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Showing posts with label anecdotes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anecdotes. Show all posts

Monday, August 22, 2016

An Upcoming Coffee-Table Picture Book Of Reilly & Camille Planned

"Momma"/"Auntie" Nicole plans to work on and somehow publish a coffee-table picture book that focuses on Reilly and Camille. After all, the pictures would have plenty of captions—not to mention other information, including anecdotes such as how jealous Reilly looked like she was trying to bite Camille's face (yesterday, as of August 22, 2016) and that Reilly barked a rabbit out of "Mom-Mom"'s garden (or probably further into it) today (as of August 22, 2016) and at a running-down-the-neighborhood Doberman—two times when she actually should have barked! 

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

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 Fritzwould 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.




     

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

"Imma Rize": A Short Story About a Nun With a Humorous Name (And a Cousin With a Sense of Humor)

Her name was actually Khava Reisz. She was from Obudai, Magyaroszag. However, she took the name "Ima Reis" ("אמא ראיס", "Mother Reis") when she left Obudai after she had become a nun and went to Bremen. From Bremen, she immigrated to Baltimore as "M. Eva Reis"; and she didn't use "Eva"—much less "Khava" ("חוה")—otherwise.

Therefore, nobody knew how to mark her gravestone—much less her makeshift gravestone for the time being—when she lived out her full years and died at the age of 110 years. What they could clearly write on the stone, however, was "1802 to 1912", since they knew that much.

Otherwise, they had to write what they could write about her. Thus, they wrote "Imma Rize". Similarly, they wrote "Earl Lee Rizer" on her cousin's gravestone. Earl, too, by the way, lived a long life. However, he lived to only 91 years of age.

Nonetheless, he could fill them in on the details of his years before he died, and he made an attempt to fill them in on what he could of his cousin's life.

"...And on my matzevah—the thing that you gentiles call a gravestone—simply mark 'Earl Lee Rizer'. I've left the other instructions in my will. As for my matzevah, that isn't the really-fancy part. After all, I can fill you and everybody else in at the Resurrection—if there even is one. Nonetheless, all you and anyone else need to know in this lifetime is that my name was 'Earl Lee Rizer'; I had a sense of humor, and I lived for 91 years.

"As for my cousin—the one that you call 'Mother Reis'—she'll probably die soon, too. I was born in 1806, and this year's 1897. So, she'll probably die in this 95th year of hers—after all, I'm younger than her and dying in my 91st year.

"Anyway, you asked me to fill you in on the details about her—since we all figure that she's going to die, and she is obviously quite secretive. Then—and spare me, for I haven't much breath—here are the details for which you asked—or at least which I can provide, anyway.

"After she became what everybody else considered a meshumadah—a Jesus-following apostate—I was the only one who was willing to take her in when she emigrated from Bremen. She came here in 1850, and I was already here since 1847. Thus, she lagged only three years behind me.

"After she immigrated, she and I went our separate ways once I took her in and she was processed by the immigration authorities. I went to Temple; she went to the Hebrew Christian church and convent up on only-God-knows what street. I lived out my life as a regular man and Temple member; she lived out her life as a Jewish Mother Superior—though such seems a contradiction, when it is actually just quite a paradox—at least she was a Jewish mother! Incidentally, she did remind me of the verse wherein the prophet states that a husbandless woman has more children than a husbanded one; and she believed that, that applied to all nuns, and not just abbotesses.

"I must relate this anecdote as well: she and her community celebrated Yom Kippur—the Jewish Day of Atonement—in the most-fascinating way. We believe in fasting for our atonement; she believes in Jesus as hers. Nonetheless, she—with her community, and like us—fasted on Yom Kippur. However—and this is the fascinating part—she and her community would prepare for Communion after sunset in a fashion similar to how the priests made atonement in the days of the Solomonic and Zadokite Temples. Whereas the priests would enter the Holy of Holies and perform all of the atonement rituals and rites, the Hebrew Catholic priest would wave incense before the cross on the wall behind the altar and then sprinkle all of the vestments, articles, and furniture with some of the wine that was to be used in the Communion ceremony. Then, at sunset, the priest and his deacons would administer Communion to the congregation.

