ASH (also Asch [
]):
By: Gotthard Deutsch
A family name which is an abbreviation of "Altschul" or "Eisenstadt" (
). Such abbreviations are especially frequent in names of which the second part begins with the sound "s," for which the Hebrew puts ש. So "Lasch" (
) is put for "Lichtenstadt," and "Nasch" (
) for "Nikolsburg." The name "Ash" for "Eisenstadt" is found in the case of Meïr Ash, rabbi of that place, died June 7, 1744. His descendant, Abraham Ẓebi Hirsch, rabbi of Ottynia, who died Aug. 21, 1868, signs his name "Eisenstadt." "Ash" is also found as an abbreviation in the name of another Meïr Ash, whose official family-name was Eisenstaedter, author of "Imre Esh" (Words of Fire), Unghvar, 1864. He was rabbi of Unghvar, and died Dec. 27, 1861. The pun on 
as "fire" may also underlie the titles of the works of the first Meïr Ash, as, for instance, his "Panim Meïrot" (The Shining Face).
