Remembering When, Part Seven

Looking back over what I have written, I see that I have given the impression that (for one matter) I need a ghostwriter and (for another matter) I am not a skilled author as is one such as the late F. Scott Fitzgerald (from whom I borrow the words "Looking...impression that"). Then again, unlike him, I am not making up a story based on life—I am telling a story that I could not have made up in even my wildest dreams. With the truth being told (besides that much of it has already been told), I did not know my own family's story—especially not my Czarnecki side's story.

As I talked about before I detoured over to some of Grandma's story, I was not told the real Czarnecki story at all. Let me go back to the part in which my great-grandparents were getting married, then, to explain exactly how much I did not know. I had no idea that Great-Granddad was a Jew who lived the majority of his life in Sugar Notch, Pennsylvania before he met Sugar Notch native Mary Trudniak—and I did not even know who Miss Trudniak's parents were.

The story that I had been told was this: a Pole named Anthony Czarnecki came over to the United States by himself, married Mary Trudnak, worked in the coal mines, served in the Korean War, had Black Lung, and died when Dad was 12 years old. We were also Lithuanian, presumably through Great-Grandma Czarnecki. Nothing came up about a young Anusi illegal immigrant whose parents told lie after lie on Census, naturalization, and other records to protect their Jewish identity. Nothing came up about Great-Grandma being a Hungarian-Slovakian-Polish Jew or about Great-Granddad being the one who was Lithuanian, let alone actually a Litvaker-Poliysher Yid.

Nothing came up about Great-Granddad falling in love with a believing Jewish woman and getting her pregnant—and nothing came up about the fact that the priest at the Sugar Notch church refused to marry Anthony Czarnecki and Mary Trudniak. Nothing else after that came up.

When any of the family story came up, the story was—again—that Anthony Czarnecki came over to the United States by himself, married Mary Trudnak, worked in the coal mines, served in the Korean War, had Black Lung, and died when Dad was 12 years old. Who knew that, for example, Pop-Pop was not actually Anthony and Mary Trudniak Czarnecki's first child? Who knew that Mary Trudniak Czarnecki had lost that baby two days after he was born? Who knew that Granduncle Tony was named for the lost baby 12 years after he was born? None of us great-grandchildren did—and even Aunt Mary did not know until she talked to Great-Grandma, and one can therefore presume that none of the other grandchildren knew.

As a Fosko cousin would say after he found the marriage license for me, "The return was not filed by the priest or minister, so [there was] no date or minister name to prove marriage took place"—and the Fosko cousin forgot to mention, at least in that specific comment (which is dated June 6, 2008 and is still on my Ancestry.com family tree), that the priest refused to sign the license. If the priest had not refused to sign the license, the date of the marriage and the priest's name would be there.

Also, the license filing—not the wedding—was on May 10, 1934. Furthermore (and you are welcome to do the math as I did), Pop-Pop was not born until May 25, 1936. Since Pop-Pop was conceived around August 25, 1935, two-and-a-quarter years and two weeks passed by to his conception from his parents' marriage-license filing. 

When Great-Grandma gave birth and lost her first child, she was obviously in no mood or capacity to try to conceive another child, let alone Pop-Pop, for at least six weeks—and had she known what the second child whom she would conceive would become, she may have even skipped trying to conceive him (After all, she did not remarry after Great-Granddad died—and continue to keep in mind that Pop-Pop made Granduncle Tony dread him for very-legitimate reasons, because Pop-Pop turned out like his dad and even still gives one an idea of whom Great-Grandma dreaded marrying all over again!).

So (and, as I challenged, you can do the math as I did), the real story was hidden from us great-grandchildren and even the grandchildren because the facts added up to a chillul Yehovah that had a heck of a backstory to it—that is, a Crypto-Jewish illegal immigrant who became a Polish-American Vaticanist married a Jewish Catholic woman who he had impregnated, and the story continued from there.

By the way, you may have noted that I used "Catholic" in the insert to this memoir to refer to both Granduncle Tony's wife and Grandma. You may be thinking, therefore, "You used 'Catholic' for the New Israel Fund project, but you use 'Vaticanist' for the memoir. At the same time, you use 'Catholic' for the memoir. So, what is going on? Maybe you do need a ghostwriter!"

This is a case in which I do not need a ghostwriter, since I actually very deliberately chose my wording to make a point. "Catholic" is appropriate to use for actual Catholics ("Universalists") and for the New Israel Fund project (since New Israel Fund would not understand the nuances regarding "Vaticanist"). "Vaticanist", on the other hand, is appropriate to use for most "Catholics" (including Anusi "Catholics" such as Great-Granddad), since (as I learned from, of all places, Wikipedia) Vatican Hill is why The Vatican is called "The Vatican"—in other words (as one can quickly figure out if he or she at least skims over the Wikipedia entry about Vatican Hill or the one about The Vatican, or some related entry), The Vatican tried to replace the "holy hill" (Mount Zion) with Vatican Hill. Thus, "Vaticanists" are properly called such in light of Scripture verses such as the following (from Psalm 2):

"He that sittethin the heavens shall laugh : the Lord shall have them in derision . Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion."