"I cannot say that she did not live an interesting life—perhaps living interesting lives is within our family. After all, I lived an interesting life—part of my life, of course, includes my having changed my name from 'Berl Ari Reisz' to 'Earl Leo Riszer', to just 'Earl Lee Rizer'. I was an early riser, by the way—I took the advice of the American founder Benjamin Franklin seriously. Also, Benjamin Franklin himself knew what I know—that, as King Solomon observed, only the sluggard will not rise at all, for he will even make the excuse that a lion roams the streets!

"Perhaps that's why 'Ima Reis'—'Mother Reis'—may, as I have heard, change her name to 'Imma Rize'—as I alluded to being an early riser, so she will allude to her belief in the Resurrection of the Dead. Also, she—from what I understand—heard a Negro man singing something along the lines of 'I'm-a rise when Jesus calls-a me up from the ground....'—and that had her thinking."

With that said, Earl Lee Rizer breathed his last breath and died at the age of 91 years. Thus, his gravestone read as he stipulated that it should read: "Earl Lee Rizer". However, the stonecarver also engraved Earl's birth and death dates. Therefore, the gravestone read in full, "Earl Lee Rizer, 1806 to 1897".

As for Mother Reis' gravestone, it read:

"אמא ראיס, 1802-1912, עם 62 שנות בעבודה לישוע אדוננו"—
"Mother Reis, 1802 to 1912, with 62 years in the service of Jesus Our Lord."

This was all forgotten, however, when a flood came through the cemetery and left the gravekeepers to put up makeshift gravestones. Thus, Mother Reis' makeshift gravestone read as her cousin Earl suggested that her gravestone should read—with, of course, the death date being different than the date that Earl supposed:

"Imma Rize
"1802 to 1912".





Tuesday, December 24, 2013

"The Night Before Christmas" and Reflections on Years Past

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

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

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

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

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


Saturday, November 16, 2013

Remembering When, Part Ten

I have been quite busy and unable to write the memoir for some time—and now when I write, I am looking back on what I have previously written. Part of what I wanted to include in this next part is a Yad Vashem Page of Testimony for my Great-Granduncle Bernie, and that is part of what I was doing in the past couple of days—that is, submitting a form for him. Great-Granduncle Bernie's story heavily factors in his brother Anthony's and in-law-sister Mary's story—in fact, it's probably part of why Great-Granddad committed suicide.

As I wrote, Great-Grandma was not treated well. As I also wrote, the disabled were also not treated well—and Great-Granduncle Bernie certainly was not. In fact, I should have scanned in that stupid letter from the Department of Veterans' Affairs—hello, DVA—with all due respect, I am Great-Granduncle Bernie's "next of kin"!

As you have figured out by now, Great-Granduncle Bernie was a disabled and disrespected veteran—and two of his primary disrespecters gave Pop-Pop an idea for what to do to Great-Grandma. Ironically enough (or perhaps not so ironically), one of his disrespecters was a fellow Jewish war veteran—and none other than Staff Sergeant Joseph Paschal Czarnecki, Sr. (and I am not sorry, Charmaine and Courtney—I am not skating around that fact for your sakes. As I have stated, I will certainly talk about your dad and granddad since I talked about your uncle and granduncle Tony—and if you did not get the memo by now, let me remind you that I did not skate around any facts for your cousin Greg's maternal side, either.).

The other of the two aforementioned primary disrespecter was duty shirker John Felix Czarnecki (By the way, can you guess for whom Pop-Pop got his name—and even became like? In this case, a name does mean something in terms of character.). At least to his credit, however, Great-Granduncle John (who was born in 1913 and could have easily served during World War Two) shirked his duty to do so—at least he did not sign up and tarnish any service by what he did to his brother Bernie.

