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Showing posts with label Anusim. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anusim. Show all posts

Saturday, December 28, 2013

More Of (Or At Least Again) Why Only Sephardic Anusim Get Recognized

 For example, as I saw on a friend's post, "Yeh..but morano refers to jews who had to practice in secret"

Was I, a bat-Anusim quick to respond!

"[F]irst of all, "Marrano" is a nasty and exclusivist term. It means "pig [eater]" or "swine [eater]", and was used to refer only to Jews who had to deal with the Spanish Inquisition. Second of all, the correct term is "Anusim"—which includes all Jews (Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi, Kaifenger, Lemba, etc.) who were forced physically, psychologically, or otherwise to pretend to convert to another religion. Third of all, "marrano" (as nasty as the term is, with the correct term being "Anusi" or "Anusit") can also apply to willing converts to other religions who nonetheless hid their Jewish ethnic identity. The term can also apply to their descendants, especially those descendants who are Anusim (Crypto, Secret, or Hidden Jews)."

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

"The Night Before Christmas" and Reflections on Years Past

I was going to have to do this sometime. As I said, I apologize for getting teary eyed. Honestly to God, one of the few good memories that I can take away from having to deal with Dad and his family (meaning the family that has mistreated me, not the family that actually has some decency) is when Pop-Pop (whose soul is hopefully at peace, despite how he mistreated me and others) would read "The Night Before Christmas", since he wasn't really keen on the religious part (He was an Anusi Ashkenazi, after all, and went through the motions.). No wonder, then, that he read "The Night Before Christmas" with such fervor and nary, if at all, mentioned or read the Bible.

Every Christmas Eve that he could (including the Christmas Eves that my sister and I were there), he would read "The Night Before Christmas". Whenever "and" came up (e.g., "And Mamma in her kerchief and I in my cap"), the grandchildren (at least the under-18-years-of-age ones) would pass a gift around, and (pun intended) whoever got the gift on the last "and" ("and to all a good night") would open the gift—and I remember that Michelle got it one year, for example.

See, Dad; I didn't miss out on the life of a (not-at-all) "great man". In fact, as I said (or, as he would say, "like I said"),  one of the few good memories that I can take away from having to deal with you and your family who have mistreated me is when Pop-Pop (whose soul, again, is hopefully at peace, despite how he mistreated me and others) would read "The Night Before Christmas".

I took away from Pop-Pop's life what I needed to take away—and in conclusion, as Pop-Pop would read, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night". Enjoy Christmas without your real daughters—after all, Erica and Danielle are exactly who you and Pop-Pop wanted as daughters and granddaughters, and that is no compliment to you and them.

By the way, today is Great-Great-Granddad Julian's professed birthdate—December 24th. Had he lived, he'd've apparently been anywhere from 124 years old (since great-Great-Grandma gave 1879 on his death certificate) to 128 years old (if he was born in 1875, as he seems to have been—since, after all, "Julian Laczinsky" was and "Julius Charnetski" was killed at 46 years of age on September 11, 1922).


Sunday, December 22, 2013

The Gajdosz Coat of Arms and Explanation


We chose our name deliberately, I realize. "Gajdosz" being a form of "Gaydosh" or "bagpipe", and bagpipes (at least at the end) look very similar to shofarot, we deliberately chose it and kept the "sz" once we escaped to Slovakian Hungary from Polish Russia. Also, Great-Granddad would brag about us being "Russian", and his mother was from an Uszinsky family as well.

"Gajdos Name Meaning Hungarian: nickname for a ribald person, from gajdolni ‘to sing in a raucous or drunken way’ (from Slavic gajda ‘bagpipe’). In some cases it may be an occupational name for a player of pipes or bagpipes.Polish and Slovak (Gajdoš): from a derivative of Gajda." Ancestry.com, "Gajdos"). Ours was never accented and we Americanized it to "Gaydosh" sometimes. We also never accented the "s", and Hungarian "sz" is just "s". On the other hand, "š" or "s" is "sh". In Polish, "sz" is "sh". 

