A Reflection Re "Heaven, 9/11 Memorial Version"

I can only imagine how, I suppose to a similar extent, my paternal grandfather's father and living siblings felt on September 11, 1922 and subsequent days. From what I understand, my great-great-granddad Julian Czarnecki was absolutely no hero—or if he was one, his bad facets outweighed his good ones. Nonetheless, his death must've really weighed on my great-granddad and his living siblings (one of whom would follow her father only slightly over 2.75 years later).

Great-Granddad was going to be 18 that October (and to compound the worst matters in his life, he turned 25 on a day on which a 25th birthday would not be joyous to anyone—Black Thursday). So on that birthday (and subsequent birthdays), he had to remember the loss of his father (with whom he had a conflicted relationship—or at least I'd be surprised if he didn't have a conflicted relationship with him—and subsequent birthdays would become even worse as the years passed and worse events kept happening—in fact, his 35th birthday had the fresh pain of Black Thursday's 10th anniversary and the only-almost-two-months old invasion of Poland).

As for Great-Granddad's youngest sibling, she wasn't yet even nine months old when Great-Great-Granddad died—and the oldest surviving one had, if you count 13 as the bat-mitzvah age, become a bat-mitzvah that year (and she was the one whom followed Great-Great-Granddad into death on June 23, 1925).

At least none of them were around to see 9/11. However, my great-granddad's widow—to whom he was quite abusive, and with whom she obviously had a conflicted relationship—was, and so were four of his five children (One died seven hours after birth, right before the 10th anniversary of his aunt Regina's death.). While I do not know whether my great-grandma ever met her father-in-law or her sister-in-law Regina, I know that she was well aware that September 11th always carried pain for my great-granddad—as carried every October 24th, and not just because of the September 11th before his 18th birthday—and both were born in Jewish homes (he in Anti-Semitic Polish Russia, she in an Anusi home in Ashley-Hanover Township, Pennsylvania) and raised in Anusi homes, and they thus knew the pain of every passing September 11th (on which Great-Great-Granddad may not have died had his family not disowned him for becoming an Anusi) and October 24th.

I can only imagine how the pain of every other September 11th hit her on 9/11, and I never did ask her because I didn't know our family story—not even that we were and are Jews—not to mention that I saw her only once every year from some time in the 90s until 2005, and I was dealing with an abusive dad (It's like the Passover question that the fourth child doesn't ask—he or she doesn't ask because he or she doesn't know how to ask or maybe even to ask at all.).

I wonder what she thought—or at least would've thought—if she heard this song—I also wonder the same about Pop-Pop (whom was sadly, as Granduncle Tony stated, "Like father, like son.") and Granduncle Tony (whom unexpectedly died on July 31 2014, three days after what would've been his mother's 101st birthday). I also certainly wonder what Great-Granddad would've thought and what Granduncle Red (Francis "Red" Czarnecki, whom died in 1985) would've thought (BTW, he was called "Red" because of his red hair—which, as I later found out, is, so to speak, a dead giveaway of if someone is Jewish in Poland, as is Brown hair for someone whom's a Brown-haired Jew, as Ethnic Poles are indigenously light-haired and light-eyed).

Re Weddings Outside Of Shuls, Etc. (Nothing New To Those Whom've Read About & Know My Family History)

I think that that's similar to or exactly what happened with my dad's paternal grandparents (I've yet to find or see the Non-Catholic license, though). They never got their Catholic marriage licensed signed, and Great-Granddad was by no means an actual Catholic: he and his parents were Anusim due to the pogroms and Anti Semitism in the U.S..

Great-Grandma (z"l) was, however, and she and her parents were B'nei Anusim and Anusim. Her mother's parents (Samuel and Rosalia Korschová Munka) converted to avoid Austrian-Hungarian Anti Semitism, and her dad's ancestors (e.g., the Schwarzenbergs turned Czarnogurskys) converted to avoid both Polish-Lithuanian-and-encroaching-Russian and Hungarian Anti Semitism. By the way, both of Dad's paternal grandparents had Sephardic heritage; and, for example, Great-Grandma's matriarch Helena Dudayová was born a Legrádyova.

Also another sidenote: as I think about Great-Grandma, I feel verklempt. If one had met her even once or twice (and I saw her almost every time, if not every time, that I was up in Luzerne County for Dad's mom's family reunion), she'd've been one of the relatives that he or she would have respected the most. She was literally, as I recall, one of the only ones at the time whom treated me—since I have Cerebral Palsy, and her grandson Jamie, whom also has Cerebral Palsy and developmental disabilities—with as much love and respect as she treated her other great-grandchildren and grandchildren.

From what I hear of my great-granddad, on the other hand and as my granduncle Tony shockingly told me when I said something about my dad and granddad, "Like father, like son." I will never forget that Granduncle Tony wrote that, meanwhile, especially since he normally didn't cross Jack Czarnecki openly (and if you knew my grandfather. you might've been tempted to not stand up to him). Other people talked about how awful Great-Granddad was as well; and I've seen pictures of my dad when he was younger and around Great-Granddad, and you could tell that he did not like him if you'd seen the pictures.

One even had the caption "Doesn't seem to upset at his Grandfather Czarnecki". Dad covered up that part of the caption when he scanned it in and sent it to me.

Watergate Looks Like A Koi-Garden Fence Compared To Trump

I've said this on Twitter, and I will say it again here: Watergate was not as bad as Trump is! 

At that time, we had IRS Agents to help bring him down—and my granddad was one of those three IRS Agents whom served tax papers to Nixon via his attorneys in 1973. This time, we—unless יהוה wills otherwise—won't have any IRS agents to help bring tax-fraud Trump down. 