"'It's a shame what they did to Bernie.'" Granduncle Tony recalled hearing this at Great-Granduncle Bernie's funeral—and darned right that it's a shame. The self-loathing Jewish veteran and his self-loathing brother decided to take advantage of a Holocaust victim—namely, their fellow veteran Private First Class Bernard S. "Bernie" Czarnecki. How Great-Granddad could live with this is part of why I stated that he probably factored it into his suicide—after all, his youngster brother died on July 16, 1963; and he died on December 2, 1964 (almost a year and a quarter of a year after his brother succumbed to his Nazi-inflicted wounds).

Great-Granduncle Bernie signed up in Kingston, Pennsylvania on February 17, 1941 to serve in the 111th Infantry Division Medical Corps of the United States Army, having previously signed up on December 12, 1940. While Great-Granduncle Bernie was in combat, a Nazi bastard fired off some shrapnel that went into his head (whether the Nazi bastard directly or indirectly murdered Great-Granduncle Bernie, I do not know. All I know is the obvious—that it sure was not friendly fire, and that whoever murdered Great-Granduncle Bernie was a Nazi whether he was officially a Nazi, an Italian Nazi collaborator, or another European who collaborated with the Nazis.).

An operation to remove the shrapnel from Great-Granduncle Bernie's head failed—and that was the beginning of the end for Great-Granduncle Bernie.Great-Granduncle Bernie was confined to the Veterans' Home and Hospital and Lebanon, Pennsylvania for the rest of his life—from his discharge on December 12, 1945 to when he finally succumbed to his Nazi-inflicted wounds. He could never marry and have children, and was very childlike himself—he even would, for example, buy hot dogs for Granduncle Tony and his other nephews (and his nieces) if Great-Grandma said, "No." (It was basically, "If Mom says 'No.', ask Uncle Bernie."—and children will be children, and at least "Uncle Bernie" was not one of those gone-deranged mentally-disabled veterans.).

His widowed sister, Alexandria Alice Czarnecki Dombroski, took care of him by, for instance, setting up a Social Security account for him—and she would get the benefits from the Social Security account when he died. After all, she was a widowed mother and had already taken care of everyone else in her life—she was now stepping up to take care of Great-Granduncle Bernie (once again; as she had helped her mother do so when Julian Czarnecki died—when Bernie was only two years of age—, and as she had done when her mother died on April 6, 1936—when Bernie was only 16 years of age).

Great-Granduncles John and Joe cajoled Great-Granduncle Bernie into signing away the account from their sister Alice, and the benefits went to them when he died. Again, "'It's a shame what they did to Bernie.'" It's also a shame what they did to Alice.

Honestly, nobody should have been surprised that Great-Granddad Czarnecki would commit suicide after that—living with what "Johnkie" and "Suzy" did to "Bernie" would have alone driven someone to commit suicide, and that Great-Grandaunt Alice was not the one who committed suicide is amazing. After all, how could one live in a callous world in which Jews loathed themselves, took advantage of a Jewish war veteran and Holocaust victim, and left widows and left-alone mothers who had already taken care of so many people bereft?

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Remembering When, Part Nine

Sometimes, I get too lazy to write because of—among other issues—post-baclofen-pump-surgery muscle pain (as I have discussed as part of the reason for my delay in finishing this memoir) and schoolwork (At this point, as I have been told, I will be the first of Grandma's and Pop-Pop's grandchildren to graduate from college—and I expect, or at least hope, to graduate on December 20, 2013.). So, let me take one more detour. However, let me detour on the way back to Great-Granddad Czarnecki's and Great-Grandma Czarnecki's story by giving more background about it—and while some of this background giving maybe be background regiving, it will nonetheless help you to understand the next part of the story.