We were very aware of our Poliyshn Yidn roots, and Dad doesn't like that. In fact, he nastily told Great-Granddad (as he told us that he told Great-Granddad), "The only reason that you say that we're Russian is because you work for the Russian Church." It was actually a Slovakian-American Catholic church, and the Rusnaks were Levi'im Anusim as well. So, Dad darned well (in his mind, damned well) knows that we're Jews—and I think that's also part of why we're estranged again—not just because I confronted him on Pop-Pop Czarnecki's obituary, but also because he was waiting to cut me off once I found out the truth and asked him about it. So, as soon as I confronted him about the obituary, he found his loophole and got as nasty and abusive with me as possible.
I had also, by the way, spoken out about the obituary and said how they conveniently skipped over Pop-Pop's Jewish heritage—and maybe that's part of why Great-Granddad Gaydos didn't like Pop-Pop (long story), as I found out—he could probably tell that Pop-Pop was a self loather.We were very aware of our Poliyshn Yidn roots, and Dad doesn't like that. In fact, he nastily told Great-Granddad (as he told us that he told Great-Granddad), "The only reason that you say that we're Russian is because you work for the Russian Church." It was actually a Slovakian-American Catholic church, and the Rusnaks were Levi'im Anusim as well. So, Dad darned well (in his mind, damned well) knows that we're Jews—and I think that's also part of why we're estranged again—not just because I confronted him on Pop-Pop Czarnecki's obituary, but also because he was waiting to cut me off once I found out the truth and asked him about it. So, as soon as I confronted him about the obituary, he found his loophole and got as nasty and abusive with me as possible.I had also, by the way, spoken out about the obituary and said how they conveniently skipped over Pop-Pop's Jewish heritage—and maybe that's part of why Great-Granddad Gaydos didn't like Pop-Pop (long story), as I found out—he could probably tell that Pop-Pop was a self loather.By the way, the long story, as Aunt Mary recalled it to me: Great-Granddad Gaydos came over for dinner and ate quietly. When he ate, he looked up and declared, "Okay; I'm ready to go now." He clearly had no time for Jack Czarnecki.







Monday, December 2, 2013

Open Letter To Caroline Glick (For Transparency's Sake And In Case She Decides To Delete It)

Ms. Glick:
I find your article “American Jewry’s Fight” extremely offensive and nothing more than lashon hara. Messianic Jews like me (in my case, whose family members were Anusim—and many still are such) love and support Israel and find a Jewish man to be the Jewish Messiah, and want to share a Jewish message with Jewish people. In fact, many of my family remain Anusim because of fellow Jews like you—they are ashamed to be associated and/or affiliated with anyone who would reject them and/or others based on that they’re seen as “anti-Zionist Jews” who “engage in activities aimed at harming, defaming, weakening and delegitimizing the Jewish state.”

You also opine, “Everyone understands that while Jews have a perfect right to change their religion, they have no right to force the Jewish community to accept Christians as Jews. That is, they have no right to change the definition of Judaism to include people who worship Jesus.” Either I and other Messianic Jews are nobodies (and this is including many of my family—including quite a few Anusim, who would openly and proudly be Jewish were they not in dread of the likes of you) or you have shown your true—self-hating, intolerant, and hypocritical—colors. Clearly, you sides with the left when for you to do so is for your traditionally-religious convenience.

You also perhaps understand why some Messianic Jews may want nothing to do with Israel—your ilk, after all, is running Medinat Yisra’el and excluding pro-Israel (even if misguided and pro-“Palestinian”) Reconstructionist, Conservative, and even other Jews—such as fellow Orthodox Jews of yours—who don’t toe your line. You also nastily write on your website, “Obviously, the answer is no value. To do something you feel is intrinsically meaningless just because your forefathers did the same meaningless thing is a waste of time. If Judaism has nothing to offer beyond lox and Seinfeld, then there is no reason to remain Jewish.”

Then you lament, “Outside of the Orthodox Jewish community, intermarriage rates have reached 71 percent. Thirty-two percent of Jews born since 1980 and 22% of Jews overall do not describe themselves as Jews by religion. They base their Jewish identity on ancestry, ethnicity or culture.” Your kind of attitude will only affect the intermarriage and secularization rates to increase, and for fellow Jews of all denominations—including Messianic Judaism—to increasingly disassociate themselves from Medinat Yisra’el. Your kind of attitude will also only affect Jews like many in my family to be ashamed of and hide that they’re Jewish.

PS I hope that you’re not proud of yourself, because I’m surely not—in fact, I ashamed that people like you are a part of my people.

Nicole Czarnecki

Monday, November 11, 2013

Status Update For November 11, 2013 at 2:51:24 AM

I still found no baptism record for Ilona Lazarova Hanzokova; but I did find some for (I think) some cousins of hers. It looks like she became an Anusit later on—and after some family had already become Anusim (just like with the Foczkos—we didn't join Anusi relatives until 50 years or more after they had become Anusim. The Foczkos had gone to Gelnica and Kosjov first. Then we came into Zlata Idka. As far as the Lazars, we were either already in Zlata Idka or came there from another city in Moldava nad Bodvou—since Ilona doesn't have a baptism record, I can't tell you. Apparently, all of them but for Ilona and her family became Anusim in the 1760s-1810s. There were some open Jews in Zlata Idka, and there are even Jewish graves there; but I can't tell you whether they're Lazar graves or not.).

