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Saturday, December 23, 2023

#SillySaturday: Either way, no silent night if Rei’s too close to Santa Penguin for Cam’s comfort!

 A few minutes before…


Afterward, when Reilly dared to just walk in the family room…



Thursday, December 21, 2023

Commentary: A Few (Among Many) Suggestions For Antifeminist Women

 Give up all of your property—including your bank accounts and cars—to your husbands, fathers, brothers, adult sons, and/or other men in your lives. Give up your jobs and/or education. Refuse to vote in this year’s elections except for if you vote how your men tell you to vote. 

If you even ever leave your houses again—and not to just vote in person—don’t leave the houses without your men’s permissions. Also don’t do anything that your men forbid (e.g., even undergo medical procedures)—no matter how much your lives would be endangered, and even if your men are abusing you and/or your minor children. Additionally, never leave the house without looking as young, fertile, and healthy as possible. 

Then, either live by your own antifeminist standards or learn to appreciate what you have or—after you lose everything, had—because of the fight by women’s-rights advocates, whom were derided as “feminists” (female supremacists) and took the derisions as badges of honor.  By the way, no antifeminist woman is a woman of valor, ‎as ⁦‪women‬⁩ of ⁦‪#valor‬⁩ (⁧‫נשים החיל ‬⁩) don’t deride real ⁦‪women’s-rights‬⁩ advocates. In fact, real women of valor pursue justice and judge with righteousness. Real women of valor also plead for the causes of the poor and the needy—which many women even in the West were before the women’s-rights movement occurred.


Thursday, November 23, 2023

Thankful For Vindication By יהוה? Let Me Explain Why

 One thing for which I’m thankful this year: יהוה vindicates in His own time, and I don’t have to defend the people whom were giving me drek when they need someone to defend them. They might get to acutely feel the effects of having driven away people whom would have otherwise spoken up for them when other people were given them drek. 


A few specific incidents come to mind, with one incident being that someone who frequently wrote k’tav hara against me—a public figure within the genealogy realm—has gotten her Sefardi Jewish heritage questioned (and in quite the passive-aggressive way, too). I don’t know whether she knows about it, and I don’t care to bring it to her attention either way. I thought about speaking up for her, even though she treated me and others similarly, though I just let it go—if she can write k’tav hara, she can read it.


In any case, I hope that if she ever reads the allegations against her, she feels at least similarly to how I and others felt when she would mistreat us—especially when she encouraged others to gang up on us. 


PS In case anyone is curious to know who she is, Google “Sephardic Jews in Poland?” 


The allegations are unfair, wild, and not unlike what she has written about others and me.

Update: screenshot and quote in case the k’tav hara against the genealogist gets deleted after all (My problem can be that I’m too nice even regarding people whom treat me like drek, and I ended up rebuking the person in question about his allegation once he recently used a different forum to try to gaslight me into thinking he did not know what Jewish DNA is): 




Generally, the simplest explanation is best. An Ashkenazi genealogist with a large platform claims that their TALALAY ancestors from Mogilev, Belarus, adopted the surname in the 19th Century not from local Slavs called TALALAY but from a similarly named family in 14th Century Catalonia. Allegedly the family crossed Europe from one end to the other, secretly remembering (or misremembering) the surname for 500 years. There is no evidence to support the claim. There is no evidence of equivalent family histories. Anyone is free to mythologise their ancestors like this, but it is not genealogy. Is it more likely a surname was adopted locally or from someone generations and a continent away?

“I think such fantasies contain a belief that Sephardic ancestry is somehow superior to Ashkenazi. It seems to me that the story of how a family reached eastern Europe from the Rhineland, survived the collapse of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the horrendous history thereafter, is in every way equally deserving of serious study.”


Thursday, November 16, 2023

Commentary: What Should Humble The Arabs and Us Jews Alike

Ishmael was an in-law father of his nephew Esau, and Esau was the twin brother of Jacob. Esau’s and Jacob’s common grandparent with Ishmael’s children (including Esau’s wife Machalat) was Abraham, whose brother Nahor married his niece (Haran’s daughter) Milcah (whom was the mother of Rebecca’s father, Bethuel). Abraham, meanwhile, married his (and Haran’s and Terah’s) sister Sarah.


So, think about this: Isaac and Rebecca were primarily once-removed first cousins, and Isaac was also a nephew to his father (Abraham) and to his mother (Sarah). He was a double nephew to Nahor and Haran, and an in-law nephew to his first cousin Milcah. He also was in-law first cousin to his uncle Nahor, and a direct and once-removed first cousin to Bethuel (which also made him a second cousin to Rebecca). 


Keep in mind that this made both Isaac and Rebecca twice-removed first cousins to Jacob and Esau…


And I think that ought to humble us Jews and the Arabs a little more. We all are literally descended from a sibling couple (as Abraham and Sarah were children of Terah through different mothers), an avuncular (uncle-niece) couple, a multiethnic couple (It can be assumed that Rebecca’s unnamed mother was Aramean or Syrian, as Bethuel was Hebrew and Numbers describes Jacob as “‘a wandering Aramean’”), and a couple whom were once-removed cousins whom were related in other ways.

Sunday, November 12, 2023

A Quick-Enough Update: New Book, My Purpose In Writing, Etc.


 

TL:DW: I will never aggressively promote my books. Nonetheless, I ask others to at least consider them. PS See https://www.amazon.com/author/nicoleczarnecki.

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Commentary: The Real Reformation Day (Partly Originally A Twitter Thread)

 The real Reformation Day is February 19. February 19, 1377 was the day that John Wycliffe (ז״ל) was first officially persecuted by the state. October 31, 1517, by contrast, was the day that Martin Luther (ימ״ש) made a mockery of the martyrdoms of Wycliffe (whom persecution eventually fatally wore down) and Jan Hus (ז״ל, and whom would be directly martyred at the hands of a Germanic state). This mockery would culminate in an Antisemitic pamphlet through which Luther would incite violence from subsequent pogroms in Germanic states (including the pogroms during the German part of the Holocaust) to the violence that necessitated Israel’s self-defensive Simchat Torah War. After all, Luther “doubly hated God” once he read Scripture and was not willing to die for his professed faith. 

