6
« on: Saturday 23 January 10 13:03 GMT (UK) »
What a fascinating discussion...
Just as a matter of interest there were Jewish butchers in Germany in the 1800's who dealt in pork. my Ggrandfather was one of them and the explanation is quite simple. Until the early 1800's jews in parts of what is now south west germany / Rhineland were confined to villages and not allowed to practice any trade - except for that of being a butcher (to provide kosher meat) . So there were butchers who had two seperate slaughter rooms, tools and practices, a kosher one and a non-kosher one.
When Jews were allowed to choose trades some of them remained butchers and in order to remain competitive they would have to ( especially in germany ) deal in pork. Todays Beth Din ( those who oversee what is kosher) may not approve but that is another story.
From there its not a long jump to see how German skills in pork sausage making would have been popular in an industrialising Britian where people who had moved to towns couldn't spend hours standing over the fire preparing their own home gron pork products. German pork products whould have been the TV dinner equivalent of the day.
So there would have been a excellent business opportunity for anybody who was prepared to move to England.
Its harder to conceive how the name Kristian was Jewish but he could have changed that one as well. After all what was acdptable in rural germany may not have been acceptable in England if there were more religious jews from Eastern Europe about. So he may have found it convenient to call himself Kristian.
Just a wild theory of course...