As much as anyone wants to try to dispute (and as much as the Devil wants to whisper doubts) that we're bnei-Anusim, we're bnei-Anusim (and some of us are still Anusim, clearly. Feel free to do the searches yourself, by the way, in case you're doubting me:

1) Lazars in Moldava nad Bodvou

2) Foczkos in Continental Europe

3) Fockos in Continental Europe

You can uncheck "Match exactly" in case you want to look for mispelled, misindexed, etc. records, too.

As usual, keep praying for me and...

.ל'לילה ושבוע טוב ומבורך תכתבו

Also, please vote and share in the poll for my Poli 301 project if you can—I need 25 votes to begin examining and analyzing data, and 3,000 votes for an acceptable research sample. By the way, 25*120 = 3,000; so if the minimum number of voters vote and share the poll (whether directly sharing or indirectly sharing) the poll with 120 people (e.g., "indirectly sharing" being that a friend of a mutual friend shared the poll with his friends; "directly sharing" being that you posted the poll to your Facebook wall, RTed it, or shared it on Sodahead), I could get 3,000 votes. Thanks.


Sunday, October 27, 2013

The Jewish Kopechnes? A Bat-Anusim Speaks On The Subject

Background

When are some gentiles not really gentiles, but Anusim passing as goyim? As a bat-Anusim, I can speak to this. As I noted before, Anusim often have uncommon surnames. As I once read (and, as I recall, even beforehand suspected about some of my own family), we made up surnames or took uncommon (or at least very-gentile ones) to avoid being (for a lack of a better term) "Jew hunted" in some cases. Even Katherine Ushinsky Gajdos—who should've Americanized her name "Uszinskyová" to "Usinsky" for being a Slovakian-Hungarian woman as she claimed—Americanized her name to "Ushinsky" (The Hungarian "sz" is just "s"; the Polish "sz" is "sh"; and Great-Granddad Gaydos [z"l] identified himself as "Russian".). She further Anusized by becoming "Maria Uscianski" to get into the Philadelphia port, and put "Keyde Usziansy" on her marriage license.

Also carrying their names with them when they became Anusim with the Levitical-Khazarate Foczkos (Also "Fockos"—since "c" in Slovakian is "ts", as it is in Polish and Hungarian. In Hungarian, as in Polish, "cz" is "tsh".). We left Warszawa, Lodz, and Radom when we became Anusim (Otherwise, we—even as Anusim, at least if we were found out—would not have been allowed outside of Russia-controlled Poland, even in pre-Pale days. We fled shortly before avinu Jozef Foczko [z"l] was born in Aranyida, and preferred to lived as Anusim in Szlovákia Magyaroszág than Yehudim in Polish Russia.). Who would know us in Szlovákia Magyaroszág, after all? We were comparable to the "Kerrys" in the United States—and after generations and in Westmoreland and Luzerne Counties, who knew our own secret? After all, Aranyida and Kassa hardly knew (and the ones who did know—besides us and our families, of course—were the families and in-law families of Kassa native György "Kvetkovits" Rusznak. Of course, I would—so to speak—bust the door open even for those of us in the family who did not know; but I wasn't born yet).

Not carrying names with them were those such as György "Kvetkovits" Rusznak, who adopted a neighboring family's name. After all, he'd be know as one of the Jewish Rusznaks if he didn't adopt another name, and even having an adopted and adapted surname didn't save a Jew from being known as a Jew if he was known to be of a Jewish family. Besides, Yoshua Rusnak would later born known for his work with Zionism, despite that his family had to adopt and adapt a Ruthenian name, and make it a shem shel Yisra'el—which could easily blow the cover of "acquitted to marry" György "Kvetkovits" Rusznak, Yoshua's Anusi cousin who lived just five hours away in Aranyida. Of course, then came the foolish move to save a foolish cover when we stopped writing to Yoshua's children and their side of the family—and we, to this day, are deservedly living with what we did by buffering their efforts at piku'ach nefesh.

Two other Jews who refused to carry names with them (if they even had names before) were Regina Jantozonková Czarnogurskyová (not Charnogursyková—please note that!) and her husband, Christophorus (By the way, "ch" in Hungarian is "cs"; whereas it is "tsh" in Polish.). It could've originally been "Charnogursky"—which makes no difference in Poland—before they fled ("Cz" and "Ch" in Polish are the same, but not Slovakian or Hungarianas the example with which I came up shows; since using other vowels didn't just give me the sounds, but sometimes words—e.g., with "u" and "e". Try it yourself, though, if you won't believe me.).

