A Comment(ary) That Became Too Long For Instagram: Los Idiomas de Mis Padres y Madres

 In reply to @vertigo5110: especially my Jewish family is the same way. The gentile languages that they spoke or speak include: 

1. English
2.  Irish (as the Farrells were conversos—and a certain cousin got mad when I found out!) 
3. German
4. Slovakian¹
5. Only the Magyar that everyone in the Hungarys (including what was then Upper Hungary) was forced to speak (and the ones who are in what was and is Hungary Proper speak)
6. Polish (with some going as far to pretend that they were Polish and Lithuanian Catholics)
7. Portuguese (João Enrique Ferin de Lisboa later took “John Henry McCoy” and, as a converso, had an ugly divorce from his tsores-in-di-tuches wife). 

The closet thing that João’s great-grandson (my grandfather) Francis X. Allen had to Ladino was Yiddish (which my mother has never learned or showed interest in learning). My father’s paternal grandparents, meanwhile, somehow communicated in mutually-unintelligible Polish and Slovakian (They either learned from each other or, more likely, spoke in Yiddish. Besides, two of my paternal grandfather‘s paternal uncles—Jankie and Susi—were lucky enough to have Yiddish names that they used openly as nicknames within the family.). On the flip side, the father of Dad’s paternal grandmother would have successfully hidden his Hebrew name if his daughter Helen Ropel didn’t give it away before she died ^הערה.

I myself: 

1. am working on learning and/or continuing to learn Hebrew, Yiddish, Esperanto, Polish, and Ukrainian (with the latter two for genealogical purposes), and yo todavía estudio el idioma de español. 
2. am also working on learning Portuguese (primarily for genealogy along with Polish and Ukranian).
3. was additionally learning Russian to speak with a friend whom grew up under Soviet oppression. I nonetheless stopped Duolingo lessons on Russian shortly after the Russian invasion into Ukraine, and I am learning Ukrainian in solidarity with Ukraine as well as acknowledgement of how both of my paternal grandfather’s parents had roots in Ukraine ². 

¹With Mihály Trudnyak né Nagy and Anna Munková going as far as to pretend that they were born in Poland and as Polish or Slovakian Catholics. Mihály was born as an “illegitimate” Nagy to parents in Budapest with no foot in Kacwin. As for Anna Munková, she was passed off as a forcibly-baptized sister in Levoča and not Łapsze Niżne.

^הערהI should’ve known that he used “Stephen” and “Stef” to calque for “Yosef” or—as she gave it—“Joseph”. The misspelling “Fosco”, as in “Joseph and Julia Fosco Rusnak”, may have been a mistake. “Joseph”, as I quickly figured out, was conversely not a mistake. As far as I know, Julia Rusnak née Foczko (Fosko) rarely or never used “Fosco” in her lifetime, although she did have relatives in Romania. By contrast, Joseph “Andrew Steven”/ “Andrew Stef” Rusnak even invented a brother named “Stephen” to cover up his Jewish origins—as he and all of his siblings were born to Crypto-Jewish parents and forcibly baptized. His paternal grandparents even had to go through a dispensation in order to get married, and his grandfather was living in Austrohungarian-occupied Chiuzbaia at the time.

²My grandfather’s father was born in Tsuman’ on the day of the Kyiv pogrom—October 23, 1904. His mother—whom was in route to visit, as I later learned, a recently-widowed cousin in Buzhanka—quickly had to turn back to Szumowo called “Shumeve”, and she had to register his birth and have him baptized there. She herself had become a Crypto Jew after the Farber-Kogan incident that occurred in Białystok only weeks before the Kyiv Pogrom, and she and Great-Granddad—as well as an unknown child—barely survived the Bialystok Pogrom and its fallout in Shumeve—and I don’t call her being raped and with a child whom noticeably goes in and out of the records as really having “survived”.

As for the paternal family of Pop-Pop’s maternal grandfather, they were Jews and Trudnyakovs from Odesa long before they ended up as “Trudynaks” in Kežmarok and Budapest.

