Wait Until Hanukkah & Christmas, and What Reilly & "Momma" Want For Christmas

Even though Reilly was overwhelmed on Thanksgiving, the jury is out on Hanukkah and Christmas. For the past two Hanukkot and Christmases, she did well (😢—"Momma"'s baby's growing. She'll be three human years—and 32.3 dog years—exactly three months after Christmas, and she'll always be "Momma"'s puppy—and a puppy's always a puppy, whether a baby puppy or an adult puppy. 😢—"Momma"'s tearing up again.).

"Momma"'s not exactly sure if Reilly was okay with the nerot shel Hanukkah, though she did well overall. However, she merely tolerated the Hanukkah and Christmas cards for the first ones.

"Momma" made the card using Powerpoint.

"Mom-Mom" took this photo.

Reilly was grinchy about regular pictures on Christmas Eve, too.

As far as Christmas, Reilly liked the treats and toys—and she was heartbreakingly heartbroken and sad when "Momma" had to throw her donut-shaped toy—which was one of her favorite toys—away ("Donut has to go bye-bye". Poor Reilly was whimpering and whining in a gentle and "Please don't throw 'Donut' away" way. Incidentally, "Donut" was replaced with a squeaky-wheel toy named "Speedy".).

Reilly will then want the same kind of gifts for this Hanukkah and Christmas—e.g., treats, toys, family presence. As for "Momma", she wants a God-given gift for herself and Reilly—and Reilly would certainly be a gift in turn, though whether "Momma" would be may be questionable.


PS As "Auntie Nicole" was typing this, she gasped and dropped her mouse because she thought that she saw a bug crawling on her phone—and Camille looked at "Auntie Nicole" with a "What's going on?" and an "Are you okay"? expression.

Labor Day And Memory Monday: Just How Did Reilly's Human Family (Including "Momma") Fall In Love With Their First "Fur"-mily Member?

"Saint Reilly Rosalita Of Jerusalem" (as I jokingly call her, although Reilly really is a kalvah kedoshah l'Yehovah, and) is the puppy whom chose us. After a tired Reilly was done playing with her siblings and resting in the house after a long play session, Joyce brought her and her sister out to one of the outside playpen-and-show areas when Reilly's to-be "Mom-Mom" asked if we could see any female Maltipoos—and that's when a tired-and-docile Reilly stayed in the front-right (and from our view, front-left) corner of the playpen and let "Mom-Mom" approach her and pick her up.

"Are you Reilly?" Mom asked Reilly this and fell in love with her firstborn "granddogter" immediately, and (as she later told me) understood why Reilly's to-be "Grandaunt" Frannie loved her own "fur"-mily (including her own "Momma's girl", Abby) so much—she'd never gotten why people love their dogs so much before, as she'd never had a dog when she was a kid and our own first dog—a family dog named "Angelina"—heartbreakingly came from a puppy miller whom disguised herself as a legitimate breeder and gives legitimate breeders like Joyce bad names, since "Angelina" (and her brother Teddy, whom Aunt Frannie owned) died within a week or so of coming home.

To answer "Mom-Mom"'s question and assuage her dreads, Reilly ended up licking the ring on "Momma"'s right ring finger! To confirm her answer when they went into Joyce's house to get to know Reilly better, etc., she crawled up from "Momma"'s lap to her face and licked her face.

Joyce let me take a cell-phone picture of then six-week-old Reilly as she held her.

Fast forward to today, and have a good rest of the Happy Labor Day that Reilly and "Momma" wish you to have*.





*PS "Momma" does still wish that Reilly'd have a "Daddy" with whom to spend Labor Day as another family member—not to mention that "Momma" would like to dance with someone to "Great-Mom-Mom"'s and "Great-Granddaddy"'s favorite dancing song and have him dance with his "dogter". Besides, Reilly's seen what "Momma"'s constant heartbreak and suffering—both romantically and non romantically—is like (Incidentally, Reilly's "Great-Granddad" Czarnecki did say "I don't like music" during a conversation in which "Great-Grandma", I, and others were talking about a tribute to Willie Nelson or something like that—and that's a reminder of an example of non-romantic heartbreak in "Momma"'s life, because "Great-Granddad" was a person that Reilly would not have liked were she a daughter of man and were she living at the time. But since Reilly is a puppy—albe an adult one—she likes everyone—or at least most people.).

Two Years Since...

My Reilly came home!









While Reilly is a dog now and can no longer fit under chair the green chair, she's a (as the breeder warned us) feisty one (We didn't believe it, though quiet and docile Reilly showed us! By the way, both Reilly and Camille are evidence that good, loving, competent, and knowledgeable breeders exist, despite the adopt-and-rescue zealots whom like to slander, libel, and give a bad name to breeders just because of puppy millers—and why don't those "adopt, don't shop" types go reform the human-adoption-and-foster system, confront the "baby designers" and other eugenicists [including abortionists], and encourage adoption over IVF first?

(By the way, a family friend [Diane Magruder of blessed memory] referred us to Joyce, and Diane got to meet Reilly during the last time that she saw us. She never got to meet Cam, though she will see Ri and Cam at the Resurrection Of the Dead and the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom.)

My Own 25th Birthday, And a Scary Realization...

Now I'm 25 years old by both Biblical and Gregorian standards. Meanwhile, I (no pun intended) am stopped dead in my tracks by a horrifying realization: I am as old as Great-Granddad Czarnecki was when the 1929 Great Depression happened. Also, I just read about the hardly-explained suicide of Madison Holleran—and all while I had been browsing to find out the age of a public figure whose age was not given on Wikipedia. One thing really can lead to another!