So, the background should give you an idea about the Kopetchnys:


Now About the Kopechnes

  1. Their family name and variants thereof are uncommon (Use Ancestry.com and Google.com to test this for yourself.).
  2. They had "David"s in their familyKeep in mind that Eastern Europeans did not adopt and adapt Jewish names in those days—remember that the opposite and converse happened (i.e., Jews, especially Anusim, adopted and adapted gentile names.). After all, gentiles did not want to be taken for Jews—unless, of course, they converted to Judaism.
  3. They were apparently Moravian, but posed as Polish.
By the way, if the Kopetchnys (Kopechnes) were Anusim (as I suspect), it just proves once that that Satan goes after Anusim among Jews the most. After all, Satan hides our heritage from us and goes after us especially when we find out that we are Jewish and remain in Yeshua. Incidentally, Anusim (at least in my family) were attracted to small towns and counties like Wilkes-Barre and Luzerne County—and not feinshmeker cities and counties like Pittsburgh and Alleghany County—I suppose that that's part of why Anusim like us are (for a lack of a better term) the dirty little secret of and within the Jewish community.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Why The Hell Do I Care About My Self-Loathing Family, Especially When They Persecute Me?

I'm more worried about my family than I am about me, and I worry about other families who think that: a) I and others are joking. b) I and others are lying. Jeremiah 8:1-6 is going to be applying to my and other families if we don't get our **** together really soon, and that's what scares me—I didn't choose to find out that, in my own family's case, we're Jewish and we betrayed relatives during the Holocaust. I, as was everyone else who didn't know, was told that relatives wrote to us during the Great Depression to ask for money. Nobody told me that a cousin named Vilmosz Rusznak was desperately reaching out to cousins whom he considered apostates, let alone that we stopped writing to him—and the worst part is that not only are we in denial about what happened and the consequences of the happening, but we're also getting awfully close to making the same mistakes and having worse befall us for doing so.

We have relatives who were closer to those relatives and who are in Israel now, and we could very well let them fall into the hands of Rouhani, Putin, etc. if we don't get our **** together—and what does G-d say will happen if we even stay in the Diaspora, let alone leave our relatives who are already in Israel unhelped? 
"“At that time,” says the Lord, “they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves. 2 They shall spread them before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served and after which they have walked, which they have sought and which they have worshiped. They shall not be gathered nor buried; they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. 3 Then death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of those who remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places where I have driven them,” says the Lord of hosts." (Jeremiah 8:1-3)


Nonetheless, I really resent that people would say that I am lying about what happened. What reason would I have to lie? You think that I like what happened, let alone that I'm getting persecuted for finding it out and talking about it? Give me a break—and I'm not here to help only our family: I'm here to help both our family and families who have been in situations like ours.

By the way, the United States is currently ~$16.965976 Trillion dollars in debt. We're not going to have a place to which to turn when push comes to shove—Vilmosz tried to make aliyah when the time for him to do so came too late; and our secret is out now—Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, etc. are not our lands—, so Europe won't back accepting us when "each shall flee to his own land" (cf. Isaiah 13:14 and Jeremiah 50:16).


That said, "“Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LordAnd if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”"

You do what you want; I'm making aliyah, and I'm not helping you when push comes to shove—I have family who will listen to help out. 

Update: Here's how I put it to a friend with pictures:


  • I am worried.
    My one cousin in particular thinks that I'm making **** up and that this is all a joke to me.
    And looking at what times we're in now, I'm really worried about his fate.
    This is the nasty comment that I received from him—and this after I found out that my great-great-granddad Rusnak was complicit in the deaths of his cousins who were murdered in the Holocaust:

  • "How could you possibly presume guilt from a picture taken years later? You must really hate your family and hate your ancestry. Andy and Julia were not ethnic Jews, and had no cousin named Vilmosz. Vilmosz's family never reached out to the Zlata Idka Fosko/Rusnaks. Your thinking and your comments about Andrew Rusnak make me sick. Why don't you share your beliefs with Joseph Rusnak and see what he thinks about your comments about his grandfather?"


  • And I've told Joe—he laughed.
    That is, I told him that we're Jewish. He doesn't believe it.

  • And what am I supposed to do when the U.S. and global economies crash; WWIII happens, and they get wiped out? After all, "death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of those who remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places where I have driven them,” says the Lord of hosts."

  • Not only that, but we're still ****ed up from what my great-great-granddad and my great-grandma (his oldest daughter did). If you count from him, I am of the fourth generation from him. From her, I am of the third.

    "‘The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’"

  • And this is what he looked like 27 vs. 69, by the way....
    At 69 (about two years after Vilmosz and other cousins died at Auschwitz): https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/995923_206618582828138_1461355789_n.jpg
    And he had quit working in the coal mines in his 30s to 40s. He did not do any more hard labor after that. He was a church sexton and cemetery caretaker.
  • Where else would that kind of wearing down come from? G-d curses those who do such heinous things as my great-great-granddad did. And this was him shortly before that...


    Update: I want to know what you would do: 

    <a href="http://www.sodahead.com/living/what-would-you-do-if-your-family-lied-to-you-you-found-out-the-truth-and-you-got-persecuted-for-ta/question-3973855/" title="What would you do if your family lied to you, you found out the truth, and you got persecuted for talking about the truth?">What would you do if your family lied to you, you found out the truth, and you got persecuted for talking about the truth?</a>

Monday, September 30, 2013

From a While Ago, But...

