Russian/Eastern European Jews with Germanic surnames?

[White Israelite]

I've been studying Ashkenazi Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe and I've noticed that there are very few Jews in those countries with slavic sounding last names, infact most have Germanic sounding names like Goldstein, Goldberg, Gerber, Berman, etc., did the Ashkenazi Jews migrate from Germany to the Eastern European countries? I am interested to find out how these Germanic names were given to Jews and how they ended up in Eastern Europe? I heard that a lot of it had to do with the expansion of the Austrian-Hungarian empire, is this true? Would like to hear more about this.

[Zelhar]

The Jews came to east Europe (Poland-Lithuania, Romania, Hungary, but NOT Russia) from France and Germany ("the holy roman empire") in the middle ages, due to expulsions and persecutions by the west Europeans. Later on East Europe became part of the Austrian, Prussian, and Russian Empires. So, the Russian "acquired" their Jews by conquest and they forbade most of them from leaving the "pale of settlement" which they set in the western parts of their empire.

[Kahane-Was-Right BT]

I've been studying Ashkenazi Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe and I've noticed that there are very few Jews in those countries with slavic sounding last names, infact most have Germanic sounding names like Goldstein, Goldberg, Gerber, Berman, etc., did the Ashkenazi Jews migrate from Germany to the Eastern European countries? I am interested to find out how these Germanic names were given to Jews and how they ended up in Eastern Europe? I heard that a lot of it had to do with the expansion of the Austrian-Hungarian empire, is this true? Would like to hear more about this.

It's quite likely that Jews migrated from places like Germany and France (and England as well) into Eastern Europe.    They did not materialize in Eastern Europe from dust, so they had to come from somewhere.   Historically western and central European locations were settled first, as early as during the Roman empire and the second Jewish commonwealth period in certain places.  Jewish presence in eastern europe came about later on.    But last names did not exist until a certain date in history when the notion was invented (I think in Germany maybe?), so keep that in mind.

[DMAN]

most easter neurope jews were immigrants from germany and other west europe after bubonic plague. from poland they migrated to other countries such as russia.

mu current last name is slavic "buhin", but my grandmother's maternal last name was "Eifman"