2001/02/04
Dear Family and Friends:
Hallo! Hello! ¡Saludos!
This week we welcome a new member of our family: Zoe Riefkohl. Zoe lives in Boquerón, Puerto Rico (southwestern corner of the island.) Zoe's father, Waldemar, had visited Germany some time ago and was told by someone that the Riefkohl surname may be Jewish. Zoe visited Israel recently and inquired about our surname. We turn the question to Tobi and Ernesto, our master genealogists. Both Tobi and Ernesto agree that it is unlikely that our surname is Jewish. Although our surname is a compound name (Rief and kohl) like many Jewish names, we know that many of our ancestors were Lutheran pastors. Moreover, we know that at least two Riefkohls married into the German nobility. It would have been very unusual for a Jewish to marry a German nobleman. Still, we cannot rule out this hypothesis since there is so much information about our ancestors that we do not have. Has anyone else been told that our surname may be Jewish? Please get in touch with Ernesto, Tobi or me if you have any information relative to this issue.
I hope that all of you have had an opportunity to check the family area. I sent you the password in a separate email. If you did not get it, let me know. Please give us some feedback regarding the copies of the original documents that we have in that section for your perusal.
We wish you a wonderful week!
Raúl