 I honestly grew up even being handed that we were related to Stefan Czarniecki and that Great-Grandma Czarnecki was Lithuanian (she was a the daughter of Polish-Slovakian-Hungarian Anusim Mihaly Trudnyak [the son of Mihaly Trudnyak, Sr. and Maria Nagyova Trudnyakova] and Anna Munkova Trudnyakova [the daughter of Samuel and Rosalia Korschova Munka])! I had no clue what the real story was! I was told that Great-Granddad 
  1. Came here alone (and not when he was two and escaping the pogroms as an Anusi with his Anusit mother, part of the Andrulevicus [Andrulewicz, etc.] and Morgovich [Morgiewicz, etc.] families. They came here to join his dad, who had already come here once illegally. Of course, they lived as Anusim to avoid Anti Semitism in America; and Northeastern Pennsylvania was somehow the place to do so. Of course, his cousin Jacob Androlowicz did identify as a Jewish war veteran, and he was buried in a Catholic cemetery—the Andrulevicuses were a mix of open Jews and Anusim, Non-Messianic and Messianic Jews.).
  2. Married Mary Trudnak (who was actually named for her grandmother—as my aunt Mary was for her grandmothers—and not for Mary the mother of Jesus! Long story short, we have Sephardic heritage concerned somewhere; or at least we adopted a mix of Ashkenazi and Sephardi minhagim—and Grandma did name "Mary Joan" for her mother [Mary Rusnak Gaydos, whose paternal grandma was Marysia Novakova Rusznakova] and herself [Joan Gaydos Czarnecki]—and we used "Maria" and "Marysia" as variants of "Maryam". In fact, Aunt Mary was honestly the first Mary on the Czernecki/Chernetski/Czarnecki side.].)
  3. Served in Korea (which he never did or could).
  4. Died of Black Lung (instead of his newspaper-worthy suicide).
He did work in the coal mines, to be fair, but the Black Lung wasn't what killed him. Of course, I didn't question or research until I was much older. The Czernecki side is the side on which I'm focusing on for the memoir, meanwhile—and I've gotten relatives angry over finding all this out and talking about this, but (as Great-Grandma told Aunt Mary) I want to talk about it (and may she rest in peace—and I myself remember her as a loving, kind, frail woman—I only knew why she was so frail after she died and I talked to Aunt Mary and others—Great-Granddad and others did not treat her well for at least 73 years [She applied for a marriage license on May 10, 1934—she never got it signed. I have no clue how her parents were, but her two brothers' divorces and how she was attracted to Great-Granddad may indicate something—I can't say, though. A cousin said that they identified as Slovakian Catholics, though—they seemed okay enough, though, from what I can tell. At least they raised Great-Grandma well—Mom even recalls that, when she knew her, she had the Old Country charm—even though she was born in Ashley, Pennsylvania! And, as I said, she was a loving, kind, frail woman—she even loved me and Dad's cousin Jamie, and the disabled aren't looked upon too well in our family.).

By the way, I can say that Great-Grandma's passing and what it brought about was what really got me questioning and researching, now that I think about it.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Remembering When, Part Eight

I have to detour again to talk about the Foczko-Rusznak experience, so that you can get an idea of what my Czarnecki great-grandparents' experience was like in contrast to the Foczko-Rusznak one. By the way, Jacob Androlowicz—who will be mentioned in the following anecdote—was an Andrulevicus (Andrulewicz) cousin of Great-Granddad Czarnecki—remember that Great-Granddad Czarnecki's mother was Alexandria Alice Andrulewicz Czarnecki.

Tablet Magazine recently asked, "Have you or your relatives served in the military? What were your/their experiences serving as Jews?" I answered, "Yes, my relatives did serve. Only one identified as a Jew. We were Anusim—some of us even became Messianic, although we still hid our Jewishness—and the only one who had חוצפה טובה [hutzpah tovah] to identify as Jewish was Jacob Androlowicz. However, one (Staff Sergeant Andy Rusnak, z"l) chose to get cremated and have his ashes interred at his parents' gravesite—he also had a memorial service, and no viewing—he must've felt guilty that his elder sister (my dad's maternal grandma) was responsible for sending our relatives to Auschwitz (It's a long story that makes me want to vomit and still be angry at her.), and that he felt that he couldn't do anything to save his cousins."