We also—unless יהוה wills otherwise—won't have my grandfather, whom—unless יהוה wills otherwise—despite that he was a shanda for the goyim in many other ways—unless יהוה wills otherwise—was a Jew whom did not like Anti Semites. Remember that he himself an Anusi, since his parents were b'nei Anusim—and his father was a pogrom survivor, since his parents became Anusim to survive the pogroms when he was two or three years old. 

Also keep in mind that he came here in 1908 with his mother to join his father, and all of them remained Anusim for their entire lives—and that my granddad followed in his footsteps—not to mention that my granddad was the same Jack Czarnecki whom begrudgingly admitted that we're Jews after pretending that we are related to the notorious Anti Semite Stefan Czarniecki for years: "If we had any Jewish blood, I don't know about it," as he suddenly changed his years-of-denial tune in our final phone conversation.

Meanwhile, I'm not sure what he'd do now—he died in 2013—I'm guessing that he'd harden his resolve to deny that we're Jews. After all, 1936-2013—with 1973-1974 in between that 77-year timespan—is a long time to hide and deny that we're Jewish, isn't it?

My New Book And The Controversy That Is—Or At Least That Will Be—Behind It

In fact, I include the following in the introduction to both the Kindle edition and the regular one:

"On my blog and in other forums, I’ve written about this—and so, it’s nothing new. That is, I’ve discussed what my father’s maternal grandmother—Marysia Elizabeth “Mary” Rusnak Gaydos—and her father—András “Andrew Rusnak” Rusznak—did during the Sho’ah to family members back in Košice, Slovakia—which was still Kassa, Magyarország even in the 1930s and 1940s.

"I certainly did not wake up one day and think, “Oh; I’m going to accuse my great-grandmother of sending relatives to Auschwitz and make up a story around it.” That’s not even the kind of incident that I thought would’ve even happened in my family (which already had—and has—our own issues), though I shouldn’t have been (as my dad’s sister stated that she wasn’t) surprised—after all, a few red flags should’ve come up."

I also include part of the reason that I wrote the book in the final chapter:

"[H]istory repeats itself, and the bad parts of history really repeat themselves because of those whom:"1.     ignore or deny history
"2.     go out of their ways to defend what evils happen in history
and/or
"3.     even actively repeat it, or go out of their way to do worse than what happened the first time
 "I guarantee that some of these same relatives whom voted for Trump may also plan to leave the United States if the going gets tough and they don’t want to live with their choices—despite that they know that Trump illegitimately won by, for example, having Vladimir Putin and Julian Assange help him—and quite a few of them might even blame those of us whom weren’t able to get out."

I thus fully anticipate that some of my family will be angry and even ready to sue me—and those who'd consider suing would've had that idea before; so, I'm not giving them the idea to consider doing what they might consider doing, anyway—the higher good of learning from and teaching others to learn from history carries the risk of ligitational backlash.  

Nonetheless, I have a duty to remind my family and others of the following for the higher good:

That what was happening 80 years ago—when the Nuremburg Laws were enacted against Jews and almost every gentile group in Germany, and when my grandparents were born—is happening today is scary and not funny—and I don't think that my grandmother anticipated making it to 80 years old just to see Donald Trump become a Neo ****** and be at the kind of risk at which her family in Europe was, and the risk that all of us are at now.

I Will Not Register As A Muslim—And I Won't Pass, Either

As the old saying goes, we've "been there [and] done that"—we passed during from the later 1700s until today; some other branches of the family did the same, and (even though I'm a Jewish Christian) passing for gentile to me is as good as returning to Crypto Judaism was for my great-great-grandparents—even though God used the non ideal for the ideal, it still didn't work in the end for them. Given that their parents were Orthodox ba'alei teshuvah, they might as well have stayed Orthodox—their cycle ended up being Orthodox -> Anusim -> ba'alei teshuvah -> Anusim.

In terms of my family being known as Ethnically Jewish—whatever anyone thinks of those of us whom are Jewish Christians—it's come full circle, at least for me: especially because I'm a Christian, I'm not passing for gentile—and I defy Trump to drag me to "the ashbin of history" in the name of whatever Jesus he worships, because it's not the One whom he's never asked for forgiveness.

Part Of My Take On Trump's 2016 "Win"

I don't know why, e.g., Ignacy and Feliksa Andrulewicz went back to Warszawa (though they were from now-Podlaskie Province), but maybe they made a right call. Maybe they foresaw something that Aleksjondria (z Andrulewiczόw) and Julian Czerniecki did not.

I say this as a Jew in dread for my life right now. Given that David Duke, e.g., is excited about Trump's victory and what many Never Trumpers have been saying will come to pass unless God delivers us, I am trying to figure out what to do.

At least:

1. I wrote in Kasich.
2. I was born and grew up in a country where I could—at least for a time—vote for whomever I wanted to vote.
3. I may be able to make the aliyah that Aleksjondria and Julian did not get to make—as immigrating to "Palestine" really wasn't on their minds at the time that they became Anusim to avoid being murdered in pogroms. Julian's parents were Anusim whom became ba'alim teshuvim, and Aleksjondria's parents permanently settled in Bosse after tuberculosis claimed a Morgovich relative in Stakliškės in April 1882—two months before Aleksjondria was born—considering all that, then, they had enough of a time becoming Anusim and immigrating to Pennsylvania after their families sat shiva for them. By the way, they continued to be Anusim when they joined kerovot whom were Anusim there—perhaps maybe they did foresee someone Anti Semitic winning Pennsylvania, then, and they knew to at least some extent how American politics worked—by the way, Julian's niece Katherine Chokola (z"l) had in-law family who,m were beer brewers and politicos.