Luther (ימ״ש) (and Calvin, ימ״ש) also eventually moved to turn the Germanic states (and the city of Geneva) into “Christian” (Pseudo-Christian) theocracies (and their “theo” was not יהוה). He was therefore (along with Calvin) one of the first “Christian” (Pseudo-Christian) nationalists in modern history. Real reformers like Wycliffe and Hus (ז״ל וה״י״ד) would not be again until people like Tyndale and Lopez (ז״ל וה״י״ד, and the latter of whom was a Jewish Christian of converso birth). 

Many who walk in the path of Luther (ימ״ש) (and Calvin, ימ״ש) therefore fail to realize that Luther (along with Calvin) was among the “Reformer” wolves in sheep’s clothing whom were well versed enough in Scripture to deceive even the elect about what they were. Others who walk in the Lutheran (and Calvinist) path fully realize what the Pseudo Reformers were and even aspire to be elect-deceiving wolves (Among those wolves are Eric Conn and Doug Wilson). Whether simply misguidedly or full maliciously, then, they might as well be celebrating Samhain if they’re going to celebrate October 31st as Reformation Day.

Monday, October 30, 2023

An Unpopular Observation (Partly Originally A Comment On YouTube)

 As unpopular as observing the following is, I am observing that Matthew Perry will ultimately have the legacy of having been an actor whom starred in the show that promoted licentiousness as comedic. At the end of the day, he really did not do anything to help others. In fact, he even wished death on Keanu Reeves and bragged about his adulterous relationship with Valerie Bertinelli. 

Who does wishing death on anyone and bragging about adultery help—especially when the adultery was committed with the spouse of a fellow person whom was in the throes of drug addiction? This is not to mention that even the rehab center which he formed from his residence shut down in 2015. Who did shutting down such a rehab center help, and who did having such a residence in the first place help? After all, Matthew Perry wasn’t a woman with a spikenard-and-alabaster jar whom was anointing Jesus’ head.

When God gives you a platform such as Matthew Perry had, you’re supposed to use the platform to serve God and really help others instead of use the platform for your own gain and cloak your hedonism in a thin veneer of fearing God. Matthew Perry used his platform for the promotion of licentiousness and hedonistic self enrichment. As a result, he leaves behind (among the people whom could have benefited from help like his and did not receive it) multiple unhelped fellow people with addictions. He also leaves behind $1M from each episode of “F.R.I.E.N.D.S.”, and every single one of those $236M testifies against him how it was not used to really help anybody.

What is gaining the world, especially at the expense of others, to lose your soul and having others ask of you, “Who needs enemies with friends like him?”

Thursday, October 19, 2023

More of “When Are They Anusim?”

 (Originally a Facebook comment. More detail here.)

If you suspect that something in your family indicates Crypto-Jewish heritage, it definitely could. My father’s family often did similarly when they became or had been Crypto Jews—if they, e.g., could avoid the predominant denomination (Russian Orthodox in Poland) and even put off any rites, they did. For example, one matriarch (“Katarzyna” Danilowicz Czerniecki) was not forcibly baptized until she was five, and one patriarch (Mihály Trudnyak né Nagy) in Hungary was “illegitmate” because his parents refused to marry in a Roman Catholic church—both of his siblings (Zsuzana and Mária) were “illegitimate” as well, and they lived in a different house when each sibling was born. They wanted to avoid an Austrohungarian inquisition.


 They also denomination switched like it didn’t matter to them when they did because it didn’t matter to them—one, as I recall, Morgiewicz or Margiewicz even became a Congregationalist! It held no religious significance for them (and if you think that I’m going to be able to link to every record at every moment, you’re—to put it politely—being meshugah on purpose. I have other things to do, including to manage my ADD and Generalized Anxiety Disorder, as well as to help fellow Jew avoid equivalents of inquisitions by other fellow Jews. Anyway, about the denomination switching…)

Even if it had a religious significance, the ethnic Jewishness was kept in the family—unless gentile cousins spoke about it when they weren’t supposed to do so (which two Shackel/Staskiel cousins of one of my Andrulewicz cousins did, and a note about him being a “JEW” was made in the payroll sections of his employment cards twice. One card reads “44-JEW” and “44-JEW-1”). 


It also came out in small hints left by family—e.g., to this day, I don’t think that many family members appreciate that my great-grandaunt Helen Rusnak Ropel left the wonderful gift of giving her father‘s Hebrew name when she died. As it clicked when I realized what she left for the burial records to hold, my paternal grandmother’s maternal grandfather used “Stef” or “Stephen” (or variants thereof) to calque for “Yosef”. I thought that there was a mistake at first. Then I realized how brave Great-Grandaunt Helen was. Even though she couldn’t give it in life, she was going to make sure that she could give her fathers name as ”Joseph Rusnak” before she left this life. 

(By the way, on the secular calendar, she died on my 18th birthday. I was able to confirm that I’m Jewish on another side in the July of that year.). 

Be prepared, by the way, to have family treat you horribly over finding out that you’re Jewish.  I actually, e.g., fell out with one maternal cousin because he or she was not happy that I found out that we are mixed-blooded Jews on one particular side (i.e., Lehr-Pundt, and I will give no more hints as to what cousin. I have multiple cousins on that side across generations, and I don’t want to dox anybody or give any other attention—whether positive or negative—to anyone whom hates me that much. If he or she happens to read this—and he or she knows who he or she is—he or she can deal with the fact that I was able to confirm with a Lehr cousin that we are Jewish. Of course, ironically, that cousin of mine fell out with me over political differences—and differences which are not good for the Jewish people as a whole, might I add).

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

Excerpt From My Upcoming Book: “Dafne Rochle”

 “I don’t care what name you use, and I don’t need an explanation about your other name. Just take a number, and have a seat.”

Having previously had a family tree made by an intimidator did not help, and having seen correspondence published by one archivist (and a possible relative at that) on Facebook also did not help. Getting to this archive, then, maybe also did not help. 

