Origin of the name Yaffe

Yaffe is one of famous medieval rabbinical clans. The name comes from the Hebrew "Yafe" «יפה» - which means "beautiful, nice". The family name has several wide spread spellings. The main ones (depending on the countries where the family members lived and the languages in which the name was pronounced) are: Jaffe Yoffe, Ioffe and Joffe. The clan traces its roots to King David and his descendant, the famous Rashi. The family name itself originates from the Prague-based Mordechay Yoffe-Yaffe (1530-1612) and his uncle Moshe. There are no people having just the same name - all people with this family name belong to the famous distinguished family of rabbis, writers and public figures of Germany, Austria, Italy, England and the USA.

The earliest member of this family is rabbi Moshe Yaffe who lived in Bohemia in the 15-th century, father of rabbi Abraham Yaffe from Bohemia, who was a prefect of Jews in Poland.

Among the members of the Yaffe family who lived in the 16-th century let us mention the famous rabbi and scientist, rav Mordechay Yaffe (who was mentioned above already).

The following members of the family lived in the 17-th century:

rav Abraham ben Arye-Leib, author of a methodological introduction to Kabbalah,

rav Abraham ben Kalonimos Yaffe from Lublin, author of a commentary to the Torah;

rav Asher Yakov Yaffe (died in Lvov in 1681), author of a manuscript on the Talmudic code,

rav Beniamin Volf Yaffe (died in Lvov in 1709), author of a poetic work

The following members of the family lived in the 18-th century:

rav Kim Kaddish Yaffe, author of commentaries on Shulhan-Aruh;

rav Mordechay Yaffe, rabbi in Shverin before 1770, was in correspondence with M. Mendelson,

rav Mordechai Yaffe from Vienna (died in 1754)

Among the members of the Yaffe family who lived in the 19-th century one should note:

rav Izrail David Y., rabbi in Pezing (Hungary), author of a collection of responsa

rav Iosif ben Moisei Y. (1846-1897), rabbi in Manchester (England), author of a collection of responsa and sermons,

a famous rabbi and Palestinofile figure, rav Mordechay Gimpel Yaffe; his papers influenced strongly the development of the Palestinofile movement;

Yoffe Abraham son of Feodor-Faivesh (Romny, 1880 - Leningrad, 1960) has become famous in the 20-th century. He was a well-known physicist called "father of the Soviet physics", academician, vice-president of the USSR Academy of Science, creator of a scientific school that produced such physicists as A. Aleksandrov, P. Kapitsa, I. Kikoin, I. Kurchatov, N. Semenov, Y. Frenkel and others.