I had read that "Rabbi" Ovadia Yosef is in the hospital and seriously ill, likely to the point of death if his age and condition are considered. In that same article, I read that he had made the remark that Holocaust victims are reincarnated sinners who weren't punished enough the first time. Meanwhile, "Rebbe" Schneerson had made similar comments during his lifetime—that is, he stated that that Anti Zionists were like a gangrene to Israel that needed to be treated.

Clear enemies of their own people (and examples of why Yeshua warns us not to clear clergymen "rabbis"), "Rabbi" Yosef and "Rebbe" Schneerson should have at least reviewed Tanakh. Abilene clearly did, and reached the obvious conclusion: Anti Semitism sometimes just happens! Even though one Messianic community was spared in Bulgaria, Messianic Jews like Sister Edith Stein were not. Even though Zionists escaped the Holocaust, not all Zionists did—and many would have made aliyah if they could have. For example, Vilmosz Rusznak had three children—Yehoshua, Shabbati, and Fredi—with whom he could not just leave Kassa, Hungary—the worst part being, of course, that Mary Rusnak Gaydos (who I still have a hard time forgiving) knew that (and she should have understood—she had four to five young children herself [Tina was born in 1943, and the correspondence had to have begun when Iwan was murdered.]). Anusim weren't spared, either—Jozsef Foczko is an example of this (with his death date unlisted, his burial date in 1941 when then-Czechoslovakian Aranyidka was occupied, and Lo-Anusi relatives in the Lodz ghetto—do I look stupid? And if the correspondence wasn't with the Rusznaks, it was with the Foczkos—again, do I look stupid? And money for what, and from a worse-off country?).

Again, Anti Semitism sometimes just happens—and no Jew is to blame for Anti Semitism that doesn't spare even Messianic, Zionist, and Anusi Jews.

    
Abilene, Texas arrived from google.com on "The Nicole Factor: Holocaust" by searching for holocaust shadrach meshach.
13:02:04 -- 3 minutes ago

Friday, September 6, 2013

Intermarriage...Or Maybe Not

I wonder what they think of "intermarriage" when a gentile who is actually an  Anusi or Anusit marries a fellow Jew. The Nagy-Trudnyak and Korsch-Munka couple are a fine example of this. Nobody would've guessed (unless they really were paying attention or weren't in denial) that Mihaly and Anna Munkova Trudnyak were Anusim and bnei Anusim, whether or not they were "meshumadim"--which becomes a long discussion, because then the question becomes whether or not Yeshua would have led them to possible yeshuat had he not had them become Anusim ("possible" meaning that he may have led them, but whether or not they accepted is questionable. Their daughter Mary certainly did; and based on the fact that she even later said that we were Ukrainian [Great-Granddad was born in Cuman during a visit to Vil'gel'm Andrulevich in Buzhanka, and there were Trudnyakovs in Odessa.], I can safely assert that she knew that we are Jews.).

As far as the Trudnyaks, by the way, Anna's brother Ǎǔgǔstinǔs Samuel was the last one to be baptized (There is no baptism record for her, although there is one for the sister for whom she was named--given the birth date, July 27, 1888, that she gave for her own birthdate [which was a day after her sister's baptism date in 1884].). Mihaly and his sister Maria were baptized, but they were descended from Anusim Yosef Eleazar and Rosalia Dudayová and Mária Preczelmayerová, none of whom were baptized at birth.

Monday, August 26, 2013

"What's the difference between Jews, Christians, and Catholics?"

I can sadly and unfortunately tell you that a majority of Jews actually do not believe in Jesus (Hebrew, "ישוע", "Yeshua"). In fact, Jews like me are often intraethnically persecuted (e.g., told that we're no longer Jewish or even that we're actually just gentiles posing as Jews in order to proselytize and destroy Jewish souls, thus attempting to finish the evil work of the Nazis). Also, I am quite sure that this answer may even be disliked and/or reported by Anti-Messianic Jews who will attempt to slanderously portray me as Anti Semitic.

However, many (if not most) Non-Messianic Jews are tolerant of Jesus-believing (Messianic) Jews (Jewish Christians), although they disagree with Messianic Jews on whether or not there is even a literal Messiah ("משיח", "Mashiach) and/or who Mashiach is. For example, Karaites and Orthodox Pharisees (and Ultra-Orthodox Pharisees) do believe in a literal, yet-to-come (or, in the case of Menachem Mendel Schneerson's followers, yet-to-be-resurrected) Mashiach. Conservative and Reform Pharisees generally do not believe in a literal Mashiach.