Midyear/High Holy Days Resolutions

 During the High Holy Days of 5783, I resolve to:

1. Do more of what I asked others to do (e.g., pursue tzedek v’shalom) in my commentary for Yom Teru’ah. 
2. Do more anaerobic exercise—even if doing so can be a little difficult due to an albe-friendly puppy named Reilly exercising her apparent right to kiss the inside of “Momma”’s nostrils (which can hurt and make breathing through her nose difficult)!
3. Be a better “Momma” to Reilly—including by doing a better job with making holiday and other special-occasion cards with Reilly.
4. Write more.
5. Respond to messages, emails, etc. more, and be more socially interactive in general.
6. Manage my ADD, OCD/Anxiety, Depression, and Anxiety better.
7. Read both the parashot and the haftarot more (as I read the parashot and haftarot only once a week), and read Tanakh and Yigdal (the B’rit Chadashah) in general more.
8. Take abuse, intentional and unintentional, less personally. For me, abuse is ultimately about the abuser.
9. Be more forgiving and less prone to holding grudges, and be more trusting of יהוה in general (including in that יהוה will ultimately bring tzedek, even if not in this lifetime and in this age).
10. Walk more in the ways of יהוה, and not let myself be affected by what people whom don’t fear or dread (even if they claim to fear and dread) יהוה think.

PS If you’re interested in letting me know about your own midyear and High Holy Days resolutions, please let me. Also keep in mind that I moderate comments on my blog, and that no spam or k’tav hara becomes a part of the comments section. In fact, both spam and k’tav hara get deleted or even reported to Google. 

Reilly Rosalita Czarnecki, the Frannie Laskey of Maltipoos

 

A Little Different: Before- and After-Grooming Pictures of Camille

Before, and not keen on going for a ride in “Mom-Mom”’s car or getting her picture taken

After, when she didn’t have her back turned to “Auntie Nicole”. 

PS Getting pictures of Reilly was impossible, and “Momma” plans to feature Reilly in (אם ירצה יהוה) an upcoming Yom Teru’ah card, anyway.

(בני אגם מתכננים, ויהוה צוחק.)

 

Commentary: Reflections On Yom Teru’ah 5783 (Rosh HaShanah HaRabim 5784)

 Long ago, someone alerted me to Page 251 of “The 9/11 Commission Report”. Once I found out and fully processed that I am among the “‘Jews, not necessarily the United States’” that the perpetrators of 9/11 targeted, I realized very quickly that Jews in the United States and elsewhere cannot be (as the saying goes) shirking violets. Regardless of individual religious, political, and other backgrounds and beliefs, Jews (whether in the U.S., Ukraine, or elsewhere in the Jewish Diaspora, or in ‘Eretz Yisra’el) need to look out for each other and those around us. For starters, as we enter the seventh month of 5783 (which some will observe as Rosh HaShanah 5774), let us do what יהוה commanded those of us in the Diaspora through Yirimiyahu hanavi: “seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray unto the LORD for it; for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.” (Sefer Yirimiyahu 29:7, JPS 1917)

On September 12, 2001, the Jewish communities in New York and other trauma-affected cities sought the cities’ welfares—even though we Jews (whether or not we knew that we are Jewish) were the main victims, whether indirectly or directly (and many Jews were direct victims of 9/11, with Danny Lewin, ז״ל, being the first victim). Resigning to injustice, hopelessness, and dying should therefore not be an option 22 years later. As Yom Teru’ah 5783 comes up, let those of us whom are Jews in the United States seek the welfare of the cities in which we currently reside as we sought particularly the welfares of New York, Shanksville, Pennsylvania; all cities in Arlington County in Virginia, and other directly-affected cities in 5761 (also right before Yom Teru’ah in that year). Let us raise a teru’ah (shouting) to the God of Israel to bless and keep especially all Jewish communities in the United States during the Yamim Nora’im. Let us raise a teru’ah to the God of Israel to bring shalom to U.S. ally Ukraine, and to bless and keep especially all Jews in Ukraine (whom are facing hostility that is born of the same Antisemitism that Jews in the United States faced. Both the Russian government and the perpetrators of 9/11 have made their Anti-Israel sentiments known over the decades, and Vladimir Putin intends to harm especially Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other Jews in Ukraine.). 

As we wish others “G’mar Chatimah Tovah b’Sefer HaChayim” (“A good sealing in the Book of Life”), let us work to bring tzedek v’tikvah v’chayim v’refu’ah (justice and hope and life and healing) within our own lives and the lives of those around us—including those within our communities (both our local Jewish communities and the gentile communities among which our Jewish communities happen to be). 

