Is the last name Kaufman a Jewish name?

Answer 1

It can be. There are certainly some people named Kaufman who are Jewish. But it is difficult to tell by names alone -- Kaufman could also be a German last name, for example, and many Germans are Lutheran rather than Jewish. These days, people acquire a last name in many different ways. In addition to being born into a Jewish family, some people convert to Judaism, or they marry someone from another culture; they then have a name that sounds Greek or Swedish or Irish or Korean, and yet they are Jewish. Further, there are Jewish people who were born in foreign countries where there are not large numbers of Jews; so they may not have a "typical" Jewish last name, but rather, one that is common to their country. A good example is Rabbi Gershom Sizomu of Uganda, one of the leaders of the Abayudaya community. "Sizomu" is not a name most of us would think is Jewish, and yet he is.