Also, most "Catholics" do not believe in Biblical inerrancy or infallibility, whereas actual Catholics do—and, thus, are actually part of the Catholic (again, "Universal") Church. By the way, Great-Grandma really was Catholic—as I myself remember her, she was a sweet woman who loved all of her descendants (including me and my dad's cousin Jamie, the son of Pop-Pop's brother Jim—and I have Cerebral Palsy, and Jamie is mentally disabled. She did not have to love me or Jamie, especially since being disabled in our family is being a shame to and within the family—and, as you will want to keep in mind, even the real story of how Jamie became disabled was hidden from me and the other great-grandchildren for years.). If Great-Grandma's love for her family (including, and perhaps especially, me and Jamie) did not show that she was a Catholic (at least if nothing else did), I do not know what did. 

You may have also noted that I used "P'rushi" ("Pharisee") and put terms such as "Rabbinate" in quotes. As with "Vaticanist" for "Catholic", I called "Rabbinate" for what it really is. As you may have figured out by now (at least if you know the New Testament really well), Matthew 23:8-10 (for example, "But be not ye called Rabbi...") becomes a lot more serious and pertinent to one like me when he or she has his eyes opened to his or her Jewish roots.

You might have furthermore noted that I used "Yehovah" instead of the P'rushi euphemisms such as "Adonai" and "HaShem". As Matthew 23:8-10 becomes a lot more serious and pertinent to one like me, what Scripture really calls God becomes a lot more serious and pertinent—even if (as in my case) the seriousness and pertinence are affected by evil men such as Nehemia Gordon, a so-called "Karaite" ("Qara'i", literally "Scripturalist"). As far as Nehemia Gordon is concerned, by the way, I went from wanting to learn as much as possible from Nehemia Gordon—even though he is Anti Messianic—to figuring out quickly who he was and wanting to never have anything to do with him again (and part of how I figured out who Nehemia really is has to do with the fact that I come from the family from which I come—and coming from that family entails dealing with and knowing, or at least having previously dealt with and coming to have a knowledge of, deceit and abuse of all kinds. By the way, see my YouTube video "Verbal Abuse From Nehemia Gordon And Evidence Thereof".).

Meanwhile, my family and our history (along with, among other matters, my dealings with Nehemia) prove that Genesis 50:20 and Romans 3:1-8 are also more serious and pertinent—and you will see all the more how that is the case as you continue to read this memoir. 

Remembering When, Insert (Not Part of the Memoir)

This was originally written for the New Israel Fund's "Taking Our Place" Project. It isn't part of the memoir, but it ties into it:

I don't understand how women (whether we're Messianic—e.g., Notzriot, I like am; or Lubavichiot, who boggle me with how they keep themselves out of Judaism—or Non Messianic) are kept of Judaism when women are often the ones who keep and/or rediscover the Jewishness in their families. I know that I'm one who actually rediscovered my family's roots (much to the chagrin of, and even with persecution from, quite a few of my family members), for example.

As for another instance, my great-great-grandmother Czernecki (who was of the Litvak-Poylisher "Andrulevicus"/"Andrulewicz" and "Morgevicus"/"Margiewicz" families) did everything to keep our Jewishness alive even when she, her husband, and her firstborn child (my dad's paternal granddad) became Anusim to survive the pogroms and to deal with Anti Semitism in the United States (where they had to go once their families were done with them and the other Anusim in the family). In fact, she totally flipped out when my great-granddad crushed her heart by marrying a Notzrit Jew whose parents were Anusim (She believed so thoroughly that her son was doing wrongly by marrying who she considered a koferet, she even drove my great-grandmom to almost have a breakdown.).

That same Notzrit, my great-grandmom, would follow her in-law mom's example when she stood by my great-granddad and voiced the objection of "She's Irish!" to my granduncle's marrying his Irish-American Catholic girlfriend (now his wife of over 40 years)—she wanted to see her sons marry girls with Jewish heritage (and my granddad did marry a Levite Catholic—my grandparents even named my aunt "Mary Joan" for their mothers and her mother in line with Sefardi minhag—since we do have some Sefardi heritage—, and in no way for the mother of Jesus).

Therefore, I'd be remiss to say that women ought to not be included in Judaism.