I already discussed the awful Foczko-Rusznak debacle in which Great-Grandma Gaydos and her dad entangled us by refusing to write to relatives who asked for help. I should add, incidentally, that a cousin who did survive also got himself cremated when he died in 2006—he felt guilty about surviving. Again, I do not blame Great-Grandma's brothers or the other Foczkos for what she, as a Foczko Rusznak, did—and since her dad was a Rusznak, the responsibility fell on him as a Rusznak to help fellow Rusznaks. The Foczkos were in hiding or somewhere else by then (as, and as you will see below, there is a notable gap between the birth of Jozef Foczko to his Hanzok cousin Aurelia. Also, according to Cemetery.sk, a Jozsef Focko died on September 26, 1941—and you can bet that he did not just die.). Furthermore, a Novak cousin—Leopold Novak—was left abandoned in a mine in which he died in 1936—so, Anti Semitism was touching the Foczko and Rusznak families even before the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakian and Hungarian Slovakia. 

By the way, the translation of Leopold Novak's death cause—according to Google Translate—is as follows—and the cause is listed as "Zasypaný hlinou pri práci v opustenom kameňolome v Zlatej Idke.":

"Peppered with dirt while working in an abandoned quarry in Zlatá Idka."

"Peppered" can also read "Buried", "Buried in", "Off buried", or "Strewn". "[W]ith dirt", meanwhile, can read "the clay"or "with clay". So, the idea is that Leopold was attacked then left abandoned in the mine quarry.

As for Great-Granddad and Great-Grandma Czarnecki, meanwhile and while you are asking, I will get back to their story in the next chapter—I apologize for having to continue to detour like this.




Saturday, October 26, 2013

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.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

"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). 


Wednesday, October 16, 2013

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?

Monday, October 14, 2013

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 grandmothersironically, in accord with Sefardi and Karaite practice, as opposed to Ashkenazi practiceand 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 abusivethus, 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. 

Thursday, October 10, 2013

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 familyand 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. 

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

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):

Ever been in the states?
Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki
10/4, 2:02am
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
Whr is that?
Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki
10/4, 2:04am
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
oh i have to google this.
Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki
10/4, 2:05am
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
Well if your in new york holla at me. Wow yr dad??
Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki
10/4, 2:07am
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.
Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki
10/4, 2:08am
Also, for years, this is the story that I got...

10/4, 2:08am
Wow girl i feel for ya!!!
Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki
10/4, 2:09am
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
hhmmmm allot of rich history; shouldbe made into a book.
Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki
10/4, 2:11am
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
So go back into it might even turn out to be a movie!!
Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki
10/4, 2:13am
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
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
Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki
10/4, 2:15am
Point taken. You're right.
I gotta figure out where to get started.
Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki
10/4, 2:16am
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
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.
Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki
10/4, 2:18am
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.
Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki
10/4, 2:19am
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
yes a book!!
Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki
10/4, 2:21am
Will do, and thanks for the encouragement.

10/4, 2:21am
anytime!
Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki
10/4, 2:21am
Meanwhile, both the Foskos (Foc(z)kos and Rus(z)n(y)aks) were Levites.

10/4, 2:22am
yea?
Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki
10/4, 2:23am
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.
Eric Peterson
10/4, 2:24am
Wow i want to chat wit u in vid sometime we talk more deeply about this.
Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki
10/4, 2:25am
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
anytime babe
Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki
10/4, 2:27am
Thanks.
Have a good night, and thank you again.

10/4, 2:27am
you to lets talk again around sun if its good 4 u?
Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki
10/4, 2:53am

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".)