My Ultimate Confession: I am Jewish
by Lee Edward Enochs
I think it should be known that I plan to return back to Southern California and make a difference in society. In fact, my plan is to return home to Orange County as soon as I earn my Master's Degree here in Princeton, New Jersey.
Having said this, I think the time has come for me to confess something to my friends and to the entire world. I am Jewish. Through some thorough genealogical investigation of my family origin, I have come to the careful conclusion that on my father's side of the family, I am a direct descendent of Ukrainian Jewish people who immigrated to the United States in the 1880's. It took most of my lifetime to track all this information down, but it is true, I am Jewish. I am of Hebraic descent and this is why I am a vocal and staunch supporter of my ancestral homeland, Israel.
Let me try to explain to you briefly how I discovered my ancient Jewish identity. You see, my last name is Enochs. In 2007, during my year long stay with my father, Thomas Enochs in Honolulu, Hawaii, I came to this conclusion. After intensive questioning of my own father and after a thorough "paper chase" investigation of very old and important family documents, I came to the determination that my paternal family name Enochs is in all actuality an anglicized version of the Biblical and Hebrew name Enoch.
While it took some time to trace all this down, I discovered that my great grandfather immigrated from a Jewish community in the Ukraine during the later part of the 19th Century. When my great grandfather came to this country, he added an "s" to his last name for some reason. For over the last 100 years, my paternal family name has been Enochs. However in all actuality, my original Hebrew family name which endured for centuries in the same essential etymological form was Enoch.
According to the Hebrew Scriptures, Enoch was the son of Cain and a city was named after him and the Biblical text says,
"Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch. To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech" (Genesis 4:17-18).
The Book of Genesis says that Enochs was the seventh progenitor of the human race, descending from Adam. Enoch was the son of Jared and the father of Methuselah. Enoch lived and "walked with God" for 365 years until the Biblical text says, "He was not, because God took Him" (Genesis 5:24).
According to the Jewish Encyclopedia and the Targum; Pseudo-Jonathan (Gen. v. 24) Enoch was a pious worshiper of the true God, and was removed from among the dwellers on earth to heaven, receiving the names (and offices) of Meṭaṭron and "Safra Rabba" (Great Scribe). This view represents one and (after the complete separation of Christianity from Judaism) the prevailing rabbinical idea of Enoch's character and exaltation.
Needless to say, my genealogical and family records conclusively demonstrate that I am a direct paternal descendent of a Jewish family with the surname Enoch, that lived in the Ukraine. Eventually, towards the last part of the 1800's, my great grandfather immigrated from Europe and settled in a farming community in rural Illinois until they moved to the Detroit area sometime in the 1930's.
My Jewish roots makes sense to me. I have had a spiritual and emotional connection with the Jewish people all of my life. I love the Jewish people and will defend Israel until the day I die.
I will let you in on something very personal to me. I have encountered antisemitism in several different contexts here on the East Coast and it angered me. I heard someone say that something very bad about Jewish people and the nation of Israel and it outraged me. I think it deeply upset me because at the core of my being I know that I am Jewish. I am not ashamed of this. I am who I am because this is who the Lord God of Israel made me to be.