Damned if she did, and damned if she did not—not finding a way to this archive, then, also did not help. Over 15 overall-wasted years did not help, despite what information and help Dafna had finding it came about for her. She could not commit suicide, though, even notwithstanding that doing so would help her go to the Source of all information (Yehovah Himself). She also could not continue to live being in her way and apparently everyone else’s way, and she yet could not give Hamas a victory by committing suicide—even though she would be away from Hamas and everyone else whom hated her, and she would (if suicide did not send her permanently to Gehenna) be with Yehovah (and the indignity of being forever consigned to the same place as Antisemites would be too much to bear—especially because Antisemitism caused her suicidal ideation to flare up).

Damned if she did, and damned if she did not.

“*Loud chime.* C122007, sign in to the archives. C122007, sign in to the archives. “*Loud chime.* C122007, sign in to the archives. C122007, sign in to the archives.”

Damned if she did, and damned if she did not. Dafna signed in to the archives—and whether “C122007, sign in to the archives” was yet another sign of ultimate failure was up to Yehovah. 

“Name: Dafna Maratovah Zernetzky—alias ‘Dafne Rochle’. Number: C122007. ✔️I agree to the laws, rules, and regulations as pertain to this archival building and the archival information held therein (See ‘Laws, Rules, and Regulations Pertaining To This Archive’) on the next page.

“Signature in English and Hebrew or Yiddish (Print signature valid, although cursive preferred): Dafna Zernetzky; דפנה צרנצכי.  Date (English and Hebrew—do not use the Karaite date unless you have received an exemption from using the Hebrew date): 25 Tishri 5784.”

Dafna knew that the real Hebrew (“Karaite”) date was 24 Tishri 5783—and at this rate, days and dates did not make a difference to her except for the fact that Yehovah gave the mitzvah to begin the year in Aviv-Nisan. The day on which Yehovah would give her success without failure (that is, long-term success that would not ultimately turn into failure) would be the first day in a long time that made a difference to her.

Sunday, October 8, 2023

A (Sort-Of-)Quick Update, Etc.




The TL:DW is in YouTube description.
 

 

Saturday, October 7, 2023

Introduction To My Upcoming Book, “Trying To Recover” (Draft)

 I’ve entertained the idea that Rochla Andrelewitz may’ve indeed posed as her mother or her sister, with her mother (not “father”) or her grandfather (or perhaps her grandmother) being “Gitla”. My great-great-grandmother Katherine Gaydos née Ushinsky certainly posed as her mother “Maria Uscianski” (although she also had a sister named “Maria”), and she claimed that her uncle was her “brother”. Because of what she did, I was thrown off and to thinking that the Haslinskzys were maternal (“half”) siblings of hers. A Krempaszky cousin corrected me (and, from what I understand, I am related to her in more ways than one—as my father’s father was a Krempaszky, and one of his cousins married a Haslinskzy. Either way, we Crypto Jews from what is now Slovakia, Hungary, etc. stuck together as much as our ancestors in Spain, Portugal, etc. stuck together.).

In turn, I had the opportunity to correct her when she tried to say that my great-grandfather Michael Gaydos meant that we were Ruthenian. As I explained to her in a message in some formGreat-Gramddad Gaydos knew exactly what he was saying when he said, “We’re Russian!” 

Great-Granddad was formally uneducated (because he had to drop out of school after eighth grade), not unintelligent in any way. It therefore didn’t work when my dad dismissed him by saying that he said that only because he worked for the Russian Orthodox Church (It was a Slovakian Catholic one), and it didn’t work to deny that he knew the difference between “Russian“ and “Ruthenian”.  (My cousin seems to have taken the hint, given that she eventually made her family tree public again). 

I have written this elsewhere, and wish that I could simply copy and paste what I have already written. I type with one finger on each hand, anyway, and I try to make sure what I say is consistentregardless of whether I write (or type) it or speak it. This is because I am trying to recover an identity that almost went to the grave with past generations (My paternal grandmother is my last surviving grandparent, and my father is still not happy that I found out about our Jewishness). Had someone in the current generations neither knew nor cared to recover it, it would have more than likely been irrecoverable in future generations

As you may have guessed, the protagonist of “Trying to Recover” has autobiographical elements and other elements that are based on the fact that I’m still trying to recover what I began to recover in 2008 (I began doing genealogy research in the prior year, and I figured out that I’m Jewish just months before I was able to confirm it.). I might take at least another 15 years to fully recover it—and that includes that I’m still working to recover what past generations almost took to the grave about Rochla Andrelewitz. Unlike my Krempaszky cousin whom came forward about Great-Great-Grandma Gaydos (although I first reached out to her), anyone who knows what happened to Rochla or which Andrelewitz “Rochla” really was  has yet to come forward (and I do credit my Krempaszky cousin for replying when I reached out and conceding that Great-Granddad Gaydos identified with Jews in the Soviet Union, albe cryptically, for a reason).

 

נצחיה בת אביגדור הלוי צהרנצקי 

(Nicole Czarnecki)

PS Even though it is actually the eighth day of Sukkot on the Biblical calendar today, Hamas (ימ״ש) and their supporters (ימ״ש) still tried to take away the simchat Torah. Sabras and olim were thankfully able to fight back, although the pain that Hamas (ימ״ש) and their supporters (ימ״ש) caused will have ripple effects for at least a generation—even among Jews like me whom are not recognized as Jewish by fellow Jews.

PPS I prefer to render my surname as “צהרנצקי”, as it’s closer to the “Zernetzky”/“Chernetski”/“Czerniecki” that we were forced to take (and corrupted to “Czarniecki” and variants thereof to conceal our Jewish heritage).

Friday, October 6, 2023

Commentary: The 60-Year-Old Quinceañera (Originally Facebook Comments and Replies)

 A 60-year-old madre y abuela officially celebrated having come of age three quinces of milestones later—which her día de su quinceañera and the adult-quinceañera celebration being the bookends to the three quinces. Before anyone makes fun of her, I offer a little cultural context for people whom might not otherwise get it: a quinceañera celebration in traditional Hispanic culture is equivalent to a bar- or bat-mitzvah celebration in traditional Jewish culture. In Aztec culture, it did (and it marked when a girl was considered of marriageable age by the Aztecs). When the Spanish colonized Mexico, quinceañeras quickly blended into the Aztec-Catholic syncretism. Eventually, the celebration of quinceañeras (and quinceañeros) became a pan-Hispanic celebration. By the way, boys subsequently celebrated being quinceañeros in the same way that Judith Eisenstein (née Kaplan) celebrated the first known bat-mitzvah ceremony. (I was actually surprised to find out that celebrations of quinceañeros are actually as ancient of a tradition as celebrations of quinceañeras, as they are not emphasized enough in formal education or other sources re quinceañeras. One source actually talks about 15-year-old Aztec boys being considered quinceañeros and therefore old enough to fight for the Méxica people). 

