Can someone who has a German (ish) last name be half Jewish?

My last name is Bauer


is there any way that any Bauer's could be Jewish..?

Can someone who has a German (ish) last name be half Jewish?
A lot of Jewish people living in Europe changed their names
Reply:Most Jews have German last names because they lived in Europe for centuries and spoke German/Yiddish. Some German names are used by Jews only, some by Germans only, some by both.





Someone with Jewish ancestry should be able to clearly trace their genealogy back to a closed society/community where everyone is basically related. Jews lived in separate communities for many centuries and did not mix with Gentiles. If most of the surnames in your genealogy are Jewish names, that can be a pretty sure sign that your ancestors were Jewish.





Bauer Surname Definition: From Middle High German "bure" or "bur" meaning farmer or peasant.





There are also dna tests from sites like familytreedna.com that can test origins and link you up w/other people w/the same markers.
Reply:Jewish can be a religion and/or an ethnicity.


Either is very possible.





Normally, your last name is from your father's male ancestors, who at some point were likely German. Your father's mothers side, or your mother's side of the family, certainly could have come from Israel... or someone from either side could have adoped Judaism.





I know some Bauers who are from Mexico City (but their male ancestors did come from Germany, many generations ago!).
Reply:Any name can be Jewish. There are 3 major branches of Judaism, Orthodox, Conservative and Reform and they do not define a Jew the same way.





Reform Jews define a Jew by the religion only.





Orthodox and Conservative Jews define a Jew by the mother, not the father or necessarily the religion They state they get the nation from the mother and the tribe from the father and if they don't have a Jewish father they belong to the tribe of the nearest male relative on the mother's side of the family. An Orthodox Jew will tell you that as long as a person has a Jewish mother, even though they have renounced their faith, they are still a Jew. Whereas if they don't have a Jewish mother, the only way they can be Jewish is to convert to Judaism.





Many names in the U. S. are identified as Jewish as some names were most common among Jewish immigrants while in their country of origin, the same name was used by Jews and non Jews alike.





Names ending in "stein" "berg" "burg" or names like Klein, Kline etc are not necessarily exclusively Jewish.
Reply:Certainly! Just because the Germans were involved in the terrible event known as the Holocaust doesn't mean that you cannot be half Jewish. Judaism is a religion and it is completely possible that your possibly Jewish relative was an American Jew.
Reply:Yes Jewish is a religion so yes you could definetly be jewish!!
Reply:Yeah, there were a lot of German Jews, now they live in mostly Israel and USA.