Some Non-Messianic Jews, and even some Messianic Jews, are Crypto Jews ("אנוסים", "Anusim"). Many direct paternal ancestors from the 1700s-1900s became or were born to such--in fact, my dad and his parents deny that we're Jewish because (long story short) dad's paternal granddad became an Anusi when he was a baby to survive the pogroms and escape Anti Semitism in better-than-nothing America, and my dad's Anusit maternal grandmother was partly responsible for the murder of her Non-Anusi relatives who died in the Holocaust (which, for Grandma, is pretty painful to recall--she was six to eight years of age when her mother denied Vilmos Rusznak, Zoli Grinfeld, and other cousins [z'l] financial help to leave Europe and make aliyah ["עליה"]. In fact, she once snapped at my mom, "You keep your money in your own country." when Mom unknowingly and unintentionally opened that painful and reminding wound that Great-Grandma left in her daughter's soul.).

Most Anusim were or (as are my grandparents) are Roman or Byzantine Vaticanists ("Catholics", "universalists")--partly because they're in dread of the Vatican, which attempted to supersede Mount Zion with Vatican Hill because of replacementism. Some Anusim (e.g., Issac D'Israeli and Heinrich Marx) were or are Lutheran, Anglican, or affiliated with other denominations that broke away from Vaticanism. Very few Anusim are affiliated with Anabaptist or other Non-Vaticanist denominations (Even my dad, who goes to a Southern Baptist church, goes to a Southern Baptist church only because his wife is a Southern Baptist. If he were not an Anusi, he'd be a Reform Jew.).

As for Vaticanists, be sadly assured that most are not Christians. Christians (including Jewish Christians) believe in the inerrancy and infallibility of the Christian/Completed Jewish Bible (Old and New Covenants/Testaments). Vaticanists generally do not, as they tend to either believe what the Vatican says about it (as opposed to what it says for itself) or the "Documentary Hypothesis" (e.g., Non-Messianic Jews--excepting Karaites, Orthodox Pharisees, and Ultra-Orthodox Pharisees--and Vaticanists alike would agree with the words of Reform Pharisee clergywoman Amy Scheinerman--i.e., "Some institutions are considered to be a product of the cultural milieu and societal norms of the ancient Near East when the Hebrew Scriptures [i.e., the Old Covenant] were written down, and do not speak to our lives today.")

Hopefully, this clears up any confusion and specifies differences as well as similarities for you.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Wikipedia: Laughable In Smaller Matters If Not Dangerous In Larger Matters

Why I'm glad that I didn't attempt make a new account at dishonest, revisionist Wikipedia (who, e.g., considers the Nazis [National Socialist German Worker's Party] "Far Right") when I made the article on the Andrulewicz Family:

"This submission's references do not adequately evidence the subject's notability—see the general guideline on notability and the golden rule. Please improve the submission's referencing, so that the information is verifiable, and there is clear evidence of why the subject is notable and worthy of inclusion in an encyclopedia.
What you can do: Add citations (see Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners) to secondary reliable sources that are entirely independent of the subject."

Their hypocrisy and revisionism is stunning. Firstly, they talk about "references do not adequately evidence the subject's notability"--when the specifically-listed family members are clearly notable, and with two of the noted members have Wikipedia pages. Secondly, they talk about "reliable sources that are entirely independent of the subject". That would be laughable were Wikipedia not so hypocritical. Ancestry.com and Findagrave (despite their bad points) are considerable "reliable" (and FindAGrave is referenced on Teddy Andrulewicz's page), and JewishGen Genealogy is also considered (and is) reliable and without controversy. So is Yad Vashem (who accepted a submission for and lists Bronislawa Andrulewiczowna Pozniakowa, Teddy's cousin and part of the family, as clearly a victim of the Shoah--she did die in Orlinek in 1944, and Anusim as well as Openly-Jewish Jews were affected by the Shoah.).

This is the same organization who allows the Nazis to be called "Far Right" without reliable, credible, non-revisionist sources; yet they can't trust Ancestry.com (who is working on their credibly issues), FindAGrave (despite what an evil it is), JewishGen, and Yad Vashem, and records therefrom--again, would be laughable if not so hypocritical (and in the cases of the Nazis being considered "Far Right", absolutely dangerous).

