Sarfati Explained

Sarfati (Hebrew: צרפתי, pronounced as /he/), variously transliterated and spelled Sarfatti, Sarphati, Serfaty, Sarfate, Sarfaty, Sarfity, Zarfati, Tsarfati, Tsarfaty, Tzarfati, Serfati, is a Sephardic Jewish surname.

The surname literally means "French",^[1] and is derived from the Biblical placename Tzarfat which in later times was identified in Jewish tradition as France. The term tzarfati was frequently applied in rabbinical literature to Jews of French birth or descent.

Origin

One account places the origin of the surname as being linked to Rashi by way of his grandson Rabbeinu Tam,^[2] but the connection, although anchored in the Ketubot traditions has never been fully proven due to a seven generations gap in the genealogy after Jews were expelled from France by Philippe le Bel in 1306.^[3]

At any case, numerous bearers of this name (whose ancestors came from France) lived in various parts of the Iberian Peninsula during the 14th-15th centuries: they appear in Spanish and Portuguese documents under the spellings Sarfati and Çarfati. During the 15th century and especially after the expulsion of Jews from these countries (1490s) some branches migrated from the Iberian Peninsula to North Africa,^[4] while others to the city of Rome and the Ottoman Empire.

List

Notable people with the surname include:

Sarfati

Diana Sarfati, New Zealand public health doctor and epidemiologist
Georges-Elia Sarfati, philosopher, linguist, poet, and an existentialist psychoanalyst
Jonathan Sarfati (born 1964), Australian–New Zealander chess player and creationist author
Lea Michele Sarfati (born 1986), American singer and actress, Broadway performer and star of TV show "Glee"
Lise Sarfati (born 1958), French photographer
Lydia Sarfati, Polish-born American esthetician, entrepreneur, consultant and author
Samuel Sarfati (died c. 1519), Italian physician to Popes Alexander VI and Julius II and leader of the Jewish community in Rome
Semah Sarfati (1624–1717) Tunisian rabbi who was chief rabbi of Tunisia
Sonia Sarfati (born 1960), French author and journalist
Tzedi Tzarfati (born 1941), Israeli television presenter and theatre director
Yitzhak Sarfati, 15th century Ottoman rabbi

Sarfatti

Anna Sarfatti (born 1950), Italian writer of children's books
Jack Sarfatti (born 1939), American theoretical physicist and writer
Margherita Sarfatti (1880–1961), Italian journalist and lover of Benito Mussolini
Riccardo Sarfatti (1940–2010), Italian architect and politician in Lombardy

Sarfate

Dennis Sarfate (born 1981), American baseball player

Sarfaty

Gretta Sarfaty Marchant (born 1947), British-Brazilian artist and curator
Perla Serfaty (born 1944), Moroccan-born French and Canadian academic, sociologist, psychosociologist, writer
Regina Sarfaty (born 1934), American operatic mezzo-soprano

Sarfatty

Bouena Sarfatty (1916–1997), Greek-Jewish World War II partisan and poet

Sarphati

Samuel Sarphati (1813–1866), Dutch physician and city planner

Serfaty

Abraham Serfaty (1926–2010), Moroccan dissident
Abraham Serfaty (Gibraltarian), former Mayor of Gibraltar
Christine Daure-Serfaty (1926–2014), French-Moroccan activist
Dan Serfaty (born 1966) is a French entrepreneur and businessman
Isaac Chocrón Serfaty (1930-2011), Venezuelan playwright
Rosalinda Serfaty (born 1969), Argentine-born Venezuelan actress
Sylvia Serfaty, French Mathematician, winner of the 2004 EMS Prize for her contributions to the Ginzburg–Landau theory
Willa Vasquez Serfaty, Gibraltarian artist

Notes and References

http://www.sephardim.com/html/translated_names.html Sephardim.com: Translated Names
http://www.sephardicgen.com/HaserfatyFamilyTree.pdf Hassarfati Family Tree: Etsi - Sephardi Genealogy and History - Issue #29, Vol.8 - June 2005
http://www.reocities.com/EnchantedForest/1321/review.html The Hassafati Family - Etsi - Sephardi Genealogy and History - Issue #29, Vol.8 - June 2005
Beider, A. A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from Maghreb, Gibraltar, and Malta, New Haven, CN: Avotaynu, 2017