[Short Author Biography]

Nicole Czarnecki is a Patrilineal Levite who has Ashkenazi Jewish heritage on both sides of her family, and a bat-Anusim who discovered her parents' heritages (about which her dad didn't want her knowing, and about which her mom didn't know—and, sadly, doesn't care). She lives in the Diaspora and hopes to make aliyah if and when Notzrim like her will be able to do so under the Law of Return. Meanwhile, she invites you to find out more about her (including her family history) at http://www.about.me/nickidewbear.

"Remembering When", Part Six

I have been in back pain for a few days and have not been able to write. As I wrote (at least on my Stage32 wall), I had surgery in July and the pain is due that surgery—by the way, the pain has nothing to do with Johns Hopkins or any botching of any surgery (I wanted to mention that because I know that some people will make a comparison of me and my surgery to Geraldo Rivera's much-publicized recent back surgery that was botched by Health Specialty Services in New York—I am not comparing Johns Hopkins to Health Specialty Services in any way, shape, form, or whatever-else-have-you manner; nor am I even attempting to invite such comparisons.).

I also, as I recall (since I am not looking over what I have written so far right now), compared my back pain to Great-Granddad Czarnecki's pain that affected his eventual suicide. Before I get back to that (and I thought that I would, except that the back pain flared up again today—or, by Hebrew reckoning, yesterday), let me once again detour to the awful act that Great-Grandma Gaydos and Great-Great-Granddad Rusnak committed. I need to do so because I want to clear up that I blame only Great-Grandma Gaydos, Great-Great-Granddad Rusnak, and others in our family to whom Vilmos Rusnak and our other cousins in Slovakian Hungary wrote.

I have been accused of blaming Great-Grandma Gaydos' mother's family—the Foczkos—for what her dad's family (that is, she, her dad, and others on our side to whom Vilmos and his side wrote). Besides, I got to thinking about Juliana Foczkova Rusznakova (Julia Fosko Rusnak) when I heard of Nick Gillespe's comparisons of President Barack Obama to Hitler (Yemach shemo.)—and, because of the back pain and other issues, I am admittedly too lazy to go back to the story of my Czarnecki great-grandparents tonight. So, let me clarify here what I attempted to clarify on Twitter—as I was responding to the tweet from which about Nick Gillespe's comparison, and what I am about to say here are the exact words that I used on Twitter (which were, of course, originally broken up into separate tweets. Here, I also provide the actual picture to which I was referring instead of the link to it—and I repeat to my family that my use of the pictures is within my right to do, since I am part of the family and you did not copyright the pictures. 

(In fact, I will even note that I am the oldest child of the oldest child of Mary Rusnak Gaydos' oldest-surviving child who has children of his or her own at present—and I know how important hierarchy, rank, and status are to and within our family; so I am more than willing to assert familial privilege in order to make my case for my use of the pictures.

(Anyway—now that I have the familial and legal disclaimer out of the way):

I've seen others compare Barack Obama to Hitler (Yemach shemo.)—that's really going too far. I don't recall Obama committing ethnocide. Also, to compare anyone to Hitler (Yemach shemo.) without proof is insulting for those of us who lost relatives in the Holocaust. I will also concede that (at least in my family) some of us were just as sick as the Nazis (My stomach still is upset at that.). Also, as I've said, I don't know how Vilmosz's et. al.'s closer relatives forgive us—I don't. How could we have done that to them? By "we", I'm talking about my line—i.e., Mary Rusnak Gaydos and her dad (Her brothers, e.g., had nothing to do with it.).

I think that that's what may have bothered Great-Great-Grandma, too—i.e., how could her daughter and her husband do that when her sons were fighting to help people like their cousins? She died on July 5, 1945 at 58 years of age, by the way. I suspect that Isaiah 57:1-2 applied to her. 

She even (imperfectly) sent a brother away for committing adultery (As I said, imperfectly—that was unfortunately what was done in her day.). She also even refused to marry Great-Great-Granddad and come to America if she couldn't care for her widowed mother. Meanwhile, her brother Andras "Alexander" (the second-born son of Istvan and Johanna Hanzokova Foczko) stepped up to take his sister's place.

By the way, here is Great-Great-Grandma with her son Andy, since-deceased Staff Sergeant Andrew Louis Rusnak (WW2, Veteran)—who passed away on October 2, 2013, by the way (May the memory of Andrash HaLevi ben Andrash v'Aviva be a blessing.). Also, as far as Isaiah 57:1-2:

"The righteous perisheth , and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away , none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. He shall enter into peace:they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness."

Both Julia and her son Andy passed away as such at the respective times of their passings—she passed when deserved evil was getting ready to befall her husband (who died on February 9, 1947—and I do not know whether or not he ever repented of what he did to Vilmos' side of the family), and he (that is, her son Andy) passed when Alzheimer's Disease had taken him and thankfully left him unable to comprehend the tumultuous and evil times in which he had to live his last days (and may I and others join those who are asleep in Christ, the Messiah Jesus, soon). 