To make fun of a woman for having an adult quinceañera celebration (or as Art Ocasio on Facebook put it, a “four times the fun” quinceañera celebration at 60) is culturally insensitive at best. Besides, in Jewish culture, there’s the equivalent 13 + 70 = 83 for second b’nai-mitzvah celebrations. It usually is done for Holocaust survivors (many of whom are still denied recognition, having been persecuted by the Soviet and Arabized governments instead of the Germans and their accomplices). 

Wednesday, September 27, 2023

Commentary: LGB+ People Aren’t the Modern-Day “Sodomites”. So, Who Are—And How Do We Respond Like (And Also Unlike) Lot?

 When I saw the following thread and the comments, who the modern-day Sodomites and Gommorahns are clicked. LGB+ people (except for LGB+ people who support transgenderism) don’t want to take over bathrooms and locker rooms, sports and entertainment, and other things that women had to fight to gain for women. Transgenderists want to take from women what women—including LBA+ women—had to fight to gain. Besides, many LGB+ people (despite the thorns in the flesh that are homosexuality and bisexuality) either remain celibate or enter “lavender marriages” for the sake of God; and most LGB+ people absolutely resent being lumped in with transgender-identifying people—especially as transgenderists prey on people with gender dysmorphia and other people whom could be deceived into believing that one can change one’s gender.

In short, as I responded to the following thread—the first part which is screenshot which my reply: 

“The misogynists are modern-day Sodomites & Gomorrahns, and worse. They want a completely-womanless society (as Lot’s daughters & wife were implied as the only women in Sodom), and they attack men whom defend women (Lot unfortunately was not willing to defend his daughters).”



 


Look at the relevant passage from Bereshit (Genesis, JPS 1917 translation):

 But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both young and old, all the people from every quarter. And they called unto Lot, and said unto him: 'Where are the men that came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.' And Lot went out unto them to the door, and shut the door after him. And he said: 'I pray you, my brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters that have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes; only unto these men do nothing; forasmuch as they are come under the shadow of my roof.' And they said: 'Stand back.' And they said: 'This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs play the judge; now will we deal worse with thee, than with them.' And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and drew near to break the door. But the men put forth their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and the door they shut.”

Of course, we respond like Lot did by speaking out against sin and leaving God to bring about ultimate judgement. We respond unlike Lot did by not adding sin upon sin. By the way, notice that HaSefer Bereshit does not condone either what Lot did to his daughters or his daughters did to him (I also wonder if they heard of what their father considered and did what they did partly as revenge. That would make the prohibition on revenge more pertinent.).

In other words, we speak out against transgenderism and ultimately leave God to bring judgement upon transgenderists. We do not engage in “red-pill” (black-and-white pill) pushing, “Christian” nationalism, or other misogyny or other bigotry. Unlike Lot, we leave God to fight fire (e.g., licentiousness and misogyny—including transgenderism) with fire (Lot’s offering of his daughters to be raped was an attempt to fight destruction with destruction, and only God can fight fire with fire and destruction with destruction). 

Like Lot, we speak the truth as though it is water against fire (as—like the Sodomites and Gommorahns, and even worsely—transgenderists are intent on femicide, harm against LGB+ women and men, and harm against men whom stand up for women’s rights. 

(We also do not take revenge on misogynists of any kind—and misandry is a fire-against-fire kind of revenge that only ends up hurting all women as well as the non-misogynistic men).

Thursday, September 21, 2023

A Comment(ary) That Became Too Long For Instagram: Los Idiomas de Mis Padres y Madres

 In reply to @vertigo5110: especially my Jewish family is the same way. The gentile languages that they spoke or speak include: 

  1. English
  2.  Irish (as the Farrells were conversos—and a certain cousin got mad when I found out!) 
  3. German
  4. Slovakian¹
  5. Only the Magyar that everyone in the Hungarys (including what was then Upper Hungary) was forced to speak (and the ones who are in what was and is Hungary Proper speak)
  6. Polish (with some going as far to pretend that they were Polish and Lithuanian Catholics)
  7. Portuguese (João Enrique Ferin de Lisboa later took “John Henry McCoy” and, as a converso, had an ugly divorce from his tsores-in-di-tuches wife). 


The closet thing that João’s great-grandson (my grandfather) Francis X. Allen had to Ladino was Yiddish (which my mother has never learned or showed interest in learning). My father’s paternal grandparents, meanwhile, somehow communicated in mutually-unintelligible Polish and Slovakian (They either learned from each other or, more likely, spoke in Yiddish. Besides, two of my paternal grandfather‘s paternal uncles—Jankie and Susi—were lucky enough to have Yiddish names that they used openly as nicknames within the family.). On the flip side, the father of Dad’s paternal grandmother would have successfully hidden his Hebrew name if his daughter Helen Ropel didn’t give it away before she died הערה.


I myself: 

  1. am working on learning and/or continuing to learn Hebrew, Yiddish, Esperanto, Polish, and Ukrainian (with the latter two for genealogical purposes), and yo todavía estudio el idioma de español
  2. am also working on learning Portuguese (primarily for genealogy along with Polish and Ukranian).
  3. was additionally learning Russian to speak with a friend whom grew up under Soviet oppression. I nonetheless stopped Duolingo lessons on Russian shortly after the Russian invasion into Ukraine, and I am learning Ukrainian in solidarity with Ukraine as well as acknowledgement of how both of my paternal grandfather’s parents had roots in Ukraine ². 

¹With Mihály Trudnyak né Nagy and Anna Munková going as far as to pretend that they were born in Poland and as Polish or Slovakian Catholics. Mihály was born as an “illegitimate” Nagy to parents in Budapest with no foot in Kacwin. As for Anna Munková, she was passed off as a forcibly-baptized sister in Levoča and not Łapsze Niżne.

