Horowitz (Hebrew: הוֹרוֹביץ, Yiddish: האָראָװיץ), also transcribed as Horwitz/Horvitz/Horovitz/Hurwitz/Gurvich/Gurevich, is a surname that has its origin in the Yiddish name for the town of Hořovice in Bohemia. The patriarch of the family line is thought to be Aaron Meshullam Horowitz, founder of Pinkas Synagogue in Prague, who lived in Hořovice and Prague in the 16th century, and had eight sons who spread the family throughout Europe, which later spread to the Middle East, Russia and the Americas. Today there are some 50,000 people around the world, mostly of Levite and Jewish ancestry, carrying a variation of the Horowitz surname.
The Horowitz family is one of the most illustrious rabbinic families in Jewish history. Tradition quoted by scholars traces this family to the "Sons of Korah" mentioned in the Bible: Numbers 26:11 and Psalms 47. A family tree exists which traces Horowitz origins back to the 12th century. This family produced some of the greatest rabbinic scholars (Sephardic) of France and Italy in the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries. The Sephardic surname of this family was Benveniste, which was later changed to Horowitz upon their immigration to the town of Horowitz (near Prague) in Bohemia in the 16th century. From that time forward prominent rabbis of this family were found in virtually every European country.
Other variants of the name include Horwitz, Horovitz, Hurewicz, Harowitz, Gurevich, Horwicz, Gurvich, Hurwicz, Hurwitz, Harwitz, Harrwitz, Urwitz, Hourwitz etc.
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