Goldstein Would Be Golding, but Judge Goldstein Says No

Goldstein and Rothstein, both of Brooklyn, will have to remain Goldstein and Rothstein. Their desire to change their names to Golding and Rogers, respectively, was denied on Tuesday by a Brooklyn judge who bears the same family name as one of the applicants—Goldstein—and who thinks that it is a good enough name to carry for any Jew who is not ashamed of his religious and racial identity.

In the case of Louis Goldstein, who asked that his name be changed to Golding because it was "un-American" and "not euphonious," Justice Louis Goldstein said that these reasons are pretty "flimsy" and that "the request of this petitioner is a subterfuge for the purpose of covering his religious and racial identify. I know of nothing that an individual who is a Jew needs to be ashamed of as a Jew." The same reasons were given for denying the application of Henry Rothstein and his sons, Oscar and Sandor, to be allowed to change to the "nice American name" of "Rogers" because of their annoyance in being associated with the late Arnold Rothstein, the murdered gambler.