הערהI should’ve known that he used “Stephen” and “Stef” to calque for “Yosef” or—as she gave it—“Joseph”. The misspelling “Fosco”, as in “Joseph and Julia Fosco Rusnak”, may have been a mistake. “Joseph”, as I quickly figured out, was conversely not a mistake. As far as I know, Julia Rusnak née Foczko (Fosko) rarely or never used “Fosco” in her lifetime, although she did have relatives in Romania. By contrast, Joseph “Andrew Steven”/ “Andrew Stef” Rusnak even invented a brother named “Stephen” to cover up his Jewish origins—as he and all of his siblings were born to Crypto-Jewish parents and forcibly baptized. His paternal grandparents even had to go through a dispensation in order to get married, and his grandfather was living in Austrohungarian-occupied Chiuzbaia at the time.


²My grandfather’s father was born in Tsuman’ on the day of the Kyiv pogrom—October 23, 1904. His mother—whom was in route to visit, as I later learned, a recently-widowed cousin in Buzhanka—quickly had to turn back to Szumowo called “Shumeve”, and she had to register his birth and have him baptized there. She herself had become a Crypto Jew after the Farber-Kogan incident that occurred in Białystok only weeks before the Kyiv Pogrom, and she and Great-Granddad—as well as an unknown child—barely survived the Bialystok Pogrom and its fallout in Shumeve—and I don’t call her being raped and with a child whom noticeably goes in and out of the records as really having “survived”.

As for the paternal family of Pop-Pop’s maternal grandfather, they were Jews and Trudnyakovs from Odesa long before they ended up as “Trudynaks” in Kežmarok and Budapest.

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Midyear/High Holy Days Resolutions

 During the High Holy Days of 5783, I resolve to:

  1. Do more of what I asked others to do (e.g., pursue tzedek v’shalom) in my commentary for Yom Teru’ah
  2. Do more anaerobic exercise—even if doing so can be a little difficult due to an albe-friendly puppy named Reilly exercising her apparent right to kiss the inside of “Momma”’s nostrils (which can hurt and make breathing through her nose difficult)!
  3. Be a better “Momma” to Reilly—including by doing a better job with making holiday and other special-occasion cards with Reilly.
  4. Write more.
  5. Respond to messages, emails, etc. more, and be more socially interactive in general.
  6. Manage my ADD, OCD/Anxiety, Depression, and Anxiety better.
  7. Read both the parashot and the haftarot more (as I read the parashot and haftarot only once a week), and read Tanakh and Yigdal (the B’rit Chadashah) in general more.
  8. Take abuse, intentional and unintentional, less personally. For me, abuse is ultimately about the abuser.
  9. Be more forgiving and less prone to holding grudges, and be more trusting of יהוה in general (including in that יהוה will ultimately bring tzedek, even if not in this lifetime and in this age).
  10. Walk more in the ways of יהוה, and not let myself be affected by what people whom don’t fear or dread (even if they claim to fear and dread) יהוה think.

PS If you’re interested in letting me know about your own midyear and High Holy Days resolutions, please let me. Also keep in mind that I moderate comments on my blog, and that no spam or k’tav hara becomes a part of the comments section. In fact, both spam and k’tav hara get deleted or even reported to Google. 

Friday, September 15, 2023

Thursday, September 14, 2023

A Little Different: Before- and After-Grooming Pictures of Camille





Before, and not keen on going for a ride in “Mom-Mom”’s car or getting her picture taken




After, when she didn’t have her back turned to “Auntie Nicole”. 

PS Getting pictures of Reilly was impossible, and “Momma” plans to feature Reilly in (אם ירצה יהוה) an upcoming Yom Teru’ah card, anyway.

(בני אגם מתכננים, ויהוה צוחק.)

 

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

Commentary: Reflections On Yom Teru’ah 5783 (Rosh HaShanah HaRabim 5784)

 Long ago, someone alerted me to Page 251 of “The 9/11 Commission Report”. Once I found out and fully processed that I am among the “‘Jews, not necessarily the United States’” that the perpetrators of 9/11 targeted, I realized very quickly that Jews in the United States and elsewhere cannot be (as the saying goes) shirking violets. Regardless of individual religious, political, and other backgrounds and beliefs, Jews (whether in the U.S., Ukraine, or elsewhere in the Jewish Diaspora, or in ‘Eretz Yisra’el) need to look out for each other and those around us. For starters, as we enter the seventh month of 5783 (which some will observe as Rosh HaShanah 5774), let us do what יהוה commanded those of us in the Diaspora through Yirimiyahu hanavi: “seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray unto the LORD for it; for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.” (Sefer Yirimiyahu 29:7, JPS 1917)

On September 12, 2001, the Jewish communities in New York and other trauma-affected cities sought the cities’ welfares—even though we Jews (whether or not we knew that we are Jewish) were the main victims, whether indirectly or directly (and many Jews were direct victims of 9/11, with Danny Lewin, ז״ל, being the first victim). Resigning to injustice, hopelessness, and dying should therefore not be an option 22 years later. As Yom Teru’ah 5783 comes up, let those of us whom are Jews in the United States seek the welfare of the cities in which we currently reside as we sought particularly the welfares of New York, Shanksville, Pennsylvania; all cities in Arlington County in Virginia, and other directly-affected cities in 5761 (also right before Yom Teru’ah in that year). Let us raise a teru’ah (shouting) to the God of Israel to bless and keep especially all Jewish communities in the United States during the Yamim Nora’im. Let us raise a teru’ah to the God of Israel to bring shalom to U.S. ally Ukraine, and to bless and keep especially all Jews in Ukraine (whom are facing hostility that is born of the same Antisemitism that Jews in the United States faced. Both the Russian government and the perpetrators of 9/11 have made their Anti-Israel sentiments known over the decades, and Vladimir Putin intends to harm especially Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other Jews in Ukraine.). 

As we wish others “G’mar Chatimah Tovah b’Sefer HaChayim” (“A good sealing in the Book of Life”), let us work to bring tzedek v’tikvah v’chayim v’refu’ah (justice and hope and life and healing) within our own lives and the lives of those around us—including those within our communities (both our local Jewish communities and the gentile communities among which our Jewish communities happen to be). 