I could write more, I suppose—by the way, maybe this part of why I didn't find out that I'm Jewish until later: i.e., having my faith in Jesus established first and then finding out that I'm Jewish, I got a whole new angle on what being a bat-Anusim and Jewish Christian is like. In other words, I may have had, e.g., a different perspective on the Trump "election" had I found out that I'm Jewish at a different time and/or not had my faith established in Jesus.

Meanwhile, some in my own family disappointingly voted for Trump—I can say that at least I didn't allow history to be lost on me. 

Whenever I See A Bad Headline Regarding St. Louis And Vicinity...

I always hope that it does not involve an Andrulewicz in a negative way. For example, the main thought in my head when I read about a Missouri State Senator whom sat down during the Pledge of Allegiance was, "At least she's not an Andrulewicz." As I told a cousin on another side of the family, "The main thing that I can think: at least she's (as far as I know) not an Andrulewicz. I would be highly disappointed if she were." 

I can't guarantee that the State Senator—whom is African American—does not have Andrulewicz blood, she's a shanda fur die goyim and if she does have Andrulewicz blood—after all, the Andrulewiczes (both the Anusim and the openly-Jewish ones) did not come here to express a "**** you" sentiment about the Pledge of Allegiance or the National Anthem.

According to Granduncle Tony, of blessed memory, Julian and Alexandria Andrulewicz Czarnecki:

"There was no special items from Poland that were kept by the family that I know of.  They came with little and acquired everything they had in America.  Over the years all traces of Poland disappeared.  They were now AMERICANS and wanted to be known as such.  The Polish heritage was maintained through Church and their friends in the community..."

Even in the midst of pretending to be Poles and Roman Catholics, Julian and Alexandria Andrulewicz Czarnecki were proud Jewish Americans—and one of their sons died from his injuries in World War Two, though he has yet to get even a posthumous Purple Heart. As for other Andrulewiczes, for example, Joseph Anthony Andrulewicz was KIA in World War Two; and Thomas Bernard Andrewlevich and Jacob Andrulewitz were wounded.

Therefore, I only hope that the Missouri State Senator who kneeled during the Pledge Of Allegiance was not an Andrulewicz whom would disgrace the family name—and a Koheni one at that.

A Darker Side Of D-Day

D-Day came too late for many Jews and others whom were trapped in Nazi and Soviet Europe. One of them was one of the Andrulewiczes, Antoni Andrulewicz (חנניה בן יוחנן הכוהן אנדרולוביץ, ז''ל והי''ד). 

According to what Ogrodywspomnien.pl cited, he was "arrested" (read "kidnapped"), "held hostage in the Suwalki prison" for almost three months (March 13-June 6, 1944), and murdered by asphyxiation with other victims of a "mass execution" (read, quite frankly, "mass lynching"), and put into a mass grave at the murder site.



Remember that not all Sho'ah victims fit the profile of the oft-described Sho'ah victim—and certainly, not all lived to be victims whom became liberated survivors. Because he was a ben Anusim, he (like other bnei Anusim in Non-Hispanic Europe) got overlooked (despite that Anusim and bnei Anusim were not only in Iberia and not only during the Spanish Inquisition). Also, an account from another Andrulewicz—Boleslaw Andrulewicz—makes quite clear that the Andrulewiczes were not counted as Poles; and there is no record of any Andrulewicz ever smuggling or helping smuggle papers or ration cards—in fact, one Andrulewicz kept under the radar of the Nazis and the Soviets by moving from parish to parish in Lithuania with constant and seemingly-chaotic movements between 1938 and 1948.

As has been said, ****** didn't care whether Jews were Rabbinical, Karaite, or Non-Rabbinical and Non-Karaite Jews; and many continue to leave millions of those whom were counted for murder out of the count of those whom are to be remembered ("[B]ut for Thy sake are we killed all the day; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."). 

Even 72 years after D-Day, only 6-11 Million victims of the Sho'ah (not counting the gentile ones) are counted and remembered for a blessing; and Stalin, despite that he had his equivalent of a "Final Solution", is remembered as part of the Yalta Three whom led the armed forces that liberated Jews from Auschwitz and other murder ("concentration") camps (and lets be clear: the "concentration" camps were not designed to be anything but murder camps). 

Even 72 years later, then, Israel is still not even remotely close to liberated from the Nazis—how can Israel even begin to be liberated when his murdered sons and daughters are still not fully counted and what he endured in, e.g., murder camps is minimized? 

Re: Krempasky/Kremposky of Smithfield, Haydentown PA [Re A Query On Ancestry]

We're a clan; that's for sure. The first baptism records show up for us in the late 1600s (1688, 1691, and 1698 per FamilySearch). Our surname is, according to Ancestry, "Czech or Slovak (Krempaský): descriptive nickname from krepy ‘squat’, ‘square-built’." We're not nobility or anything, though; and records are fairly scant for us (for the four main surname variants, 7,498 on Ancestry and 7,189; so, the surname in this case has to be simply lingual and not connected to ethnicity, etc..

I grant that, e.g., the Roman Catholic Church stopped releasing records to the LDS in 2009 or thereabouts over attempts to baptize decedents; what's online is updated over time, etc.. Still, "Krempasky" and variants are not connected to nobility, Czech or Slovakian ethnicity, etc.. The big clues are these:

1. Again, scant records despite updates, etc.. How long has Ancestry/FamilySearch/the LDS been doing what they do, by the way?
2. You state, "Nothing was really handed down to us ". That's going to be a really-big clue.
3. Somehow, the Krempaskys et. al. all ended up in pretty much the same areas, whether or not the stick-together schtick was intentional.