AncestryDNA Autosomal DNA Analysis Version 2.0 and Problems Therewith

Ancestry.com's AncestryDNA still has problems. Ancestry.com is on Version 2.0, though, to be fair. Nonetheless, part of their methodology still includes counting "nations of the former Yugoslavia—Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Macedonia"—as part of Eastern Europe (Europe East). 

Also, they count European Jews as native to Europe—"The chart above (in blue) shows that the DNA of the typical person from the European Jewish region is very unique to this region. Most people from this region have very little (if any) DNA shared with neighboring regions. However there are some exceptions to this. When we estimate ethnicity for people from this region a small minority see results showing 65% of their DNA is similar to this region."

Their methodology also includes major problems—e.g., "The next step is to estimate a customer’s ethnicity based on the DNA of the reference set of individuals, as well as the DNA of the customer. We assume that an individual’s DNA is a mixture of DNA from a set of “source” reference populations." Their reference panel includes "a candidate set of 4,245 individuals."

That's not even 0.0001% of the global population. (Divide 6,000 by 6,000,000,000,000 to get this number.). They say at the end, nonetheless, that they are improving that. "Currently, we are working to even further expand our global reference panel for future ethnicity updates. We have already begun genotyping and analyzing samples for a future update which will provide finer-grained estimates of ethnicity."

However, they did seem to confirm what I was saying about us being Jewish (Also count that other Jews have had problems being noted as Jewish by AncestryDNA), and that we may have had possible Sephardic ancestry:

By the way, "Palestine" (Israel) is erroneously counted as part of the "Caucusus". So are Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Google "AncestryDNA European Jews" and "AncestryDNA Ashkenazi Jews", by the way: you will see that other Ashkenazi Jews are having problems with AncestryDNA. Also, they continue not to match my dad up with a Fosko third cousin and a Margevich cousin:

• [Margevich Cousin]
•  Possible range: 5th - 8th cousins
•  
  Confidence: Moderate
• Last logged in Oct 6, 2013

 41 people

• [Fosko cousin]
•  Possible range: 5th - 8th cousins
•  
  Confidence: Low
• Last logged in Oct 6, 2013

 1764 people 

Remembering When, Part Five

Before I go back to my Czarnecki great-great-grandparents' story, I will quickly jump to the linchpin story that has defined Pop-Pop Czarnecki's in-law maternal family for generations—the story of how we absolutely betrayed relatives during the Holocaust and the explanation for why Grandma Czarnecki was attracted to someone like Pop-Pop in the first place—and given this story, you can say that my grandmother married the male equivalent of her mother.

Numbers 14:18 reads, "18 The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression,and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the childrenunto the third and fourth generation." If part of that was not Grandma Czarnecki's marriage to Pop-Pop Czarnecki in her case, then nothing was—if God didn't curse Great-Grandma Gaydos by putting her daughter in a chaotic marriage to Jack Czarnecki, I do not know who He has ever cursed. Besides, Pop-Pop would betray his own mother in a similar and smaller-degree way to how Mary Rusnak Gaydos betrayed her cousins.

The story was couched as follows: relatives were just asking for money during the Depression and Great-Grandma Gaydos stopped writing to them when they did that, although she sent them food. The actual story is as follows—and for right now, I am summarizing the story; but I will tell the whole story when I jump back to it later. By the way, I was infuriated when I found Vilmos Rusznak's record on Yad Vashem and figured out what the real story was—I knew that the Rusnaks were Jewish, and I was looking to see if we lost any relatives in the Holocaust; and little did I know that I would find out what Joan Gaydos Czarnecki's sister MaryAnn Gaydos tried to hide, and what their niece Janet Lewandowski Rozzi would try to defend (By the way, Janet, morality does not have a time—and those were different times, alright, and your precious grandma made them worse! How dare you defend her! Also, I will keep naming names; so rest assured, Janet, that you are not alone in being named—neither are the two aforementioned of your mother's sisters.).

Our relatives wrote to ask for financial help, and they knew that we were worse off—given that the Depression hit the U.S. harder than it hit Slovakian Hungary—but they knew that whatever we could give would still help. They knew that even though we were hit harder and poorer, American currency meant a heck of a lot more than Hungarian or Slovakian currency, and we cut them off in their time of need—we stopped writing to them after they asked for help, and we never sent one bit of food.

Meanwhile, they didn't even want to write us—we were the absolute-last resort. We had converted out of Judaism just generations before; they did not, and they were desperately reaching out to whom they considered apostate. In doing what we did, we destroyed our testimony regarding Yeshua and destroyed our cousins' lives.

