gratitude and sincerity we say to them - Todah (...)
MATHILDE TAGGER
Sharsharet Hadorot, Israel, maio de 2004
(...) podemos verificar pela bibliografia apresentada, que se tratou de um ambicioso projeto, muito bem conduzido até este produto final. A riqueza que trepassa pelas largas páginas de listagem de nomes mostra-nos diretamente os campos de investigação que são lançados por este livro, instrumento bastante útil, será, decerto, de prestimosa validade por muitos anos. Aos autores o reconhecido agradecimento por este longo e sério trabalho (...)
PAULO MENDES PINTO
Cadernos de Estudos Sefarditas, Lisboa, 2005
(...) Cet ouvrage, attendu depuis longtemps, est premiere à rassembler une telle quantité de patronymes séfarades. La première impression est remarquable. De belle presentation, abondamment ilustre, l´ouvrage, frui de huit anées de travail apparaìt extrêmement documenté (...)
PHILIP ABENSUR
Etsi - Revué de Généalogie et d´Histoire Séfarades, Paris. Dezembro de 2003