Repost: What Glamour? From PolishForums.com

The naysayers like jon357 and Magdalena (who, for whatever reason, want me to continue to fall for Dad's and Pop-Pop's romanticized narrative about Great-Granddad) are the ones who really get my goat. I myself was shocked by the truth--never did I dream that Great-Granddad Czarnecki was born a Chernetski in Tsuman, Ukraine (then Cumań in then-Wołyn, Ukraine-Poland Russia) while his dad was back home in Lipsk nad Biebrzą or Somovo(? So the record says, but would he really have been all the way in Somovo, far from Lipsk; and not, say, Szumowo or Shamovo?)? He was born while his mom may have been making a Rosh Hodesh visit to a cousin, Vil'gel'm Andrulevich, in Buzhanka in the Kiev, Ukraine region. 

The story gets even less glamorous. There is nothing glamorous about converting to Catholicism to fool the Russians into thinking that you finally believe in Jesus as the Jewish Messiah--especially when your family sits shiva for you because you did so. As an e-mail from my Granduncle Tony alludes to (although the poor man still denies that we're Jewish--and that's another discussion. Anyway):

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.

Once the conversion happened and the shiva was sat, that was it "until they asked for the deed to be changed in the mid 1960's"; with the Holocaust being that dark interim in regards to any contact even with Bertha Wawrzyn--and three Czarnieckis, perhaps cousins, are listed on JewishGen as having been Holocaust victims from Białystok:

Bialystok Children's Transport to Theresienstadt, October 5, 1943


Searching for Surname (phonetically like) Czarnecki
Number of hits: 3
Run on Saturday 28 July 2012 at 22:19:31

Child #
Adult # Surname(s), Given Name Father + Mother Born Transport
10

CZARNIECKI, Tewel
Gerszon + Rochl
1934 Bialystok

11

CZARNIECKI, Jankiel
Gerszon + Rochl
1933 Bialystok

12

CZARNIECKI, Oszer
Gerszon + Rochl
1936 Bialystok

 
What glamour would there be in that for my great-granddad "Antoni" and his parents "Julian" and "Alexandria" (and they gave both sets of his grandparents the names "Antoni" and "Katarzyna"--why that didn't ring bells or raise flags for me at first, I don't know.)? What glamour was there to be had for living as Crypto-Jewish Catholics in Sugar Notch, Pennsylvania to escape WASP (White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant) and WEC (White, European Catholic) Anti Semitism? What glamour was in for "Antoni" (later "Anthony") to grow up to become a man like his "holy terror", "tough cookie" mom (who abused his drunkard dad, her drunkard husband), and then commit suicide once he had time to reflect on just what he became? What glamour?

So, my dad and granddad paint this romanticized picture of a lone Polish immigrant who served in Korea and died of Black Lung in 1972, which is far from the Anthony Czarnecki ne G-d-knows-who Chernetski that he was.

Post After A Busy Day: Is Greg Gutfeld Really Jewish?

Undeniably yes. Even though he is a raised-Catholic agnostic, he's still ethnically Jewish and has an Ashkenazic Jewish surname--German/Yiddish "good field". To make a long theological discussion short and use Greg Gutfeld as a case in point, as well as to quickly compare him to case-in-point me, one can be an ethnic Jew and not considered Jewish--whether or not he or she is actually religious Jewish. By the way, Anusi (Crypto Jewish) families can go back at least a century to even the Dark Ages.

Case in point, you have Catholic Greg Gutfeld who has said that he is not Jewish; and whether that's ignorance or denial on his part, I don't know. But Bill O'Reilly wished him a "Happy Hanukkah" once, and that's when he brought it up. Greg Gutfeld could well (and understandably) be an Anusi or an in-the-dark descendant of Anusim--or maybe he sadly doesn't see "Jewish" as an ethnic label (or maybe he does and is in denial about it).

Another case in point, my self-loathing dad and his parents. Same thing as Greg Gutfeld (assuming that Greg Gutfeld knows better and is an Anusi)--raised Catholic, descendants of Anusim, in loathable and loathing denial that they're Jewish, and considering "Jewish" as a religious--not an ethnic--label.

I hope that, that address a question that I've seen implied or explicitly come up in my FeedJit and Blogger stats.

Toby Keith and Gallbladder Surgery: I Wish The Man Well, But I Wonder...