There are other factors, though look at these:

1. https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2013/10/12/ten-years-later-revelation-john-kerry-ancestry-has-new-chapter/89pyoQEfOJs8PqvazCYqHO/story.html
2. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/16/us/kerry-s-grandfather-left-judaism-behind-in-europe.html?_r=0
3. http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-desperate-plight-of-the-bnei-anusim/?fb_comment_id=10151241725430620_33775847
4. https://www.geni.com/projects/Sephardic-and-Crypto-Jews-of-New-Mexico/18121

My own branch of the Krempaszkys—through Rosalia Czarnogurskÿová Krempaszkÿová—became Czarnogurskÿs, with one variant of their surname being Czarnogorsky. Doing the research, etc., you find quite quickly that they were originally Schwarzbergs, Schwartzenbergs, etc. whom became Anusim (Crypto Jews) and Slavicized their name at some point (See FamilySearch for quite a few of the variants, etc. ). Perhaps they even carried it over as a Sephardic surname which later became an Ashkenazi surname—I have read about this, and this happened on my Andrulewicz side unless we dropped our original name and eventually took up a new one when we came to Poland and Lithuania (The Andrulevič[i]uses are kohanim, by the way.).

Mária Krempaszkÿová married a Jákob Trudnyakov (Trudnyak when we inherited it. Sadly, an Odesa, Ukraine branch of the Trudnyakovs was affected directly by the Holocaust.); Mihály Trudnyak married Mária Nagyová (a granddaughter of Rosalia Dudayová Nagyová , whose father's family used "Duday" as a kinnui for "Kohen" and mother's family were of the Sephardi Légrádis. Mária's maternal grandmother was Elizabetha Levaiová Nagyová.).

Mária Krempaszkÿová Trudnyaková's grandson through Mihály was also Mihály. In Sephardic custom, this naming custom is used; and Mária, by the way, as a variant of "Miryam" is fine among Ashkenazim, as a late cousin's grandnephew told me. The younger Mihály Trudnyak, meanwhile, did not name his first daughter Mary (Neither was his first sister named "Mária": she was named "Aurelia Zsuzsana".).

The younger Mihály Trudnyak also married a child of Anusim, a daughter of Sámuel and Rosalia Korschová Munka. Her name was Anna Amalia Munková, and she—unlike her sister Anna Amalia, for whom she either was named or took her own name—was left unbaptized (Samuel and Rosalia baptized no girls after their daughters Paulina, whom died in 1887, and the first Anna Amalia, whom died just shy of her first birthday, died. The final child whom was baptized, Augustinius Samuel Munka, was baptized in September 1887, months after Paulina died.).

Mihály and Anna became Michael and Anna Monka Trudniak (also "Trudnak"). Mary Trudnak married the oldest child of Alexandria Andrulewicz Czerniecki, Anthony John Czarnecki (Czerniecki by birth). Needless to say, as I found out, Alexandria (from a Litvish family), was unamused: as I figured out from what I heard, etc., she deplored that her son would marry for love (Granduncle Tony said that, that was the reason.) and not through shidduch (Granduncle Tony talked about how parents chose in the old country. I figured out that, that meant going through shidduch [matchmaking].).

Alexandria also deplored that Mary Trudnak was a Believing Jew, and a Believing Jew whom was a daughter of Anusim! Great-Grandma really was a Believing Jew, by the way: while I didn't know that we're Jews until much later (and that's a long story!), I do remember that she was a believer, and the example of her being a believer that sticks out to me is from when my dad's family was up in Luzerne County for his mother's annual family reunions and would go visit Great-Grandma each year.

Every time that we visited, she treated me (one of her son Jack's granddaughters) and Jamie (her son Jim's son) as equally as the other grandkids and great-grandkids there; and since Jamie and I each have Cerebral Palsy (and Jamie's is much more severe and was not present from birth), that really sticks out to me. She was also a quiet and frail elderly woman (Much of the frailty had to do with years of abuse that worn her down later, as I figured out.).

I hope that this helps, even if it just gives you a lens on it from my side of the family/clan/mishpacha [family]/beit-mishpacha m'Yisra'el [house of a family among Israel].

PS Great-Granddad's families were also Anusim (on our branches, anyway), as our Grandma's families (again, on our branches, anyway). I forgot to mention, and I should mention, that "Krempasky" could have even been borrowed from neighbors or other people—Grandma's Rusnak family, for example, somehow borrowed "Kvetkovits" when Gyorgy Rusznak became an Anusi. 

Why I Do What I Do As A (Hopefully-To-Be-More-Than-Aspiring) Commentator, Etc.

I saw that (who I think is) a relative liked one of my posts on my public Facebook page. See; that's part of why I do what I do, too—to bring my families and families like mine back into the fold of Israel​. Mind you, I am not asking anyone to convert back to Rabbinical Judaism—whether you're Messianic or not is your schtick.

Frankly (and I've said this before), I wouldn't care about my Jewish heritage if Jesus (Yeshua) weren't in my life—or, on the other hand, I'd, with all due respect, end up Reform Jewish—and I myself cannot abide by a doctrine that states:

"[T]he texts are certainly divinely inspired and reflect our ancestors' best understanding of God and their covenant with God, as well as their view of God's will, but that is not the same as being divinely-authored."

I've even said that my own father would be Reform were he honest with himself (and he would; trust me), and other relatives (e.g., certain Daniloviches) have gone this way (and they weren't even among the kevorim whom were Anusim).

