For AE:


When M. read my last name, he asked me if I were Jewish / of Jewish descent. He told me that he had lived in Israel for several years prior to / before coming to England/Scotland/Wales/wherever. He said that what he liked about ... was that if you were educated and knew a trade, you could get a job, regardless of your skin color.

When M. read my surname, he asked me wether I have Jewish roots.

...whether I had

dudes Alternative When M. read my last name, he asked me if I were Jewish / of Jewish descent geht auch. Meiner Meinung nach müsste es aber "if I was Jewish" heißen ("ob ich Jude sei", nicht "wäre").

Ansonsten siehe dudes Korrekturen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_subjunctive
The subjunctive sometimes has been used simply as a conditioned variant that follows "if" and similar words even in the absence of a hypothetical situation.
Johnny asked me if I were afraid. (Barbara in Night of the Living Dead (1968))

In the hypercorrection example quoted, "if" is a substitute for the unambiguous word "whether" (as in "Johnny asked me whether I was afraid"); in this case, "if" lacks the usual "in the event that" meaning that it has in other usages (as in "If we go to bed now, we shall be up at three o'clock"). In fact, such usage is quite old; for example:
... he asked me if I were about to return to London ... (Mary Shelley The Last Man (1833))
He asked me if I were a Priest. (The Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine Vol. 3, Dec. (1824))

Das soll allerdings nicht heissen, dass ich der Meinung wäre, "was" ginge hier nicht. "Was" ginge hier selbstverständlich auch und wird in solchen Kontexten wahrscheinlich sogar häufiger benutzt als "were."

Danke!

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Großbritannien, when you are naming the country, is just "Britain" (or "the UK").


"surname" is fine, at least in BE.