By the way, Great-Great-Granddad Rusnak paid dearly for his part in betraying his cousins (They wrote to Great-Grandma Gaydos' dad, their cousin Gyorgy "Gyorgy Kvetkovits" Rusznak's grandson, as well.):

Great-Great-Granddad Rusnak died shortly thereafter, on February 9, 1947—and he died of cancer at the age of 69. By the way, whether his brother Stef really survived him (if he even actually existed, since I cannot find a baptism record for him) is unclear—even Anusim and Messianic Jews were murdered in the Shoah, and Great-Great-Granduncle Stef could have even returned to Judaism during his lifetime for all that I know (Again, I cannot find a baptism record for him, but FamilySearch had all of his siblings' baptism records.).

By the way, compare Great-Great-Granddad in 1905 and the 1930s or the 1940s to himself in 1946:









Do you see how God directly visited Great-Great-Granddad's iniquity now?

Remembering When, Part Four

Publishing the e-mail last night, I will now break it down and respond to it for more background's sake. After that, I will delve right into the so-to-speak "meat" of the memoir (Keep in mind that this is the "bread" part. Also, I have been really busy with college and post-operation recovery and rehabilitation, among dealing with other issues—many of which can be explained by what is in this memoir.). Here are the e-mail, its breakdown, and the responses:

I have serious doubts about any Jewish Family connections over in Poland.  Here's why:
     1)  Surnames were not used in Poland until about the 16th century. Before that it was the equivalent of "Joe son of the Tailor".

Even further, Ashkenazi Jews did not take surnames mandatorily until 1787-1815 (when the dividers of Poland—Austria and Hungary, Prussia, and Russia—passed surname mandates). The Czernecki family tree traces back as far as the 1840s. As Tracy R. Rich of JewFAQ states, Ashkenazi Jews are lucky to get a tree traced back past 1700; and "Jaffe" was one of the few pre-1700 Ashkenazi surnames. So was "Andrulewicz" or "Andrulevicus", and our Anusi relatives such as Kazimierz Andrulewicz took the Polish form and moved from Stakliskes, Lithuania to cities such as Bose, Poland.

     2)  The pronounciation of our surname is different in Polish.  "Czarnecki" is pronounced "Cha-nyet-ski".  The  "r" is silent, a "y" appears after the "n" ,a "t" appears between the "e" and "c" and the "cki"  becomes "ski".  They even pronounce it the Polish way in Mexico because they are trained in Eastern Europe phonics. Also, "Czar" means "black" in Polish.  Figure out the "ne" meaning and you will understand the origin - maybe.

Keep in mind that Slavs are natively light-haired, blue-eyed Whites. This was not us at all. In fact, Julian Czernecki, for example, had brown hair and blue eyes. By the way, the Facebook page "Hebrew In Israel" shows a picture of an enslaved black-haired, blue-eyed Jew. As for Alexandria's relatives, some even had brown hair and dark skin.
    
 3)  You need to spend some time on Polish Roots.org/(surname).  Notice how few Jews had our surname.  "Cki" at one point indicated royality, however, everyone started to use the "cki" (ski) after the 16th century.  There are many Roman Catholics and Polish National Catholic Czarnecki's.  These are the predominent religions.


Many Jews passed as gentiles, and even gentile nobles. Think about, for instance, the mishpacha hakohanim known as the Kerrys—who are also relatives of the so-called "Maharal", by the way.

     4)  Great Grand Pop had some relatives in the Wilkes-Barre area.  All were Roman Catholics. (at least 4 families)  There are at least 4 other Czarnecki clans in Wilkes-Barre (not related to us).  All are Roman Catholics.  Friends in the area from Poland are also Roman Catholic.  (They all would know.)

Not necessarily. Remember that John Kerry did not know that he is a kohen and a ben-Yehudah for decades on end. By the way, Great-Great-Grandma made sure that her son Antoni Jan  (later Anthony John) would not marry a believing Jewess named Mary Trudniak—though he did, anyway; and Anthony and Mary later became the paternal grandparents of my dad. 
     
5)  Your Great Grand Piop arrived in this country when he was 3 years old.  I don't believe that he would know that the family was Jewish.  The family was always active in the Catholic (Polish) church in Sugar Notch after their arrival.

He actually did. According to Granduncle Tony, Great-Granddad wanted to marry for love, as was against Old Country custom. Understanding that the Andrulewiczes were Jews and that Old Country custom involved shidduch, one can easily see why Alexandria Andrulewicz Czarnecki opposed her eldest son's wishes to marry for love: in Judaism, shidduch—marriage—has nothing to do with love, since "shidduch" means "match" or "matchmaking". Even among—perhaps especially among—Anusim, marriage for love was an unacceptable form of marriage, especially if one wanted to keep any form of halakhah. Marrying a Messianic Jewess (a "meshumadah") in Great-Granddad's case did not sit well with his Ashkenazi, Litvake-Poylische Orthodox, Anusit mother one bit—after all, for instance, her cousin Shmuil Morgovich (a maternal relative) had his death registered with the Aukštadvaris clergy; and to insult the memory of devout Jews like him by marrying a "meshumadah" was a chillul HaShem.