(By the way, I can assure that the URJ's position does not reflect the position of all Jews in the city in which I was raised; and I apologize for Rabbi Scheinerman on behalf of Columbia-born and -raised. Whatever any of us think of the Talmud, quite a few of us believe in the Torah m'Sinai.)

I don't want especially anyone in hamishpachot b'mispachah Yisra'el sheli to think that:

1. We ought to disown Yeshua just because we're Jewish and b'nei-Anusim.
2. We ought to disregard our Jewish heritage because of Yeshua.
3. We have no obligation to the rest of Beit Ya'akov. 
4. We have to assimilate.
5. We have any obligation to keep Torah, since it was fulfilled. 

There do not need to be any false mutual exclusions, let alone false dichotomies. As I said, then, part of why I do what I do, too is to bring my families and families like mine back into the fold of Israel​ without forcing them to give up or to accept Yeshua.

My Dad's Paternal Family As a Mix of Anusim and B'nei Anusim, &c. (aka, A Summary For Those Whom Did Not Already Know)

My own family is a mix of Anusim and B'nei Anusim. Some of us are, admittedly, Jewish Christians, and we have become more sensitive to the way that we talk about our faith, etc.—at least I have, since my finding out about my heritage gave me some insight into where to draw lines, explained quite a bit of why, e.g., my family's Christmases and Easter were almost entirely secular in nature, and religious only in a going-through-the-motions way; &c.—c.q., trust me when I say that "The Night Before Christmas" was way more emphasized than the New Testament account of Jesus (if that was even talked about at all except for the going-through-the-motions wafer ceremony at dinner. As I found out later, the Catholic stuff was "tradition" and not at all out of any religious belief.).

Some of us, though, are in denial about our heritage 　. My dad, who'd even been somewhat open to (if he didn't already about our heritage) accepting (or begrudgingly admitting) our heritage (as his dad implicitly did in his final days after years of denial), eventually became hostile to the fact that he we are Jewish. He called it "Jewish crap", too 　.

As for my paternal granddad's paternal grandmother, e.g., she was furious when (as I heard and came to understand) my great-granddad married my great-grandmother, who was a very-committed Jewish Catholic and bat-Anusim. She did not believe in marriage for love, since she came from a family where shidduch was the minhag; and she was unthrilled that her son was marrying a Jesus-believing Jew. After all, she didn't become an Anusit during the pogroms, endure being cut off from her family, and have to live as an Anusit in the United States for her son to marry a, in her eyes, meshumadah.

The Jesus picture was more of Great-Grandma's idea, and the secular aspects in every holiday were way more emphasized. BTW, Dad (left) eventually became one who'd be Reform Jewish were he honest with and for himself.

As with above, the Jesus picture was more of Great-Grandma's idea; and the secular aspects in every holiday were way more emphasized. BTW, I found out later that my granddad (left) used to fall asleep in the back of the church from my aunt Mary (on my great-grandmother's lap. She was also the one who was told to choose between church and Christmas dinner during Christmas because "It's tradition" or something like that. "Tradition" was definitely the word that used, though. BTW, my aunt Mary was named for her grandmothers [the paternal one of whom was not the first daughter of her parents, I should note], not the mother of Jesus; and we have Sephardic heritage.)

Short Biography Pfc. Bernard "Bernie" Stanley Czarnecki, U.S. Army 111th Infantry Division Medical Corps (WW2, DOW)

(As originally written for and sent to family friends)

Born in Sugar Notch, Pennsylvania on March 15, 1920, Bernard Stanley Czerniecki was the youngest son of Ashkenazi Crypto-Jews Julian and Alexandria Andrulewicz Czerniecki. Entering the United States Armed Forces shortly before he turned 21 years old, Bernard (now Bernard "Bernie" Stanley Czarnecki) served in the 111th Infantry Division Medical Corps of the United States Army for exactly five years—from December 12, 1940 to December 12, 1945. Bernie enlisted shortly before his brothers Edward ("Ed")—who enlisted on January 21, 1943—and Joseph ("Susi")—who enlisted on February 17, 1941—did (Incidentally, Bernie either re-enlisted on the same day as Susi enlisted or did not have his original enlistment recorded until the day that Susi registered.).

Having received a shrapnel-effected wound in combat, Bernie underwent surgery to remove the shrapnel. Given that the surgery was botched, Bernie was discharged from the Army at the Newton D. Baker General Hospital in Martinsburg, West Virginia. From Baker Hospital, he moved to the Veterans' Affairs Housing and Hospital complex in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Living at the VA Housing and Hospital complex in Lebanon for the rest of his life, he succumbed to his received-in-combat injuries on July 16, 1963 in the VA Hospital in Lebanon.

He died of Schizophrenia and a Coronary Occlusion as a result of his battle wars at 6:30 AM EST in the VA Hospital on that July 16th. Having an autopsy performed on him by Dr. A.H. Heisey of Quentin, Pennsylvania, he was not received by his family and the George Strish Funeral Home in Ashley, Pennsylvania until July 20th. Once he was received, he was buried in Holy Family Cemetery in Sugar Notch.

Pfc. Bernard "Bernie" Stanley Czarnecki, then, was:

1. One of the Nazis' post-war victims of the Holocaust. Since Bernie came from a Crypto-Jewish family, he—along with his brothers Ed and Susi, along with his other family members—was a target of the Nazis solely on account of his Jewish heritage.
2. An unrecognized Jewish-American soldier of World War Two. Whether he even received a Purple Heart is unknown, and he has nobody who the Department of Veterans' Affairs considers to be a next-of-kin family member who may claim.
3. A Jew who had to go through the additional agony of having an autopsy performed on him—since Jewish tradition forbids autopsies except for in cases when the law and/or extenuating circumstances require that an autopsy is to be performed on the Jewish decedent in question.*

*All information comes from documents that were found on Ancestry.com, Bernie's nephew Anthony "Tony" John Czarnecki, Jr. (1946-2014) and other family sources, and prior knowledge. 