By the way, I got banned for setting the record straight on the Far-Left Nazis, and giving Jews such as Eugen Kogon (Kohon) and Sergei Levitsky (Lvitsky) a chance to have their Jewishness noted, for example. That tells you what Wikipedia (which one has to take with a grain of salt at best, and be highly skeptical toward at worst) thinks of history that doesn't fit their mold, and of Jews who don't fit their mold, by the way.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

When Are They Anusim (Crypto Jews)? some Clues and Hints

  1. They have uncommon surnames. According to JewFAQ, "One reason for the frequency of German names among Jews is a 1787 Austro-Hungarian law. The Austro-Hungarian Empire, which controlled a substantial part of Europe at the time, was the first country in Europe that required Jews to register a permanent family surname, and they required that this surname be German. A copy of the decree can be found on the Polish-Jewish genealogy website, Shoreshim. This explains the frequency of German surnames in Western Europe, but it doesn't explain the frequency of German surnames for Jews in the Russian Empire, where German surnames for Jews are also common. The frequency of German family names among Russia may be due to migration from Western Europe." (http://www.jewfaq.org/jnames.htm) In Russia, surnames were not required until 1804. "In the Austrian Empire, which ruled much of southern and eastern Poland, Jews were ordered to take such names in the 1780s and ’90s; in Germany, in 1797; in tsarist Russia, in 1804." (http://forward.com/articles/13721/how-did-jews-choose-their-last-names-/#ixzz2cWvkzAwz) In order to comply, some Jews--especially Anusim--made up or took gentile or gentile-sounding names to pass at least the lines of acceptability, assimilation, etc..
  2. A gentile name doesn't necessarily mean that they are gentiles. In fact, "Jews living in gentile lands have historically taken local names to use when interacting with their gentile neighbors. Anyone with a name that is hard to pronounce or to spell will immediately understand the usefulness of this! The practice of taking local names became so common, in fact, that by the 12th century, the rabbis found it necessary to make a takkanah (rabbinical ruling) requiring Jews to have a Hebrew name!" (ibid.)
  3. Baptism records don't show up too much before 1700, if at all. In fact, for example, Slovakian baptism records "Many church books from earlier time periods were lost during the Turkish invasions and Slovak rebellions around 1600-1700. Those which carry over past the early 1900's (even though they may have begun earlier) are still located in local city halls or other institutions. The Family History Library has copies of almost all birth, marriage, and death registers for the following religions: Catholic (the majority religion), Evangelical Lutheran, Reformed, Jewish, Greek Catholic, and Orthodox. Filming of the records was done from 1991-2009. The images in this collection are from those films." (https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Slovakia_Church_and_Synagogue_Books_(FamilySearch_Historical_Records)) Also, "Starting in 1869, the civil authorities took charge of keeping records of births, marriages, and deaths, although the individual churches continued to actually record these events. The official legal copy was kept by local officials. This action was prompted when many of the clergy refused to perform Catholic rites for non-Catholics. Everyone was registered under this new system (not only Catholics or Protestants)." In fact, Andrew Rusna's granddad had to be "acquitted to marry" because his conversion was not believed to be geniune--he had to go through a dispensation to maintain his Anusi Yahadut (Crypto Judaism).
  4. Religious freedom was really nominal in any given state for at least the commoner, even in de jure terms. Also, gentiles could not convert "down", though Jews could (and often had to) convert "up". According to Wikipedia, the story of Count Potocki could not be true. "There is some evidence that the Potocki legend is an embellishment of a true story. A report published in the July 1753 edition of The London Magazine describes the story of a very similar execution. The correspondent dated his report June 11, two days after the end of the Shavuot holiday. It describes "an apostate named Raphael Sentimany, a native of Croatia", who converted to Judaism and adopted the name Abraham Isacowicz." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_ben_Abraham) Also, "Tazbir notes that the tragic fate of Potocki, passed through Jewish oral tradition, remains unconfirmed by 18th–century Polish or Jewish primary sources and that there is no evidence in any archives or genealogy tree that Potocki existed.[7] He also notes that the Polish nobility was guaranteed the freedom of faith (by acts like Neminem captivabimus and the Warsaw Confederation), and capital punishment was extremely rare.[7] "
  5. Some Ashkenazim did follow Sephardi/Biblical practice by naming their children after living relatives. Many, however, did follow Ashkenazi custom of naming children after decedents, including deceased children. This continued among Anusim.
  6. Ashkenazim were well aware of the events in Sepharad. In fact, Ashkenazim were also among the first Anusim. "The vituperation heaped on Jews by Christian ecclesiastics, and the violent methods employed by the church in the fourth century (see Jewish *History, Middle Ages), led to many forced conversions. There is clear evidence that anusim existed in the Frankish kingdoms of the sixth century, for the typical pattern of mass violence combined with threat of expulsion is already present in the mass conversion of many Jews to Christianity in *Clermont-Ferrand in 576. The almost inevitable result of the creation of a Jewish "underground" within the Christian society is also clearly visible." (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0002_0_01173.html) Also, "In Jewish sources, the term anusim is applied not only to the forced converts themselves, but also to their descendants who clandestinely cherished their Jewish faith, attempting to observe at least vestiges of the *halakhah, and loyalty to their Jewish identity. Both the elements of compulsion and free will enter the psychological motivation of the forced convert. The concept denoted by the term anusim, therefore, is fluid, bordering on that applying to apostates and even to *Marranos; it has been the subject of much discussion."