Also, according to Aunt Mary (who was named for her grandmothers—ironically, in accord with Sefardi and Karaite practice, as opposed to Ashkenazi practice—and not the mother of Jesus), Great-Grandma and another son of hers (not Granduncle Tony or Pop-Pop, but one of her other three sons) told her that Great-Granddad was quite abusive—thus, obviously, not very loving. By the way, women are not treated well in P'rushi ("Rabbinate", "Rabbinical"; literally, "Pharisee") Orthodox Judaism; so, you can guess from where Great-Granddad got his attitude.
     

6)  The church was the center of activity after the immigrants came from Poland.  It allowed them to keep customs alive and socialize with those who were similiar in origin and faith and helped them assimulate into life in America.  Jews would not easily fit into a Catholic society as was in Sugar Notch.

I go back to John Kerry for several reasons on this—after all, Fritz "Frederick Kerry" Kohn and Great-Granddad share several parallels. Both converted during times of Anti Semitism in Europe (Mr. Kohn in Austrian-Hungarian Czechland, Great-Granddad in Russian Pale Poland.). Both immigrated to the United States and lived as Anusim in the United States (Of course, Great-Granddad had no choice in the first 18-20 years of his life altogether, much less the first 16-17 years that he spent in America—May 16-18, 1908 to May 16-18, 1924; and he became a citizen on June 24, 1921. By then, he had the habit of living as an Anusi well ingrained into his being and his daily-living patterns. ).

Both Frederick Kerry and Anthony John Czarnecki had crises which affected the ends of their lives, and the ends of their lives were suicides—Mr. Kerry was a failed businessman who shot himself in a Boston bathroom; Great-Granddad was a depressed man with three severed-off toes on his right foot and other reasons that he used as excuses to jump off of Falls River Bridge in Exeter, Pennsylvania. Incidentally, as you should be able to tell by now, I have read up quite a bit on the John Kerry story and found how fascinatingly parallel it is to my family's story.

I just don't see a Jewish connection in any way.  Also, check out the words of the Polish National Anthem.  Antoni Czarnecki is mentioned as a Hero.
Regards, Uncle Tony

The "hero" was actually Stefan Czarniecki, who was an ardent Anti Semite. By the way, we have no family tree that traces back to him. Also, Pop-Pop later changed his story—he went from saying that we were Polish-Lithuanian Americans who were related to Stefan Czarniecki to saying (as I recall—or as I recall something like it), "If we had Jewish blood, I don't know about it."

Kol hakavod to Granduncle Tony, and he's got to learn to stop being afraid of Jack Czarnecki—though, as I said, you will understand why he is afraid when you find out what happened to Mary Trudniak Czarnecki. 

Remembering When, Part Two

I really do not feel like writing tonight, since I had a depressive breakdown. Nonetheless, I promised to write "part-by-part on (at maximum) a daily basis (minimum more than one part a day) at thenicolefactor.blogspot.com". This memoir originally began as a Stage32 project (I am not promoting them or endorsing them, by the way—nor am I demoting or discouraging them—I was invited to Stage32 and felt that I needed to write something to qualify for my invite.). Thus, my acquaintances's suggestion that my family story be turned into a book or movie already had been a suggestion to me (from me to myself, as I recall) previously—though I would have honestly delayed resuming or rewriting the memoir without his suggestion. Part of the delay would have been due to Depression.

That I have Depression is important to mention because Depression goes down the line from Great-Granddad (about whose suicide you will read later) to Pop-Pop (unless it skipped a generation, but I doubt that it did), Dad (e.g., Those pill bottles in his apartment were not just B-12 vitamins  and now I know what purpose they served.), and me. Also, Depression is nothing new to the Jewish community. As Yehovah (Blessed be He.) wrote through Moses:

"And among these nations shalt thou find no ease , neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fearday and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life: 67 In the morning thou shalt say , Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say , Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear , and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see."

(I am using the King James Version; so, Ms. Stuart would have no reason to roll in her grave could she do so.).

Ironically, I come from a Phraisee ("Rabbinate") family (See Matthew 23:8-10 for why I do not use "rabbi" or any word thereinvolving.)—so, I am not supposed to use "Yehovah". However, as I have learned, nowhere in Scripture does Yehovah say that one may not use His name altogether. My family had no interest in this, though—in fact, as my Aunt Mary told me, they did not even really have reverence toward Yehovah. As Aunt Mary described to me, her first reference to God and Jesus came from an argument between my grandparents:

"God damn it, Joan!"