147 Years Ago Yesterday, And The Disastrous Effects Which It Affected

On November 2, 1877, a newborn boy named András Rusznák was baptized. András was apparently just another Slovakian boy being baptized in Zlatá Idka, Slovakia (then Aranyida, Ausztria Magyarország) on, of all days, All Souls' Day. So, he allegedly was a newborn boy of Slovakian ethnicity being baptized on a special day. What's the big deal, then?

The big deal is this boy was neither a Slovakian ethnic or a real recipient of the Sacrament of Baptism. Speaking of souls as well, his parents' souls were not even into baptizing him at all. Furthermore, they themselves were נשמות אנוסים—forced souls. They weren't even there in Aranyida to be there.

They were there because they, Jakub and Marysia "Maria" Nováková, were בני אנוסים who just didn't feel comfortable returning to the shtetl of Kassa (now Košice) in nominally-religious-freedom-supporting Ausztria Magyarország (In fact, a Levite like Jakub—a kohen by the name of Fritz—would become an אנוסים in the next century. So, supposedly-tolerant Ausztria Magyarország wasn't so tolerant after all, and apparently became worse by the time that Fritz Kohn "Kerry" was persecuted.). 

András Rusznák himself, however, did leave Aranyida, though he also didn't return to his ancestral shtetl. He, with a Molnár cousin, immigrated to the United States and lived no differently than Jakub (the son of אנוסים György "Kvetkovits" Rusznák HaLevi and Erzsébet Rusznáková née Molnárová) had lived in Ausztria Magyarország—that is, he lived as an אנוסי. After he did that, disaster struck.

András came to the United States in 1902 and never thought that he would receive a letter from his Kassa-residing cousins, let alone one in which a request for help was written. 40-42 years later, however, that kind of letter was received by him and his daughter Mary Rusnak Gaydos. Thus, the boundary that was erected by the Kassa relatives' sitting שבעה was broken—or so the Kassa cousins hoped. 

Besides, they weren't sending a letter of reconciliation. They were sending a letter for העזרה לענין פיקוח נפש—help for the sake of piku'ach nefesh. They weren't looking after just themselves, either—they had families for whom to care and cousins who also had families, and family members in הארץ ישראל (which the Nazis and the Grand Mufti [ימח שמם] were targeting in their Middle Eastern invasion). 

As I alluded to, disaster then struck. András Rusznák (now Andrew Rusnak) and Mary Rusnak Gaydos, in order to cover that they were Jewish and follow the isolationist policy of the United States under Anti-Semitic Franklin Roosevelt (ימח שמם)—ceased all correspondence with their Kassa cousins, most of whom were murdered in השואה (Andrew's and Mary's kind of attitude, by the way, also had affects on the S.S. St. Louis Incident.),

Then Andrew, now the widower of  Julia Fosko Rusnak (née Juliana Foczková, ז'ל) was stricken with cancer and died of it. By the way, Julia (an אישה צדיקה and a לוית צדיקה) was taken before she had to see all that would befall her husband and her oldest child. After that, Andrew and whoever wrote his obituary (presumably Mary) decided to invent a fictional brother for Andrew (Stef) and lie to Andrew's son Carl (an איש צדיק) , who was charged with filling out with his father's death certificate.

As for the disasters that befell Mary—well, I can safely say that, for example, having a granddaughter who attempted suicide and living to attend the funeral of her great-grandson who drowned count as two disasters (She died in 1992, just after the deceased great-grandson's sister was born, by the way. The decedent drowned in 1991. So, she was alive when a descendant died and didn't live to see another descendant grow before her eyes.). 

By the way, all I received were evasive answers when I asked further questions about the supposed uncle of Mary, who allegedly wrote a letter to her in 1947. Also, there is no baptism record for him. So (so to speak), another hole was shot into that "Relatives wrote letters to ask for money, and she stopped writing" סיפור פיות. 

So, what's the point? The point is the point that I made on Twitter, and this account is a case in point:

[F]orcing someone against his or her will always ends in disastrous results somewhere along the line.

     

Confession: I Can Be Self Hating (And/Or Unnecessarily Guilt Tripped), Too

Admittedly, the disgusting part is that I look like a szlachta posing like this. I suppose that if there was a portrait of a szlachta żydowska, I could get away with this (and there apparently were some Morgiewiczes who were szlachty [if they're Morgiewiczes who are related to us, I mean]; and given that they were targeted in the January Uprising, they probably are. If you think that the Russians didn't like Polish and other Non-Russian szlachty [much less Poles and other Non Russians], you can imagine how they treated szlachty żydowscy as well as Yehudim ha'aretz).



That's the only part that I'm honestly not proud of (unless, again, a szlachta żydowska posed like this. Otherwise, I've touched my own nerve here; especially since my family was deliberately falsely connected to the Anti-Semitic Stefan Czarniecki, and the sad part is that we did that in order to conceal that we are Litvak Czernieckis.

(Granted that there were also Philosemitic szlatchy [and szlachty żydowscy]. Still, I feel pretty bad about posing like this, especially if I was bringing to mind Anti Semites like the unfortunately-iconic Stefan Czarniecki. Then again, my OCD/GAD could be bringing on or exacerbating unnecessary guilt about this photo.).