Perhaps a side effect of too much boozing, tour stress, and/or...I wonder (I mean, I don't know any decent guy who would feel comfortable having "dancing girls" on tour while he has a family back home.)...but you can fill in the blank with whatever plausible and legal thing that you like--either way, you have to wish Toby Keith well if you have a sense of decency--and maybe that he'll use his time out to reflect and think, including on his health.

By the way, I know that a certain kind of wondering may be a little mean; but as I stated, I don't know any decent guy who would feel comfortable having "dancing girls" on tour while he has a family back home. As I also stated, maybe that he'll use his time out to reflect and think; at least to get his priorities in order.

How Sad...

The Cha-Barber boys clearly look unhappy:



How sad to have to deal with, let alone realize, what your dad and stepmom did to your mom at such a young age. 

I Observed My Blog Shabbat Yesterday...

I was busy with genealogy. I was trying to figure out in particular whether the Trudniaks are Crypto Jews--I think that they are. I think that whoever submitted the Ancestral File erroneously assumed that Rozina Trudnyaková and Martin Trudnyak, her dad, were born in Jablunka as opposed to Jablonka, Nowy Targ, just because her husband, Tomas, was. Besides, all the research that I've done places the Trudnyaks (Trudniaks/Trudnaks) in Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland--not Moravia or the rest of the Czech Republic.


Also--and this the main point--Mihal Trudniak (my great-great-granddad) married a Jew, Anna Monková Trudniak, of Lapsze Nizne; and Jews--with few exceptions--did not marry gentiles back then, and vice versa.

Repost: Wrong Call, Twitter

"I think Twitter's approach is being very heavy-handed,'' he said. "They suspended my account without warning me. They didn't tell me for 24 hours why it had been suspended.''

What did Guy Adams do? He simply expressed the sentiment of millions of Americans and others, including Brits like himself:

NBC has racked up record ratings through the first couple days of the London Games, but also has faced harsh criticism online, largely from American viewers upset with tape-delayed coverage. Angry Olympic fans used the hashtag "nbcfail'' and even set up at least one parody account poking fun at the TV wait.

The network is streaming the events online, but that clearly isn't enough for some viewers who shelled out thousands of dollars for big-screen TVs and want their live coverage.

"If this Gary Zenkel doesn't want to hear from the many tens of thousands of customers he upset with his network's coverage, I think he's in the wrong job,'' Adams said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

When Twitter receives a complaint like the one against Adams, its support team does its own investigation before deciding whether to suspend the account.

Adams said he found Zenkel's email with a simple online search, but said he didn't grab it from an NBC website.

"His address is not a private email address,'' Adams said. "It's a corporate address. It's not his private email address. It's a corporate account. It's company information.''

I'm not watching the Olympics, anyway; and the only worth-it person this year on NBC at the Olympics is Bob Costas. Now I have one more reason not to give Anti-Semitic NBC any ratings: they're whiny. "If this Gary Zenkel doesn't want to hear from the many tens of thousands of customers he upset with his network's coverage, I think he's in the wrong job." 

By the way, unlike NBC, Fox News lets one contact them; and even the Fox News spouses who are public figures get involved--even if one doesn't like how they get involved. To be fair, for example, to Geraldo Rivera's wife, she did get involved when I had some complaints about her influence on Geraldo and her befriending Traci Lynn Johnson (Traci Lynn Barber by now, I suppose). She at least took my complaints seriously enough, even if she didn't find them legitimate, to respond to them. Furthermore, to be fair, she did--as I stated--influence a change a heart in me.


Back to the point, Twitter made the wrong call and gave an Anti-Semitic (with the exception of Bob Costas) and whiny network too much credence or kavod, or whatever you want to call it. Twitter, therefore, should give Guy Adams his Twitter account back (and so be if this blog entry gets me suspended from Twitter; I wouldn't support the Anti-Semitic NBC, who could've easily boycotted the IOC for refusing to remember the murder victims in Munich, anyway. Why Twitter did, I'll never know.).


Meanwhile and while I'm obviously calling for a boycott of all of NBC but for Bob Costas, I want to give one more plug to open and Philosemitic Fox News--and a shout-out for a happy seventh birthday to Sol Rivera (Geraldo's and Erica's daughter) and a happy ninth anniversary to Geraldo and Erica (Make this one last, Geraldo!).

Can Someone Help Me Figure Out What His Cousin's Name Was?