Is Karolina Saluk Jewish? - Karls Substack
Karolina Saluk – aka Karolina Shiino or Caroline Shiino – made news recently when she won the ‘Miss Nippon 2024’/’Miss Japan 2024’ contest as the first ethnically non-Japanese person to win said contest. (1)
To quote Zeba Khan at WION:
‘Carolina is a 26-year-old model who was born in Ukraine. She moved to Japan at the age of five and was raised in Nagoya. She is the first naturalised Japanese citizen to win the pageant.’ (2)
Saluk moved to Japan aged 5 from Ukraine when her mother married a Japanese man, but what people have focused on is the fact that she has been pushing for immigration into Japan and a non-ethnic definition of what it means to be Japanese in this most recent beauty contest win (3) and it appears her mother Svitlana – a model herself - has been doing the same for a number of years now. (4)
What also emerged from all this is just was Karolina Shiino’s original name and while there appears to have been something of an effort by Karolina Saluk to scrub her original name from the internet: she forgot her Pinterest account of seven years ago which helpfully both features a photo of herself and uses Kanji (Japanese characters) to describes its various Pins. (5)
But what of the name Saluk?
It is unusual certainly and it turns out there is a reason for that.
If her surname was ‘Sulek’ rather than ‘Saluk’ then it would be an old Slavic surname commonly used in Poland, (6) but because it is ‘Sulak’ it is actually a jewish surname.
As the ‘ANU Museum of the Jewish People’ explains:
‘SALUK, SELUK, SELOUC, SELOUK
Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name derives from an occupation, profession or trade (also connected with raw material, finished product or implements associated with that trade). The surname Saluk is derived from the Arabic Selk, which means a "thread maker"; or from the Arabic Sallak, which means "savior". In some cases, Saluk is a toponymic (derived from a geographic name of a town, city, region or country). Surnames that are based on place names do not always testify to direct origin from that place, but may indicate an indirect relation between the name-bearer or his ancestors and the place, such as birth place, temporary residence, trade, or family-relatives. The surname is associated with Saluk, a town in Libya.
Distinguished 20th century bearers of the Jewish family name Selouk include the Israeli trade-union leader Abraham Selouk.’ (7)
This therefore provides good evidence that Karolina Shiino/Carolina Shiino is actually Karolina Shiino who started out life as Karolina Sulak in the Ukraine and Karolina Sulak is a jewish not a Ukrainian woman.
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References
(1) https://tabloid.pravda.com.ua/person/model-iz-ternopolya-zdobula-titul-mis-yaponiya-gran-pri-yak-vidreaguvali-koristuvachi-merezhi-2002000/; https://www.ukrinform.ua/rubric-diaspora/3817685-model-ukrainskogo-pohodzenna-peremogla-na-konkursi-mis-aponia.html
(2) https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/lifestyle/news-what-does-it-mean-to-be-japanese-ukraine-born-model-wins-miss-japan-amid-social-media-backlash-683446
(3) Ibid.; https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/01/24/ukrainian-born-model-crowned-miss-japan-carolina-shiino/; https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/01/26/style/miss-japan-karolina-shiino-ukraine/index.html
(4) https://tabloid.pravda.com.ua/person/model-iz-ternopolya-zdobula-titul-mis-yaponiya-gran-pri-yak-vidreaguvali-koristuvachi-merezhi-2002000/
(5) https://www.pinterest.com/karolinasaluk/
(6) https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=sulek
(7) https://dbs.anumuseum.org.il/skn/en/c6/e176629/Family_Name/SALUK
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