P.S. Let us also raise the old teru’ah, “Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim!” (“Pray for the shalom of Jerusalem!”)

The “Trad”/“Chad” Culture Quickly Is Resurging Its Ugly Head In Every Domain (For “Business Announcer”)

 For whatever reason, I got a Signals magazine in the mail today. When I was flipping through the magazine, as I have been able to buy from them in the past (as poor people with disabilities are able to buy nice things once in a while if they get the opportunity to do so), I quickly determined that I’m probably not going to buy from them for a while at the very least (and permanently at the most). What caught my eye is what should catch Signals the flak that they deserve: 

The misogynistic shirt alleges, “A fancier title and elevated status with every new generation? That’s the definition of heaven!”

If Signals wanted to insult women whom cannot have children (including women whom struggle with infertility) as well as women whom have chosen to not have children for whatever reasons, they have accomplished what they wanted to do. They seem to have picked up their cues from the likes of Matt Walsh, Andrew Tate, and Luke Rockwell—the latter of whom demonstrated exactly why many men are going to Southeast Asia to find women and girls. Both they and the three aforementioned men (one of whom can be reported for hate crimes and the other two of whom are currently under investigation for rape) are therefore demonstrating that the troubling phenomenon that is known as (among other names) “trad”, “chad”, “theobro”, and “red pill” culture is bleeding over into every domain of society, 

Notwithstanding that the “theo” is not the “Theo” whom they claim to follow and that their pills are actually sort-of Ying-and-Yang combinations of arsenic and cyanide (as arsenic can be black in color and cyanide can be white), the “trad”/“chad”/“theobro”/“red pill”, etc. people are pushing a dangerous black-and-white pill that makes them more intangibly dangerous than the pushers of excess OxyContin tangibly are. When OxyContin is prescribed correctly, and to actually alleviate pain, it can be helpful to the person whom means it for pain management. The same cannot be said (and in fact, the opposite can be said) for that pain-causing black-and-white pill that is deceitfully coated with red coloring.

Just as the pushers of OxyContin were sued for aggressive marketing and fraudulent prescribing (as the government had to get involved because of the scope of the OxyContin pushing), the “trad”/“chad”/“theobro”/black-and-white pill pushers need to be boycotted, sued, and prosecuted for hate crimes. (By the way, select “Civil Rights” and then “Hate Crimes” if you report Matt Walsh and John Lekach for targeting Julia. Unfortunately, you can select only one demographic category because of which Julia was targeted. Because Julia was targeted primarily due to her gender, I recommend that you select “Gender”. Given that the Internet spans multiple jurisdictions and John Lekach conspired with a U.S. citizen to target another U.S. citizen, a “United States v. Matt Walsh and John Lekach” would not necessarily violate the 11th Amendment. Also, Matt Walsh and John Lekach targeted Julia to target all single 20+-year-old women whom have no children; and they obviously targeted multiple American women alone in using Julia as a proxy target.

(As far as Costa Rica—as John Lekach makes publicly known that he committed his hate crime from there, and the FBI will be helped in knowing when they investigate him and Matt Walsh—Costariqueños will have to deal separately with John Lekach as a Costariqueño—as Americans have enough to deal with in putting even legal attention on attention-obsessed Matt Walsh. Besides, the 11th Amendment would prohibit the U.S. from prosecuting John Lekach as a Costariqueño, although he could be prosecuted for conspiring with a U.S. citizen to target another U.S. citizen because of the multijurisdictional nature of the Internet and X’s status as a U.S.-based company.)

Signals and its fellow black-and-white-pill pushers thus need to be put on cultural, economic and legal notices that misogynistic traditionalism should and will only lead them to isolation. At best, their misogynistic traditionalism should and will isolate them from American, Costariqueño, and other spheres of business and society. At worst, it should and will lead them to lawfully-punitive isolation in square cells on the sphere known as “Earth” (as it has led Andrew Tate and Luke Rockwell, and will hopefully lead Matt Walsh and John Lekach).

Quick Personal Update—and a Few #ThrowbackThursday Pictures of Reilly

For two much-better-looking subjects, meanwhile…

 

And one of whom is the spotlight-ambivalent-yet-attention-wanting pup with the ever-curious mind…