"Jesus Christ, Jack! The neighbors will think you're crazy!"

Their reverence was and has been toward maintaining appearances of being a perfect, Slavic-American Roman Catholic family—at least since they became Crypto Jews (or Anusim; Hebrew "אנוסים"—"forced ones" or "hidden ones"). This might help to explain the exacerbation of the Depression in our family—and it's what led up to Great-Granddad Czarnecki's 60th and final year, beginning with him and his family when they became Anusim in Lipsk nad Biebrzą in about the year of Great-Granddad's birth. 

Remembering When, Part One

Scrapping my old family-history memoir and writing a new one, I begin with the following conversation that I had with an acquaintance. I begin with this particular conversation because it'll help you understand why Alan Jackson's "Remember When" is really my Czarnecki great-grandparents' story, and their story is (if you will) the linchpin story in my family story—that is, the story that connects the other one and really makes up my family history. Of course, I'm well aware that almost everyone (as can be seen on the YouTube version of "Remember When") could, would, or even did say that this is their story, or their relative's story, or whoever else's story. Nonetheless, you would see that (as I saw that) "Remember When" was written almost as if Alan Jackson knew my family story well before I did and even continued to probe into my family history to complete the song.

For copyright reasons (and, incidentally, part of which adds to my disdain for Ann Stuart and the Copyright Act of 1708-1710), I cannot get into a breakdown of the lyrics. However, you will be able to break down the lyrics for yourself and find my Czarnecki great-grandparents' story in them when you read their story (and, incidentally again, I guess that Ms. Stuart forgot the wisdom of another monarch—an ancient Jewish monarch by the name of Shlomo ben David—to whom I may be related, as you will find out, by the way. Also, "the wisdom of...Shlomo ben David" is actually the wisdom of Yehovah [Blessed be He.]—and I will make clear throughout that I—as many of my relatives did and do—believe that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible God in written form Himself.).

Meanwhile, here is the conversation that started the rewriting of this memoir (and it heavily indicates that my Messianic Jewish beliefs define who I am, how I view my family history, and every other factor in my life and background):

[Acquaintance—Identity Protected]

Ever been in the states?

10/4, 2:02am

Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki

Oh yes.

I'm still in them.

I was born in the Diaspora.

I plan to make aliyah as soon as Netanyahu and Likud find their government collapsed on themselves.

10/4, 2:03am

[Acquaintance—Identity Protected]

Whr is that?

10/4, 2:04am

Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki

Netanyahu and his government don't allow Messianic or Patrilineal Jews to make aliyah as Jews.

We have to call ourselves gentiles of Jewish descent or convert, and I won't do either.

10/4, 2:05am

[Acquaintance—Identity Protected]

oh i have to google this.

10/4, 2:05am

Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki

They even let Yad L'Achim infiltrate the Interior and Foreign Affairs Ministries.

Good idea.

I had to learn a lot by Googling and following the news, etc. myself.

I even had no clue that my dad is Jewish.

10/4, 2:06am

[Acquaintance—Identity Protected]

Well if your in new york holla at me. Wow yr dad??

10/4, 2:07am

Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki

Yep. He still gets mad at me for finding out. When I told him that, e.g., his paternal grandmother (Mary Trudniak Czarnecki)'s dad's maternal family (the Nagys) converted because of Anti Semitism, etc., he was like, "I don't want to go there." and "You can't ascribe motives to" why they converted.

10/4, 2:08am

Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki

Also, for years, this is the story that I got...

10/4, 2:08am

[Acquaintance—Identity Protected]

Wow girl i feel for ya!!!

10/4, 2:09am

Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki

Anthony Czarnecki, a relative or even descendant of Polish-Lithuanian szlachta Stefan Czarniecki, comes over here as an adult and marries Mary Trudniak. He serves in Korea, and--after working in the coal mines for years--dies of Black Lung in 1972.

I feel more for them. They miss the richness of our real story by denying it.

Real story, beginning with Tony (as they called him)...

10/4, 2:10am

[Acquaintance—Identity Protected]

hhmmmm allot of rich history; shouldbe made into a book.

10/4, 2:11am

Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki

I tried to do that for a while, actually. Once I can put more of the story together (Oy vey!), I'll pick up writing it down back up.

10/4, 2:12am

[Acquaintance—Identity Protected]

So go back into it might even turn out to be a movie!!

10/4, 2:13am

Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki

It could be. I have thought about that.

Especially since my last Fosko-Rusnak great-granduncle (of blessed memory) just died.

10/4, 2:14am

[Acquaintance—Identity Protected]

Don't waste time, move with the spirit and put ypu heart and soul into it. You have a gold mind here!!! What you waiting for??

your

10/4, 2:15am

Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki

Point taken. You're right.

