LUNTZ:
Name of a family descended from the Loans, or Loanz, family of Worms. According to a family tradition, Elijah, the sixth in line of direct descent from Moses, son of Joselman Loans, emigrated from Worms and settled in the little town of Kelm (Chelm; now in the government of Kovno) about the year 1700, and became its rabbi. He left a son, Meïr (b. 1709), whose first son, Elijah of Krozhe (Krozher; 1723?-1814), was a wealthy and pious Talmudist, and whose descendants adopted the name of Rabinowitz. His second son, Ezekiel, became rabbi of Shavli about 1749, and continued in that position until his death in 1808. One of Ezekiel's sons, Moses, enjoyed the rare distinction ofbeing magistrate of Shavli. Another son, Getzel, was the great-grandfather of Wolf Luntz of Riga, a well-known communal worker and one of the founders of the Zionist movement in Russia. Abraham Moses Luncz of Jerusalem does not belong to this family, whose pedigree follows:
- Judah Löb Luntz, Ḳobeẓ Shoshanim, pp. 58-64, Warsaw, 1891.