P.S. Let us also raise the old teru’ah, “Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim!” (“Pray for the shalom of Jerusalem!”)

Wednesday, September 6, 2023

The “Trad”/“Chad” Culture Quickly Is Resurging Its Ugly Head In Every Domain (For “Business Announcer”)

 For whatever reason, I got a Signals magazine in the mail today. When I was flipping through the magazine, as I have been able to buy from them in the past (as poor people with disabilities are able to buy nice things once in a while if they get the opportunity to do so), I quickly determined that I’m probably not going to buy from them for a while at the very least (and permanently at the most). What caught my eye is what should catch Signals the flak that they deserve: 





The misogynistic shirt alleges, “A fancier title and elevated status with every new generation? That’s the definition of heaven!”

If Signals wanted to insult women whom cannot have children (including women whom struggle with infertility) as well as women whom have chosen to not have children for whatever reasons, they have accomplished what they wanted to do. They seem to have picked up their cues from the likes of Matt Walsh, Andrew Tate, and Luke Rockwell—the latter of whom demonstrated exactly why many men are going to Southeast Asia to find women and girls. Both they and the three aforementioned men (one of whom can be reported for hate crimes and the other two of whom are currently under investigation for rape) are therefore demonstrating that the troubling phenomenon that is known as (among other names) “trad”, “chad”, “theobro”, and “red pill” culture is bleeding over into every domain of society, 

Notwithstanding that the “theo” is not the “Theo” whom they claim to follow and that their pills are actually sort-of Ying-and-Yang combinations of arsenic and cyanide (as arsenic can be black in color and cyanide can be white), the “trad”/“chad”/“theobro”/“red pill”, etc. people are pushing a dangerous black-and-white pill that makes them more intangibly dangerous than the pushers of excess OxyContin tangibly are. When OxyContin is prescribed correctly, and to actually alleviate pain, it can be helpful to the person whom means it for pain management. The same cannot be said (and in fact, the opposite can be said) for that pain-causing black-and-white pill that is deceitfully coated with red coloring.

Just as the pushers of OxyContin were sued for aggressive marketing and fraudulent prescribing (as the government had to get involved because of the scope of the OxyContin pushing), the “trad”/“chad”/“theobro”/black-and-white pill pushers need to be boycotted, sued, and prosecuted for hate crimes. (By the way, select “Civil Rights” and then “Hate Crimes” if you report Matt Walsh and John Lekach for targeting Julia. Unfortunately, you can select only one demographic category because of which Julia was targeted. Because Julia was targeted primarily due to her gender, I recommend that you select “Gender”. Given that the Internet spans multiple jurisdictions and John Lekach conspired with a U.S. citizen to target another U.S. citizen, a “United States v. Matt Walsh and John Lekach” would not necessarily violate the 11th Amendment. Also, Matt Walsh and John Lekach targeted Julia to target all single 20+-year-old women whom have no children; and they obviously targeted multiple American women alone in using Julia as a proxy target.

(As far as Costa Rica—as John Lekach makes publicly known that he committed his hate crime from there, and the FBI will be helped in knowing when they investigate him and Matt Walsh—Costariqueños will have to deal separately with John Lekach as a Costariqueño—as Americans have enough to deal with in putting even legal attention on attention-obsessed Matt Walsh. Besides, the 11th Amendment would prohibit the U.S. from prosecuting John Lekach as a Costariqueño, although he could be prosecuted for conspiring with a U.S. citizen to target another U.S. citizen because of the multijurisdictional nature of the Internet and X’s status as a U.S.-based company.)

Signals and its fellow black-and-white-pill pushers thus need to be put on cultural, economic and legal notices that misogynistic traditionalism should and will only lead them to isolation. At best, their misogynistic traditionalism should and will isolate them from American, Costariqueño, and other spheres of business and society. At worst, it should and will lead them to lawfully-punitive isolation in square cells on the sphere known as “Earth” (as it has led Andrew Tate and Luke Rockwell, and will hopefully lead Matt Walsh and John Lekach).

Thursday, August 31, 2023

Quick Personal Update—and a Few #ThrowbackThursday Pictures of Reilly


For two much-better-looking subjects, meanwhile…

 






And one of whom is the spotlight-ambivalent-yet-attention-wanting pup with the ever-curious mind…









Tuesday, August 29, 2023

The Fruit Won’t Change Until the Root Does (Commentary For “Business Announcer”)

 

As you might remember if you followed the coverage of “United States v. Maxwell”, the four U.S.-politics-involved people are Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, the late senator John Glenn (D-OH), and RFK, Jr.. All four of these men and other men willingly raped young women and girls—whom are, like other women and girls, known to be the primary targets and victims of sexual abusers. That sexual abuse and other abuse are gendered crimes is all too well known, and the prevalence and severity of sexual abuse will not decrease until women and girls begin to be viewed as human beings and not (at best) subhuman or humanoid objects for men’s pleasures or (at worst) not human at all.

Conversely, violence with guns will not decrease in prevalence, or severity until guns are viewed as tools for provision (e.g., the hunting of turkeys and deer) and the defense of self and others. Especially courageously in the faces of those whom worship guns and exploit the Non-White communities to do so, a Black sheriff in Florida stated the following after the murders in Jacksonville:




As others and I have said over the years, guns are not gods that have wills of their own, let alone gods that demand sacrifice known as “gun-control laws”. In contrast, God has commanded us to not hate our fellow human beings in our hearts and to not murder. Besides, God created the human beings whom He gave the ability to create objects such as guns. Yet, as reflected in sins like sexual abuse and hate crimes, humanity has objectified humans and humanized objects. Therefore, until we acknowledge the humanity of fellow human beings and responsibly use the objects that God gave us the ability to create, we will continue to see commissions of sexual abuse, racism-based murder, and other sins that stem from objectification of humans and humanization of objects. 

The only way to change the fruit, so to speak and as it were, is to change the root. A hateful tree bears hate-born fruits such as misogyny and racism, and trees such as the American electorate continue to bear fruit such as the election of misogynists and racists to office. No investigation into human trafficking or strengthening of hate-crime laws (let alone instead of cover ups for sexually-abusive politicians or weakening of the Second Amendment) will occur. 