I gotta figure out where to get started.

10/4, 2:16am

Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki

Anyway, beginning with Tony: a Czernecki boy was born in Cuman, Poland (Tsuman, Ukraine) to a Jewess from the Andrulevicus (Andrulewicz, etc.) family on October 24, 1904. The Jewess, Aleksjondria Andrulewiczowna Czernecka was en route to or from visiting a cousin, Vil'gel'm Andrulevich, in Buzhanka, Zvenigorodka (Buzhanka, Cherkas'ka) when she gave birth. Then came the pogroms, and Aleksjondria and her husband, Julian Jan "Feliks" Czernecki (whose birth names are actually unknown), converted themselves and their son "Antoni Jan" (as he became). Needless to say, their families were pissed and done with them...

10/4, 2:17am

[Acquaintance—Identity Protected]

Start where it hurts!! Im a filmaker.We have a thing we say in the field the first 10 minutes should be shocking to the viewer.

10/4, 2:18am

Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki

They joined other Crypto-Jewish family over in America. As my granduncle Tony put it (and I love that he wrote this, not knowing that I suspected that we are Jews):

I don't know who came with the group to America. It seems that there were only a few family members and friends. These people mostly settled in NE PA. Your Great Grandfather had a few cousins living within 50 miles of Wilkes-Barre but none that were mentioned living in Patterson, NJ. The Patterson family may have, in fact, moved to PA at or after the same time as them. There were several "friends" in Sugar Notch and the area that would periodically return to Lisco Poland to visit family and mail was occasionally received by them from family in Poland. One of the friends who lived in Sugar Notch would bring pictures of Great Grandpop's family to share with him. Since he left at a young age, he didn't recognize anyone but as I recall they all had names of the people in the pictures on the back.

The move from Poland was permanent. There was never any talk of returning. Not even for a visit. After moving to Sugar Notch the family flourished economically. Julian & Alexandria eventually owned houses at 203, 205, and 207 Freed Street. They lived in 207 and sold 205 to Son, Joseph and 203 to Son, Anthony(great grandpop). All the boys worked at first in coal mine related jobs.

I never seen nor did anyone mention anything special brought from Poland. A friend from Sugar Notch, Mrs. Bertha Wawrzyn, visited Poland every few years to see her family and would visit the family while there. All she ever brought back were photos that she took of the Polish Czarnecki's (see earlier comments).

There was very little discussion of the Polish life and family. Usually, when there was, it was a brief mention of the farm that was left behind. There did not seem to be any regrets about leaving for a better life. After all , they 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.

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.

10/4, 2:19am

Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki

That's only part of the e-mail. But we didn't write and they didn't write. Once the Holocaust was over and they made aliyah, they wrote to us only to ask for the farm back. Otherwise, all contact was done through Bertha.

To them, they wanted nothing to do with us. We were minim (heretics), koferim (apostates), and meshumadim (baptized koferim).

10/4, 2:20am

[Acquaintance—Identity Protected]

yes a book!!

10/4, 2:21am

Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki

Will do, and thanks for the encouragement.

10/4, 2:21am

[Acquaintance—Identity Protected]

anytime!

10/4, 2:21am

Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki

Meanwhile, both the Foskos (Foc(z)kos and Rus(z)n(y)aks) were Levites.

10/4, 2:22am

[Acquaintance—Identity Protected]

yea?

10/4, 2:23am

Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki

The great-granduncle was Staff Sgt. Andrew Lewis ("Levi's"?) Rusnak (I just realized that. I think that he changed it to "Louis".).

That's a long story, too.

So, Grandma's a Maternal Levite, and I have no clue what Pop-Pop is.

All I know is that Dad is a Maternal Levite, maybe of kohen descent.

10/4, 2:24am

[Acquaintance—Identity Protected]

Wow i want to chat wit u in vid sometime we talk more deeply about this.

10/4, 2:25am

Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki

The kohenim would be the Dudays ("Dudaj" or "Duday" means "horn" in Hungarian and could allude to shofars.).

Ok. That'd be cool. And thank you for listening to my story, by the way.

10/4, 2:26am

[Acquaintance—Identity Protected]

anytime babe

10/4, 2:27am

Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki

Thanks.

Have a good night, and thank you again.

10/4, 2:27am

[Acquaintance—Identity Protected]

you to lets talk again around sun if its good 4 u?

10/4, 2:53am

Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki

That'd be great.

(By the way, I have a Facebook page and a separate Facebook account for my public work and other public activities—I urge family to reach out to me on my private account. Also, good luck to the family who want to sue me—nothing that I have stated is untrue or even uninferable; you did not copyright our family history or the pictures that you provided, and I am as much a part of our family or families as you are. As Dad, of all people, told Pop-Pop, "You can't change history".)