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✡️ Jewish priests 🧑‍🦱 A Jewish surname
Kohanim

Kohanim

9.9
A Jewish last name showing someone comes from the priest family
  • proper noun
  • /koʊˈhɑːnɪm/
translation icon : Cohanim
  • The text asks whether a divider, mechitzah, between the priestly class (the kohanim) and the congregation obstructs the blessing.
  • the kohanim priestly class

Examples

  • As part of the ceremony, the Kohanim led the faithful in the ancient rituals of their ancestors.

  • Tens of thousands of Jews gathered at the Western Wall for the priestly blessings: "Birkat Kohanim."

    Blog text (2)

  • The true name, that only the Kohanim know, has 216 letters.

    Pi (1998)

  • 80 B. Sotah 40a further claims that while performing the priestly blessing, the kohanim "had their faces toward the people and their backs toward the shechinah."

    Academic text (1992)

  • The Loon Lake synagogue had a resident family of Kohanim, plenty of fluid Torah readers, and a cohort of boys of bar-mitzvah age who liked to take their turns.

    Academic text (2009)

  • It associates the greater synagogue space with the people of Israel, an earthly area, and the space in which the kohanim stand with heavenly, divine space; the latter carries hieratic import.

    Academic text (1992)

  • In the case of the priestly blessing, the kohanim repeat a sacred Temple gesture in the synagogue while standing barefoot in front of the Torah shrine located on the wall closest to Jerusalem.

    Academic text (1992)

  • At the synagogue, the kohanim blessed the congregation during the holiday service.

  • During the festival, the kohanim performed the priestly blessings at the Western Wall.

Synonyms

kohen
vsKohanim
1 9.9

A Jewish last name for families whose ancestors were priests

is a surname formed from the Hebrew word for priests

Surface Forms

Kohanim main

Morphology

Kohanim = kohen (semi-transparent) = kohen + im

As a surname, the form reflects Hebrew plural/lineage marking (kohen + -im), which signals priestly descent but is not productive English morphology.

Etymology

Kohanim as a surname comes from the Hebrew kohen, meaning 'priest'. Like the simpler name Cohen, the surname shows a family link to the old priestly class, so people named Kohanim often trace their ancestry to those priests.