Change the root. Be a tree of life, not a tree of death. Bear good fruits such as acknowledgement of fellow humans’ humanity and responsible use of objects, and don’t bear poisonous fruits such as objectification of humans and humanizing of objects. Then you will get even a fruitful American government that blames the human criminal for crimes against humanity instead of blames the object that human criminals misuse.

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Commentary: Not a Monarchy, And Nonetheless In Need of a Head of State Like the Following (For “Business Announcer”)

 (Author’s note: I always keep the original form of my commentary here in case what I write gets lost in editorial or SEO translation.)

If only more candidates for POTUS were like the following queen of the United Kingdom, whom left her throne to behold God on His throne almost a year ago: 



Even though I find myself glad that the United States is a constitutional federal republic, I cannot help but note that few of its heads of state (whom have also been its heads of government) have ever been this humble. I also cannot help but note that few of them have deliberately been cognizant of the fact that “public servant” means “one who serves the public”. I additionally cannot help but note that most of them have deliberately attempted to redefine “public servant” as “one whom the public serves”.

I see the “one whom the public serves” description all too happily self applied by the current POTUS (albe that he at least was legitimately—and nonetheless embarrassingly—elected. I also see it applied all too happily self applied by aspiring successors of his—including Trump (and God forbid if he is legitimately elected this time). Of course, I see it applied to the majority of self-declared Republican candidates, and many of those candidates have either worked for Trump (e.g., with Nikki Haley being his UN ambassador and Mike Pence being his VP), aspired to work for Trump (e.g., with Chris Christie having vied to be his VP), or defended Trump against just prosecution (among them being Ron DeSantis and Tim Scott). 

I have noted that the (openly-)Democratic equivalents include RFK Jr. (whom is, none too surprisingly, riding on the name of his equally-Antisemitic grandfather, uncle, and father) and, as aforementioned, the current POTUS (whom, in one of the presidential debates of the 2019-2020 election season, proudly proclaimed, “I am the Democratic Party for right now…I approved the Democratic Party platform.”

(Meanwhile, I ascertain that RFK Jr.’s uncle—along with  his father, whom eagerly worked as JFK’s attorney general—would vilely tout Biden as a “stuff of legends”. Not much has changed from Kennedy to Biden to Kennedy, after all.)

Only God, then, can help the U.S. elect a head of state that is an American equivalent of the late Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom, a head of government (and a head of state) that is a modern equivalent of George Washington (including—unlike Trump, Biden, and the Kennedys—a friend of Israel), and a true conservative (unlike, e.g., pseudo-conservative populists Trump and Ramaswamy). Only God, therefore, can help the U.S. elect a true public servant and not a Machiavellian whom the public serves.


PS Of the current Republican candidates, Will Hurd and Asa Hutchinson (both of whom have consistently disavowed and refuted Trumpism) are whom I would like to see God bring to the top of the GOP candidate tier. If God doesn’t bring either Will Hurd or Asa Hutchinson to be the GOP nominee, I will exercise my right to vote and vote my conscience as I did in the last two elections—I will write in John Kasich. Even if my vote doesn’t count in the eyes of fellow Americans, it does count in the eyes of God.

Monday, August 21, 2023

Commentary: Censorship, Personal Responsibility, and Freedom (For Business Announcer)

 Most of the times in which one requires censorship come on an individual basis. As Tanakh (the Old Testament) states, even a fool can be considered as wise and perceptive when he or she hold his tongue and keeps his or her lips together. Tanakh also states that only the fool denies the existence of God. 

Meanwhile, the First and Ninth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States allow (among other freedoms) the freedoms of religion, speech, and protection from Constitutional abuse of human rights (including the rights to religious and expressive freedom). Therefore, the conservative views (or at least should view) censorship as exercisable by the government on only a necessary-evil and case-by-case basis. In other words, the conservative views (or at least should view) censorship as firstly and foremostly an exercise of wisdom-born personal responsibility.

Conversely, of course, hold the leftists (whom practice the political religion of Leftism and give bad names to well-meaningly-misguided liberals). The leftists believe in at-will censorship by leftist leaders so long as the leftists leaders uphold even pseudorights—including the pseudoright for especially female-identifying men to invade female spaces (e.g., women’s locker rooms and bathrooms, and women’s sports divisions and academic tiers). By believing as they believe and imposing such beliefs on others (including their liberal counterparts, whom are often caught in the left-of-center’s middle), they abuse the Constitution under the guise of upholding the First and Ninth Amendments. 

Also conversely to the conservative uphold the libertine kind of libertarians. They believe in say-and-do-anything libertarianism, even at the expenses of themselves and others. They therefore don’t care how they destroy their own reputations in how foolishly they speak of themselves and speak to others, and they don’t mind destroying the spiritopsychological health of others in speaking foolishly. 

At least some of them end up doing the work that many conservatives paradoxically try too painstakingly to do. By not even remotely censoring themselves, let alone considering the impact of their words on others, they end up making themselves case studies in the value of “Nature’s God” and the wisdom of  “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” After all, they demonstrate the contrasts between death and life, oppression and liberty, and hedonism (the pursuit of happiness at the expense of others) and genuine happiness (the pursuit of one’s own and others’ happiness). 

Case in point: “Jewish atheist” Vanessa Zoltan denies the very God whom brought her grandparents out of the German part of the Holocaust (even though, by her own account, she also “grew up around” survivors of the Russian and Middle Eastern parts of the Holocaust). She even admits that Atheism is in fact a religion that predicates itself on denying the God Whom delivered Jews from Germany (and Russia as well as the Arab & Arabized Middle East). She goes even further by denying the Jewish roots of Christianity at best, and she self-hatingly blames Jews (including Jewish Christians) for the past seven centuries of global problems.

In doing so, and with pride in proselytizing spiritopsychological distress, she exposes the God-defying and abusive nature of Atheism about which conservatives have warned for decades. The following only touches on how she does so—and obviously without being censored by either herself and anyone else: 

 I'm a chaplain and so I see myself as one of the things that religion has to offer. I would like to be one of the positive things that religion has on offer. I think religion has a lot of great things, and I think atheist chaplains are a necessary part of that tapestry. 

