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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.
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
I have serious doubts about any Jewish Family connections over in Poland. Here's why:
1) Surnames were not used in Poland until about the 16th century. Before that it was the equivalent of "Joe son of the Tailor".
Even further, Ashkenazi Jews did not take surnames mandatorily until 1787-1815 (when the dividers of Poland—Austria and Hungary, Prussia, and Russia—passed surname mandates). The Czernecki family tree traces back as far as the 1840s. As Tracy R. Rich of JewFAQ states, Ashkenazi Jews are lucky to get a tree traced back past 1700; and "Jaffe" was one of the few pre-1700 Ashkenazi surnames. So was "Andrulewicz" or "Andrulevicus", and our Anusi relatives such as Kazimierz Andrulewicz took the Polish form and moved from Stakliskes, Lithuania to cities such as Bose, Poland.
2) The pronounciation of our surname is different in Polish. "Czarnecki" is pronounced "Cha-nyet-ski". The "r" is silent, a "y" appears after the "n" ,a "t" appears between the "e" and "c" and the "cki" becomes "ski". They even pronounce it the Polish way in Mexico because they are trained in Eastern Europe phonics. Also, "Czar" means "black" in Polish. Figure out the "ne" meaning and you will understand the origin - maybe.
Keep in mind that Slavs are natively light-haired, blue-eyed Whites. This was not us at all. In fact, Julian Czernecki, for example, had brown hair and blue eyes. By the way, the Facebook page "Hebrew In Israel" shows a picture of an enslaved black-haired, blue-eyed Jew. As for Alexandria's relatives, some even had brown hair and dark skin.
3) You need to spend some time on Polish Roots.org/(surname). Notice how few Jews had our surname. "Cki" at one point indicated royality, however, everyone started to use the "cki" (ski) after the 16th century. There are many Roman Catholics and Polish National Catholic Czarnecki's. These are the predominent religions.
Many Jews passed as gentiles, and even gentile nobles. Think about, for instance, the mishpacha hakohanim known as the Kerrys—who are also relatives of the so-called "Maharal", by the way.
4) Great Grand Pop had some relatives in the Wilkes-Barre area. All were Roman Catholics. (at least 4 families) There are at least 4 other Czarnecki clans in Wilkes-Barre (not related to us). All are Roman Catholics. Friends in the area from Poland are also Roman Catholic. (They all would know.)
Not necessarily. Remember that John Kerry did not know that he is a kohen and a ben-Yehudah for decades on end. By the way, Great-Great-Grandma made sure that her son Antoni Jan (later Anthony John) would not marry a believing Jewess named Mary Trudniak—though he did, anyway; and Anthony and Mary later became the paternal grandparents of my dad.
5) Your Great Grand Piop arrived in this country when he was 3 years old. I don't believe that he would know that the family was Jewish. The family was always active in the Catholic (Polish) church in Sugar Notch after their arrival.
He actually did. According to Granduncle Tony, Great-Granddad wanted to marry for love, as was against Old Country custom. Understanding that the Andrulewiczes were Jews and that Old Country custom involved shidduch, one can easily see why Alexandria Andrulewicz Czarnecki opposed her eldest son's wishes to marry for love: in Judaism, shidduch—marriage—has nothing to do with love, since "shidduch" means "match" or "matchmaking". Even among—perhaps especially among—Anusim, marriage for love was an unacceptable form of marriage, especially if one wanted to keep any form of halakhah. Marrying a Messianic Jewess (a "meshumadah") in Great-Granddad's case did not sit well with his Ashkenazi, Litvake-Poylische Orthodox, Anusit mother one bit—after all, for instance, her cousin Shmuil Morgovich (a maternal relative) had his death registered with the Aukštadvaris clergy; and to insult the memory of devout Jews like him by marrying a "meshumadah" was a chillul HaShem.
Also, according to Aunt Mary (who was named for her grandmothers—ironically, in accord with Sefardi and Karaite practice, as opposed to Ashkenazi practice—and not the mother of Jesus), Great-Grandma and another son of hers (not Granduncle Tony or Pop-Pop, but one of her other three sons) told her that Great-Granddad was quite abusive—thus, obviously, not very loving. By the way, women are not treated well in P'rushi ("Rabbinate", "Rabbinical"; literally, "Pharisee") Orthodox Judaism; so, you can guess from where Great-Granddad got his attitude.
6) The church was the center of activity after the immigrants came from Poland. It allowed them to keep customs alive and socialize with those who were similiar in origin and faith and helped them assimulate into life in America. Jews would not easily fit into a Catholic society as was in Sugar Notch.
I go back to John Kerry for several reasons on this—after all, Fritz "Frederick Kerry" Kohn and Great-Granddad share several parallels. Both converted during times of Anti Semitism in Europe (Mr. Kohn in Austrian-Hungarian Czechland, Great-Granddad in Russian Pale Poland.). Both immigrated to the United States and lived as Anusim in the United States (Of course, Great-Granddad had no choice in the first 18-20 years of his life altogether, much less the first 16-17 years that he spent in America—May 16-18, 1908 to May 16-18, 1924; and he became a citizen on June 24, 1921. By then, he had the habit of living as an Anusi well ingrained into his being and his daily-living patterns. ).
Both Frederick Kerry and Anthony John Czarnecki had crises which affected the ends of their lives, and the ends of their lives were suicides—Mr. Kerry was a failed businessman who shot himself in a Boston bathroom; Great-Granddad was a depressed man with three severed-off toes on his right foot and other reasons that he used as excuses to jump off of Falls River Bridge in Exeter, Pennsylvania. Incidentally, as you should be able to tell by now, I have read up quite a bit on the John Kerry story and found how fascinatingly parallel it is to my family's story.
I just don't see a Jewish connection in any way. Also, check out the words of the Polish National Anthem. Antoni Czarnecki is mentioned as a Hero.
Regards, Uncle Tony
The "hero" was actually Stefan Czarniecki, who was an ardent Anti Semite. By the way, we have no family tree that traces back to him. Also, Pop-Pop later changed his story—he went from saying that we were Polish-Lithuanian Americans who were related to Stefan Czarniecki to saying (as I recall—or as I recall something like it), "If we had Jewish blood, I don't know about it."
Kol hakavod to Granduncle Tony, and he's got to learn to stop being afraid of Jack Czarnecki—though, as I said, you will understand why he is afraid when you find out what happened to Mary Trudniak Czarnecki.
