Emperor Joseph II in the context of Empress Maria Theresa

Queen of the Romans (Latin: Regina Romanorum, German: Königin der Römer) or Queen of the Germans were the official titles of the queens consort of the medieval and early modern Kingdom of Germany. They were the wives of the King of the Romans (chosen by imperial election), and are informally also known as German queen (German: Deutsche Königin). A Queen of the Romans also became Holy Roman Empress if her husband was crowned Holy Roman Emperor, in the Middle Ages usually by the Pope in Rome during an Italienzug. Most elected Kings of the Romans did, but some never made it that far, and thus their wives only ever achieved the status of Queen of the Romans.

Empress Maria Theresa (1745–1780) is often considered to be a ruler in her own right, as she was Queen regnant of Bohemia and Hungary, and although her husband Francis I was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1745, it was she who ruled the Empire and continued to do so even after Francis' death in 1765 before ruling jointly with her son Emperor Joseph II.

Leopold II (Peter Leopold Josef Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard; 5 May 1747 – 1 March 1792) was the penultimate Holy Roman Emperor, as well as King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, and Archduke of Austria from 1790 to 1792, and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790. He was a son of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I, and the brother of Queen Marie Antoinette of France, Queen Maria Carolina, Duchess Maria Amalia of Parma, and Emperor Joseph II. Leopold was a moderate proponent of enlightened absolutism like his brother Joseph II. He granted the Academy of Georgofili his protection. Unusually for his time, he opposed the death penalty and torture and abolished it in Tuscany on 30 November 1786 during his rule there, making it the first nation in modern history to do so. This act has been commemorated since 2000 by a regional custom known as the Feast of Tuscany, held every 30 November. Despite his brief reign, he is highly regarded. The historian Paul W. Schroeder called him "one of the most shrewd and sensible monarchs ever to wear a crown".

The Hebraization of surnames (also Hebraicization; Hebrew: עברות Ivrut) is the act of amending one's Jewish surname, so that it is tied to the Hebrew language, which was natively spoken by Jews and Samaritans until it died out of everyday use by around 200 CE. For many Jews of diaspora and Palestinian origin, immigration to the land of Israel and taking up a Hebrew surname has long been conceptualized as a way to erase remnants of their diaspora oppression, particularly since the inception of Zionism in the 19th century. This notion, which was part of what drove the revival of the Hebrew language, was further consolidated after the founding of Israel in 1948.

Hebraizing surnames has been an especially common practice among Ashkenazi Jews; many Ashkenazi families had acquired permanent surnames (rather than patronyms) only when surnames were forced upon them by Emperor Joseph II of the Holy Roman Empire following an official decree on 12 November 1787. Sephardic Jews often had hereditary family names (e.g., Cordovero, Abrabanel, Shaltiel, de Leon, Alcalai, Toledano, Lopez) since well before the Spanish expulsion of Jews near the end of the Reconquista, which had begun after the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in the 8th century.