The Too-Long Comment Re Dana Horn's Article

"True, European Jewish immigrants did have to render their names into Latin or Cyrillic letters to create passports, and yes, passports were sometimes forged—but those forgeries or name changes would have been generated by the immigrants themselves. It is also true that many immigrants chose new names for themselves in America, whether for expediency or to avoid discrimination. But that was after they left Ellis Island. I am not revealing state secrets here, or arcane information. Any school child who has been on a field trip to Ellis Island knows all this. But why use facts when rumors will do?"

Yep. My paternal granddad's paternal family did this. "Czerniezka"? Who checked; and, by the way, who questioned when Alexandria "Czerniezka" listed "Katarzyna [?] Czerniezka", to whom she was not talking, as her nearest relative from whence she came (and never mind that they weren't talking after the former had become a Anusit)? (By the way, they were both Danilowiczes somehow. "Katarzyna" certainly was, as she was born a Danilowiczówna.) And on other records..."Czarnecki", "Chernetski", "Czarniecki", "Czerniecki" (the original one, apparently), "Charnetski". Something should've caught on; and, blessedly, it somehow never did (and, by the way, Great-Granddad "spoke perfect English"; and English was neither his nor his extremely-literate parents' native language, and his dad particularly knew how to get around the system. His mom was a little more honest. Still, Great-Granddad was one of those who was marked by "inaccuracies [which] were grounds for deporting improperly documented or unqualified people back to Europe". How Ellis Island, the Luzerne County Courts, etc. never caught on, I can only guess.


As for "facts when rumors will do" on the flip side: one of our surnames is "Foc(z)ko" or "seal". Whether it's a deliberate pun on "Siegel" (and I'll bet that it is), I can only guess. But my cousin (since we were Anusim who fled Poland after the Non-Anusi branch bid us farewell) gets so mad when I point out that "Focko" and "Foczko" are rare, in mainly Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary (and became "Fosko" in many cases in the U.S.); is "Focko" and "Foczko" ("Fo-ts-ko") in Polish, Slovakian (with the non-accented "c"), and Hungarian; and both the Polish and Hungarian use the word "foka" (with the only difference being the Hungarian having the "ó"), and Slovakian doesn't have that word. Also, we immigrated to Upper Hungary, the more-tolerant of the two Hungarys (not Lower Hungary), where we could pass and have Slovakized our name if we so chose (We didn't.). 


He loves to continue to buy the family tripe, which includes all this randomness/coincidences/conveniently leaving out geographical proximity and other relevant factors (e.g., that István Foczko's wife, Jána Hanzóková Foczková, was never noted to be of "hanzók"/Hanseatic descent [and if she was, that would've come out; as one of our ways of passing was to try to link ourselves to gentile notables if we could]; that her mother was a Lázárová, and that her only daughter, Julianna Foczková, was deliberately proposed to by a Levite whose parental grandparents had to be "felmentették" ["acquitted"] to marry). In doing so, he also (whether or not he realizes that he) dumbs us down quite a bit (e.g., as if Anusim weren't smart enough to seek each other out?). 

By the way, he didn't mind using my granddad's old Stefan Czarniecki canard on me. He lost, though: ours was "Czerniecki" (apparently. It could've been "Zernetzky", too. Who knows? It was an Anusi marriage done at Maćkowa Ruda, far from Krasne and Lipsk, and far from the eyes and ears of rabbis who'd've never allowed a Catholic marriage even for "Antoni" and "Katarzyna" to gain freedom from serfdom). We were never near the Anti-Semite Stefan Czarniecki (We are related to Kirk Douglas, though. I don't know the connection; yet, there you go: "Danilovich" wasn't just a patronymic after all, and the Daniloviches are responsible for producing an Exodus denier who raped Natalie Wood. We're also responsible for producing Jack Czarnecki, who hurt a lot of people—including by hiding his Jewishness and trying to connect us to Stefan Czarniecki. 

(Concerning that [i.e., Kirk Douglas, my granddad's self hating, and whatever else that is bad that I didn't know until I began doing the family research] , I was like Darby Conley after he got his cat—"sorry and ignorant.")

I Was Reading (or Rereading) About Jews In Slovakia Tonight, And...

I got a better understanding of why my branch of the Foczkos fled from Russia to Upper Hungary (Slovakia)—I had pretty much figured that being Anusim in Slovakia felt better for them than being openly Jewish in even Poland (which, keep in mind, was under Russian control), and the (re)reading confirmed and solidified my figuring. Yes, we have Eastern European Y-DNA and atDNA; but that happens when men, for example (and as in our case), marry Leviyot (Levitesses) and are counted as Levites (as Yefuneh Hakenizi was counted as a Yehudi [Judahite] when he married Kalev's mother. After all, Tanakh talks about Kalev as a Yehudi. This doesn't mean that Yefuneh's ethnicity changed, by the way. He was a ger, after all; but his son was a Matrilineal Jew.).

Also consider Ruth: she remained a gentile, but Na'omi's people became her people.

Anyway, that's enough of that for right now. L'laila v'Shabbat Tov.

"Julia Fosko Rusnak [Is] Jewish[?]"....

You think? That, chaver (o mishpacha) sheli, takes a no brainer (If this is Kevin, I know that you know that. Don't try to fool me.). By the way (and I have nothing to hide), this is going to (G-d willing) be on Wikipedia (and maybe Kevin will learn something here that I just figured out a while back. By the way, a handy tool is EasyBib.):

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1 Surname Etymology and History
• 2 Family History
• 3 Religion
• 4 References
• 5 Also See

Surname Etymology and History[edit]

"Foczko" is an Ashkenazi Jewish Levitical surname that comes from the Polish and Hungarian words for "seal"^[1][2]. Whether it was a Polish pun on Siegel is unclear.^[3] Among its variants are "Focko", "Fosko", and possibly "Faczko"^[4]. Conversely, among surnames that are confused for variants of it are "Fosco"^[5][6], "Focsko"^[7][8][9], and "Fecko" or "Feczko"^[10]. Because of the confusion of "Focsko" for "Foczko", to note that "Focko" and "Foczko" stayed unchanged in both spelling and pronounciation in Poland and vicinity (e.g., Belarus), Slovakia (both when it was a part of Hungary and after it declared independence), and Hungary is important.

