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(“There had better be at least way more than just a wee bit o’ treats at the end of the Rei-bow—and it had better not be a lil’ pot, either.”
(“Reilly, it’s a ‘rain-bow’—and Auntie Michelle is giving you only one treat.”
(Reilly was promised a treat for getting her picture taken.)
(By the way, no Reillys were harmed in the making of this photoshoot)
Drink Rei-sponsibly!
Reilly and Camille love their, respectively, cousin and sister!
For comparison, by the way:
Someone on Reddit observed that racism in the U.S. is often not as bad as in other countries, where it is essentially woven into the cultural fabrics. This was my reply:
While that’s true, some of us do have to face racism. I (Jewish and White) literally had to recently report someone to the FBI for calling me (I kid you not) a “walking lampshade”, and he made very clear in the subject line of his email that he intended to make an Anti-Semitic threat. I’ve also received at least two other Anti-Semitic threats over the past five to six years. For some of us, then, the fallout and ugly revitalization of Early and Mid 1900s racism is real—and my father’s paternal grandfather’s parents had to pass as Poles and Lithuanians just to survive in little out-of-the-way Sugar Notch, Pennsylvania. They could’ve tried to pass in a larger city, although relatively-large BiaÅ‚ystok (then the seat of Grodno Gubernia, now the capital of Podlaskie Voivodeship) in Poland (then Russia) was not too far from Szumowo (which we called “Sumeve” or “Shumeve”) or Lipsk (where we lived before we were exiled to Shumeve). Incidentally, writing this, I think that I now understand some of my father’s ancestors’ adversions to living in larger cities: if we weren’t banned from living as open Jews in them (and other ancestors of mine were confined to and/or baptized as Crypto Jews in small towns such as Óbudai and Verseg, Hungary), then we had to face pogroms and/or other dangers (e.g., individualized Anti-Semitic attacks in them).
Reilly’s birthdate was either Adar Sheni 23 or 24, 5774 (on the Rabbinical calendar, in 5775); and the new moon for Rosh HaShanah (cf. Shemot 12:2 and the entirety of Megillat Ester) is likely to be seen on March 14, 2021 (The Rabbinical calendar does at least give approximations and an idea as to whether a given year will be a leap year. Aviv-Nisan is always the first month on the Biblical calendar, which Karaites as well as an increasing number of Rabbinical Jews and Jewish Christians—like “Momma”—follow).
PS Camille has a fixed birthday: hers is always in Aviv-Nisan, since she was born on Aviv-Nisan 6 or 7, 5775).
(*Originally on Reddit with some edits here, and also a preview of what my next book, Yehovah willing, covers):
I had always heard that we were Polish and Lithuanian. It never really occurred to me that he was very dark for an Ethnic Slav or Balt. Then some things started occurring when it hit me why my father would stereotypically pronounce our name as “Charnetski”—putting the emphasis on “ski”. In our case, “ski” did turn out to be a Jewish suffix, and I also figured out that we were passing as White. Also, the way that my grandfather put it, I had assumed that his father was Polish and his mother was Lithuanian—it turns out that Great-Granddad was the son of a Poylisher Levi and a Litvishe bas kohen, and Great-Grandma (z’l) was also Jewish and had Levite (including kohenic) heritage.
I subsequently also found out that having red hair was a giveaway in Poland as to whether someone was Jewish, and I now understood why my granduncle “Red” (z’l) and my granduncle Tony (“Little Red”; z’l) both had red hair. We also had mostly brown hair, although we had light eyes (although I have seen pictures of ancient Hebrews as portrayed by the Egyptians having blue eyes).
I wish my grandfather had been proud of his olive complexion instead of trying to pass for White. I get that especially his father’s family circumstances made it hard for him to be proud to be a Jew (Long story short, his father came from a Crypto-Jewish family whom escaped Russian Poland after the Farber-Kogan Incident that Anti Semites exploited to perpetuate the BiaÅ‚ystok Pogrom). Still, I missed being able to understand a lot in my early years, including that my family didn’t exactly have white privilege after all—having to pass to avoid Anti Semitism is no privilege—and having to cope with racism and the multigenerational effects of it contributed to family secrecy and other family toxicity. It also helped me understand why, for example, my father (who, I should mention, is also matrilineally Jewish) once literally drew a swastika just to throw it in a fireplace when I was having an OCD flareup – I did not know that we had lost relatives in the Holocaust—I thought that he was just responding to my OCD flareup. I had no clue that I inherited OCD from him, and I had no clue that a lot of that could be traced back to generational trauma.
