My sir name is "Walsby" but it was not always so. My paternal grandfather's name was Wolsky. He changed it because of the Rosenberg scandal of the mid 50's in the United States. Anyone who was a Jewish then and had a Russian-sounding surname was suspected of being a communist. The situation here in Israel is different but essentially your grandfather's generation was shamed into being "Israelis" by the then ruling class of the country (Most of whom -but not all -where of Eastern European origin) Why they imposed this racism on their coreligionists is not totally clear to me. Many Ashkenazim, including myself, look very Middle Eastern and could never pass for "White". Others though are very European looking and you would be hard pressed to tell them apart from other European descended people. I think that the "racism" meeted out on your family and other Middle Eastern Jews had something to do with internalised self-hating attitudes about what Jews and more importantly Israelis should be like. The early creators of the countries wanted to create a "New Zionist Man" devoid of religious or cultural traditions. They just projected their distorted feelings on others. It's Bulshit and I a will always say that I am a Jew first and not an Israeli because of these reasons. Thanks for the thought-provoking post.