In Hebrew, the Foc(z)ko surname is "פוצקו" or "פוצכו" ("Fotzko").

Family History[edit]

There are two distinct branches. The first branch is from Warszawa, Lódż, and Radom, Poland. The second branch is from cities such as Gelnica, Zlatá Idka, and Košice, Slovakia; and Diósgyőr and Miskolc, Hungary^[11].

The second branch first appeared in Slovakia (then a part of Hungary) in 1720^[12] and 1730^[13] While this branch became Anusim and emigrated from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (and why they did so remains unclear), the first branch remained openly Jewish and within Poland and vicinity^[14][15].

Notable descendants of the Foczko Family include the late Staff Sergeant Carl S. Rusnak of the United States Army Corps of Engineers^[16], whose mother was Juia Fosko Rusnak (née Juliana Foczková)^[17][18].

Religion[edit]

The religions of the Foczko Family range from Normative Judaism to Christianity, to "other religions".^[19] Some of the descendants of the Anusi branches are even reluctant to identify as Ethnic Jews because of their religious affiliations and family history^[20], notwihstanding the following:

"[T]he 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."^[21]

References[edit]

1. Jump up^ The Polish word is "foczka", and the Hungarian word is "fóka".
2. Jump up^ [1]PolishForums.com
3. Jump up^ [2]"Seal"
4. Jump up^ "Re: Surname "Faczko"" Message to [a descendant of Julia Fosko Rusnak (née Juliana Foczková)]. Mar.-Apr. 2016. E-mail. The email partially reads, "As I said earlier seems to me that the difference of one letter is quite normal. So "Faczko" would be a variant of "Foczko". But I'm not the specialist. When the surname is more difficult and not popular become the bigger opportunity of changing. All my grandfather's brother and sisters had different surname even thought all of them had the same parents."
5. Jump up^ [3]Which comes from "Fusco".
6. Jump up^ http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?gl=ROOT_CATEGORY&rank=1&new=1&so=3&MSAV=0&msT=1&gss=ms_r_f-2_s&gsln=Fosko&msrpn1__ftp=Tennessee+Valley&msrpn__ftp=Kentucky&msypn__ftp=Italy&msypn=5118&msypn_PInfo=3-%7C0%7C1652381%7C0%7C5118%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C&uidh=ie4>The Tennessee and Kentucky "Fosko" Family were originally surnamed "Fusco" and from Italy.

Jump up^ Which would transliterate to "Fochko" and not "Fotsko" or "Fotsko"

Jump up^ [4]"Hungarian Pronunciation Guide"

Jump up^ [5]"The Slovak alphabet"

Jump up^ [6]Ancestry.com, "Fecko"

Jump up^ See, for example, https://familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&query=%2Bsurname%3AFoczko&other_year0=1700>"Search for "Foczko" (Exact)." FamilySearch. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 2014. Web. 8 Apr. 2014.

Jump up^ "Slovakia, Church and Synagogue Books, 1592-1910," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KH8F-ZFX : accessed 09 Apr 2014), Matthias Foczko, 15 Sep 1720 Baptism; citing Gelnica, Gelnica, Slovakia, FHL microfilm 1739084.

Jump up^ "Slovakia, Church and Synagogue Books, 1592-1910," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KZS8-KQV : accessed 09 Apr 2014), Georgius Focko, 22 Apr 1739 Baptism; citing Kojšov, Gelnica, Slovakia, FHL microfilm 1739455.

Jump up^ e.g., E. Foczko sold food in Iwieniec, Wolozyn District (now in Belarus) up to the time of the Holocaust

Jump up^ Among victims of the Holocaust were Dawid, Hersz, and Mariem Focko, who were imprisoned in the Lodz Ghetto. Among survivors was Maria Focko of Lódž. See JewishGen.

Jump up^ [7]"CARL RUSNAK"

Jump up^ [8]"Julia Fosko Rusnak Death Certificate"

Jump up^ "Slovakia, Church and Synagogue Books, 1592-1910," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KHD4-CBH : accessed 09 Apr 2014), Julianna Foczko, 09 Jan 1887 Baptism; citing Zlatá Idka, Moldava nad Bodvou, Slovakia, FHL microfilm 2010712.

Jump up^ Message to [a descendant of Julia Fosko Rusnak (née Juliana Foczková)]. Jan.-Feb. 2010. E-mail. The email partially reads, "As to our ‘Jewish roots’, I have talked to a number of people and there is only one situation of someone on the [Fosko-]Rusnak side of the family being Jewish and that is questionable. Please remember that Judaism is a religion and not a nationality and that in your extended family, you probably have scores of Christian denominations and sub-denominations represented as well as other religions."

Jump up^ See "Subject: Searching: FOSKO FOCKO FOCZKO" in the "JewishGen Discussion Group SigLists".

Jump up^ [9]"Anusim"

Also See[edit]

• Ancestry.com
• FamilySearch
• JewishGen
• The Times Leader
• Jewish Virtual Library

Update: I forgot to put the stats in (Stupid me, guys!)

Search Keywords

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