I’m also still trying to figure out how to navigate in many ways because (and given that my mom is also of Jewish and European** descent) I’m not Jewish enough to some (and that does partly include that I believe in Jesus—although I know that my ethnicity is not contingent on whether I hold traditional beliefs), and I’m obviously not White enough to others. I meanwhile identify more as a Jew than as a White person, and I even think that—for example—some prominent gentile families into which some relatives married (including the Forbes and Johnson families—as one was once married to and had a child by baseball player Billy Johnson’s brother*) are more blessed by us than we are by them (“and in you, all of the families of the nations will be blessed”)—and we’re commoners by comparison!
(*One of her grandchildren ended up being one of the pallbearers at his funeral, by the way).
**The European part is Gaelic (Irish and Scottish), Frankish (German, remote French, and remote Walloonian), English, remote Scandinavian, remote Dutch (Flemish—may be Flemish Jewish, though), and remote Scandinavian (Gaeloscandinavian, including in the surname “Reilly”—which is Scandinavian-Irish in origin).
And apparently, Cam had better stay in the one which Ri assigned her 😳!
I kind of take it as a compliment that both nominal and actual Republicans are held to a higher standard. Is the hypocrisy frustrating? Yes. If it were up to me, there would be no political parties; and every candidate for an office would have to run on his or her individual merit and ideology instead of partisanship. At the same time, it does not change that freedom comes with responsibility; and Ted Cruz has used his freedom irresponsibly.
Needlessly to say, Camille‘s refusal to let “Mom-Mom” fully put her coat on before a walk isn’t the only part that’s everybody, including Camille herself.
“When your favorite towel becomes like a favorite blankie, use it as a blankie and tolerate pictures if at least you look cute enough in your blankie.” -Reilly
Watch to find out what Reilly and a certain little grounddog predicted.
Not all Jews receive what is Jewish DNA, especially due to intermarriages and other interrelationships, whether or not they were consensual. Also, keep in mind that many markers that are Jewish have yet to be identified as such. I figured out that pretty quickly with my own line showed showing atDNA as Western Ukrainian when it is clearly not. I know that I didn’t get it from my dad, as he inherited apparently other “Eastern European“ DNA. I also know that my mom is not of Ukrainian descent— I’m pretty sure, as well, that I can pinpoint that it was the Lehr family from whom I got the “Western Ukrainian“ DNA, as there were Lehrs in Bytom and we were in Rotenberg al der Fulda (both formerly a part of Prussia), and Ukraine is not too far away from either of those. I am also aware of other Jewish ancestry in her line, and autosomal DNA is also a new science. PS We were also affected by the pogroms and other Anti Semitism. For example, the grandparents of my paternal grandfather stopped talking to our side of the family because his parents converted right after the Farber-Kogan incident that would unfortunately be exploited to incite the Belostok Pogrom. We had been in Lipsk but were exiled to Szumowo, though my great-grandfather was born in Tsuman’—his mother had relatives in Ukraine, including in Buzhanka outside of Zvenyhorodka. His birth, however, was registered in Szumowo, which my great-great-grandfather gave as “Sumeve” at Antwerpen.
This card was planned before the events on that particular DÃa de Los Tres Reyes, and "Momma" has consistently been a #NeverTrump Republican--even going so far as to explain to Reilly that Donald Trump is "a mean old man", "not nice", etc. To not let what happened on that certain day ruin everything, "Momma" is posting the card.
“Momma” originally was going to ask Reilly some questions about the current political situation in ways that puppies can understand it. P.D. Lo siento si el retruécano te ha ofendido.
A belated DÃa de Los Tres Reyes card.
¿Posiblemente, Reily piense que ella es una reina? ¡Por supuesto, le piense que ella es--¡no "está"; "es"!