  7. Anusim often hoped that their descendants would someday return to Judaism, especially when (as they believed) Mashiach would come (since they did not generally believe that Yeshua is Mashiach). Many Biblical verses can point to this, and "Anusim and Chuetas keep traditions and have great motivation to return fully and openly to Judaism. Unfortunately, many come across the shock of official Orthodox Rabbinical Halacha as a barrier to their acceptance into Israel. When we open our gates to the Anusim and Chuetas we will see the next great Aliyah, and a massive return to Judaism." (http://israeltheviewfromhere.blogspot.com/2012/10/anusim-maranos-conversos-chuetas-secret.html) Again, this does not apply to just Sephardim Anusim. In fact, one group states their mission as "We are a group of Orthodox Jews (Ashkenaz & Sephard), "Returnees" and converts sensitive to the issues concerning return of B'nei Anusim to their ancestral heritage." () Be aware that this group is extremely Anti Messianic and even Anti B'nei Anusim in some cases--e.g., "As advocates for B'nei Anusim we facilitate Halachic Return and Halachic Conversions, rescue B'nei Anusim misled, or deceived, by Messianic Groups, and lobby for broader recongition of B'nei Anusim in Authoritative Rabbinic Groups." and "This is understood to mean that if parents do not pass down Jewish customs and traditions to their children - then by the 5th generation those descendants are considered non-Jews (even with their Jewish geneology [sic.]). In such a case, Halachic Conversion is required to be accepted back into the Jewish community - this holds true for all Jews, at all times, in all lands - not just B'nei Anusim."
  8. Look for inconsistencies in records, names, etc.. In fact, I just found that Regina Jantozonková Czarnogurskyová gave her names as "Antonizonka" and "Jantozonka" (See FamilySearch.org). Also, Andrew Rusnak's granddad borrowed "Kvetkovits" from his neighbors to use as an alias. 
  9. Look to see if they kept in contact with their Non-Anusi relatives. Sometimes, they did not because the Non-Anusi relatives were angry at the Anusi ones and sat shiva for them. In the Czernecki and Andrulewicz families, as my granduncle Tony wrote to me (though he had "serious doubts" that we are Anusim, although he basically--albeit unitentionally--gave a clue away), "Periodically a church pastor would run a heritage trip back to Poland for a group.  Very few of those who immigrated would return.  Occasionally someone "in the family" in America would join a relative for the return trip, Usually meeting the Polish or Slovak relatives for the first time and occasionally maintaining a letter writing relationship afterwards.  This DID NOT happen in our family. There was not very much correspondence with the Polish family.  Only an infrequent letter.  There were no exchanges other than through the Polish Church which would have clothing drives and send clothes to Poland in general, but not to specific family members.  Bertha's photos which came after the trips were the only contact until they asked for the deed to be changed in the mid 1960's." As for the famous "Kerry" (Kohn) family, they did (Search for a Rusznak in Budapest, and you will find that "Otto Kerry" is associated with that Rusznak--who, as far as I know, has no direct relation to us [and with "direct" meaning besides that we're related as Jews, anyway].). As for the story re Vilmosz Rusznak and Mary Rusnak Gaydos, let's just say that she betrayed his trust in any Jew who professed to believe in Jesus--one of whom he obviously wrote to as a means of last resort and per piku'ach nefesh
  10. Think about the Kerrys. They assimilated and pretended to be gentiles. Similarly, the Czerneckis, "settled among Polish, Slavic, Hungarian, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian people just like themselves.  Similar language, similar customs, similar faces, houses, churches, etc.  But life was much better than on the farm.  They were quite happy in America and much better off.  The motherland, Poland, was far off and just a memory, not to be forgotten but no regrets for leaving either." The pogroms, being rejected by family living with, and Anti Semitism in even the United States were not worth dealing with for them--they didn't want the pogroms in Polish Russia, their conversions questioned in the same, or to be called "Christ killers" in the United States (Open Jews in the U.S. did get called epiphets such as "dirty Jew". In fact, in The Color of Water, James McBride relates that his mother recalled a classmate asking her, "'Ruth, when did you become a dirty Jew?'"--and after she took the name "Ruth" to assimilate a little, since that was seen as a more-gentile name--although Ruth the Moabite converted to Judaism, but "Ruth" was seen as more gentile than "Ruchel Dwjoa Szlyska" or "Rachel Deborah Shilsky".).
  11. Remember that sometimes only one parent would become an Anusi Yehudi, or both would become Anusim for a time, go back to Judaism, or even perhaps go between Anusi and regular Judaism. Also, keep in mind that children were sometimes considered "illegitimate" when they were "legitimate" but did not have their dads backing their mom's decisions.
I could also gave plenty more clues, I think.