“Someone who is going to say, "It just sucks that your mom died. She isn't in a better place. It just sucks. She's just gone. You're just not gonna talk to her again." And sit with someone in that. I think I have a role and a call on this planet to be that person.”

If Vanessa Zoltan does not demonstrate the need to reserve governmental censorship for when the greater good makes it unavoidably necessary, I don’t know who does. After all, libertines like Vanessa Zoltan eschew personal responsibility and teach the wise why self censorship should in fact be valued by Constitution-upholding Americans. Besides, Constitution-perverting leftists utilize censorship to oppress others under the God-defying hedonism that Vanessa Zoltan espouses. Conservatives ought to therefore focus primarily on wisdom-born self control (which includes self censorship), and the fools will hyperfocus themselves into exemplifying the folly of Constitutional abuse (which includes using the Constitution to create pseudorights on the other hand and eschew personal responsibility on the other hand).


Thursday, August 17, 2023

Originally on Reddit: Casual Sex and Spiritual Damage, With a Hypothetical Example

(“How do studies measure ‘spiritual damage’?”

(A hypothetical case study might give one an idea as to “how”.)

 In most religions and denominations/movement/sects thereof, casual sex is at least discouraged and at most condemned. Even in, e.g., Reform/Liberal/Progressive Judaism, premarital cohabitation is discussed as not ideal in a CCAR resolution. The impact that casual sex can have on one’s individual relationship with his or her professed deity (e.g., God), his or her individual and communal relationships within his or her congregation (e.g., at his or her local Reform temple or Liberal/Progressive synagogue), and his or her religious standing—both within and outside of his or her local congregation (e.g., within his or her local Reform temple and across the URJ)—can be impacted.


For example (hypothetical names, etc.), if supposedly-God-fearing Reform rabbi Pesah Minkowicz is known to be polyamorous and living with his equally-polyamorous fiancée, congregants at Qehjla Qadosz Reformi in Krakow are going to question whether they can trust him to lead the congregation and help them if they should ever deal with unfaithful spouses. If Rabbi Minkowicz understands how the congregation has a difficult time viewing him as a God-fearing and trustworthy rabbi, he might begin to understand how both his relationships with his congregation (not to mention the entire Reform community in Krakow and perhaps even across Poland) and his relationship with God might be damaged.


Rabbi Minkowicz might consider, “If my congregants view me as, quite candidly, a man-whore and a hypocrite, then the God that my ancestors may not view me in a favorable way, either. My congregants must also be wondering how I can be esteemed as a man whom helps one lead the self to God. I therefore imagine that God must view me as a rabbi whom is not shomer Torah [observant of Torah], no matter how much of it He gave at Sinai.”


Rabbi Minkowicz, based on reports that he receives on a frequent basis from trustworthy congregants, may conclude that God will eventually allow that Poland’s URJ equivalent revoke his semikha (rabbinical ordination) and permit QQR to put him under kherem (censure or excommunication) for (among other desecrations of God’s Name) playing the male harlot. If he were simply a congregant and perhaps only a layman’s capacity at most, the consequences of his actions might be less severe. Nonetheless, especially because he is a rabbi, his Torah- and God-defying behavior may well incur for him spiritual damage that might cause him to either:


1. ⁠do teszuwah (repent) and even be part of a monogamous couple with a fiancée-turned-rebicin (rabbi’s wife)

2. ⁠resign his rabbinical position and congregational membership, and even dissociate himself from Reform Judaism altogether.


(PS: Reform/Liberal/Progressive Judaism tends to be less secular in Eastern Europe, Canada, etc. than, e.g., the United States and the United Kingdom. Also, “w” in Polish is pronounced “v”; “c” as “ts” and “cz” as “ch” or “tsh”; “sz” as “sh”, and “j” as “i” or “y”. That’s why when Rabbi Minkowicz receives a letter that warns of “cherem” unless he does “teshuvah”, he needs to consult an English-speaking colleague as to what exactly a URJ representative in Warszawa meant.)

Tuesday, August 15, 2023

Commentary [Original Form; For Business Announcer]: AI and Technological Responsibility

 When I sat in on my first BA meeting, I found myself reminded of that which I know that I (and others) need to remind (still) others in the current AI panic. As you may have guessed, I (and others) need to remind (still) others to what you put into AI is exactly what AI gives you back (including with, per the example with the meeting attendees received, AI-generated images). I, after all, once used an AI generator for images on Twitter. 

As I recounted in the meeting, I found myself responsible for putting accurately into the AI generator what limited information I have about my paternal grandfather’s paternal grandmother. After all, I could not depend on AI to give me an estimate of what she may have looked like if I did not dependably give AI the information that I had. I needed to describe her as I knew her to have been: 


1) a frum Crypto Jew.

2) a 5’3” Sefardi-Ashkenazi daughter of a kohen whom was born in Bosse, Russia-occupied Poland, and died in Sugar Notch, Pennsylvania at the age of 51.

3) a woman whom was born on June 26, 1882 and died after a difficult life (which included rape and the loss of four children as well as a husband) on April 6, 1936. 

4) a grey-eyed brunette.  


Based on the information that I gave* and based on my knowledge of (as I explained in the meeting) what her son Anthony and grandson Jack looked like (as well as what, for example, other relatives of hers looked and look like), I chose this AI-generated image and (when I used it on my family tree and otherwise) explain at the image portrays what she may have looked like based on what process are utilized to come up with it.


Interestingly, if the AI generator did not generate a possible image of her with makeup, it could have well generated an image of her with nephritis-induced flushing (and you would have to know that she died of nephritis to speculate on that).



I would have to go back and find the original tweet thread, although – as Ancestry allows limited captions — I may have given more of a description than what is shown here. 

Conversely and for the same reasons—i.e., information input and discernment—I could not conclusively discern what my great-great-grandfather may have looked like.

Meanwhile, I hope that anyone that has an actual picture of her comes forward with it – partly, so that I can see if I correctly had an AI image generated and carefully chosen. Besides, mainly, I want to see what Great-Great-Grandma actually looked like.


*At the time of this writing, I did not have the original Twitter thread in front of me, as I generated the images with an AI Twitter bot.