At that point, reading about Miss Holleran's suicide led to my reading comments about it—including the evil-hearted one from "Bc". Typing a response to him made me realize (at least more of) what happened to Great-Granddad, etc. (Incidentally—or maybe not—the day-and-date scheme was the same in 1964 as it was in 2014. By the way, "50" and "25" are multiples of "25" and "five". The numbers in it all, too. Needless to say, numbers and patterns alone should prove that there are no coincidences in life.):

That's easy for you to say. Could you go in back in time and, e.g., talk to my Great-Granddad Czarnecki:

Born on October 24, 1904, he was a pogrom survivor who had to become a Crypto Jew, who lost his father (who, by the way, was an alcoholic and a terrible husband) when he was 17 going on 18, his sister Regina when he was 20 (and she was 16. She died of cholera [sic.].), his mother when he was 31 going on 32 (after he already had a complicated relationship with her), his firstborn son, and his youngest brother (who was a Holocaust victim whose cause of death was murder due to serving in the U.S. Military and being fatally injured by a Nazi soldier. He took almost 18 years to die, by the way, since that's how botched the surgery to remove the shrapnel from his head was; and he died from a schizophrenic reaction and a coronary occlusion). He also lost other siblings, all of whom died when they were infants.

Add to that, that he lost his three right middle toes and his leg up to his knee when he worked as a lawnmower operator at an apartment complex (and because he lost his previous job in the hard-hit Sugar Notch, Pennsylvania coal mines). The job losses and limb loss either affected the onset of or exacerbated his Depression, for which the medication that he took was ineffective.

So, after 60 years, a month, a week, and a day of pain (i.e., 21,954 days of pain), he attempted suicide; and although his attempt didn't work and he changed his mind at the last minute, his death certificate reads that he died of suicide by drowning.

By the way, the Great Depression began on his 9,131st day (his 25th birthday). He also had other pain (that is, besides what I mentioned, including how his 25th birthday was marred and the Pogrom of Pogroms thus far at that time—the Holocaust—began on that day).

You tell me, then, how willing he was to consider that, e.g., "tomorrow is another to borrow the words of some one else". Your lack of critical thinking, empathy, and compassion astounds me.

What a sobering reality! By the way, let me add what I originally commented:

Sure; expectations of perfection, etc. can affect the onset of Depression and suicide affected by Depression. Frankly, though, it does seem unusual (even weird). What didn't Madison tell?

By the way, I know that this isn't about me; although I have Depression, and my father's paternal grandfather, the maternal grandfather of my father's maternal grandmother, and two maternal uncles of father's maternal grandmother all committed suicide. My father's sister attempted suicide as well, and I ended up in Sheppard Pratt for threatening suicide (and there are days where the temptation of suicide still assails me.

So, I know from experience that more than just expectations of perfection, etc. had to be in play. Incidentally, I have never seen my great-granddad's suicide note; and I figured out that my great-grandmother's maternal grandfather (who was in his 50s when he died) committed suicide because I noted that two of his six sons (and two of his seven children) committed suicide (so, mathematically, for him to not commit suicide would have been impossible.

I will add other links later [6:04 PM EST].

The links have been added [10:45 PM EST].

To Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz At HaKotel b'Yerushalayim

Rabbi Rabinowitz,

Think of the song "Light One Candle". Part of the song goes, "Don't let the light go out; it's lasted for so many years." So have our people, 'Am Yisra'el, Ha'Or L'Goyim. We have lasted for millennia, ever since Yitzchak was conceived and born; and then Yitzchak conceived and had born to him two sons of his own, one of whom became Ya'akov Avinu.

Without Imoteinu, our coming forth and longevity as a people would have been impossible. Without achoteinu, habanot imoteinu, none of acheinu would have been able to conceive and have born to them successive dorot m'Yisra'el. Without further dorot m'Yisra'el, we would've died out as an 'am.

Therefore, your banning of HaNashot HaKotel is a chillul HaShem and a chillul zichronot ha'avot v'imahot. Even Ya'akov Avinu told even Imoteinu, "'Put away the strange gods that are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your garments; 3 and let us arise, and go up to Beth-el; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.'" (From Bereshit 35, JPS 1917) Why do you, then, put away achoteinu as Imoteinu put away their strange g-ds?

Please consider whether to put away achoteinu, habanot Imoteinu, like Imoteinu put away strange g-ds is an avodah tovah. If it is an avodah tovah, then to have put away Imoteinu would have been tov, would it not have been?

Toda v'Chanukkah Tovah.

Is "The Jerusalem Post" Ignoring History?

They apparently are. Then again, they may just be cutting it short. Still, isn't cutting off a part of history essentially ignoring it (at best)? (At worst, cutting off any part of history is either denial of it or even unspoken support of what happened at a point in it.).
Jeremy Sharon, the Post reporter who wrote the history in question, reported:

One of the most striking aspects of the 33rd Government of Israel was the absence of the two haredi parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, from the coalition.
Since 1981, at least one of the haredi parties has been a coalition partner in 11 out of the 15 governments since that time.

Is he kidding?  Even though Shas was absent (or Rabbi Ovadia Yosef had been deceased since October 7th of last year, which Sharon himself reported) and United Torah Judaism was absent, that doesn't make "the absence of the two haredi parties" (or any other Haredi party) a fact! On the contrary, the Haredim have always been in the government since then-PM David ben Gurion gave Agudat Yisra'el power.
All one constituency needs is an umbrella or big-tent party to be in its government, and that constituency is there for as long as the party is there. In this case, Agudat Yisra'el has been in HaMemshalah Yisra'el since before the "Declaration of Establishment" was written.
Therefore, for Jeremy Sharon and The Jerusalem Post to claim that the Haredim were missing from even one of the Israeli regimes, let alone four, is dishonest and (at best) sloppy or even (at worst) yellow journalism.
How would it be yellow journalism? For starters, yellow journalism itself

was a style of newspaper reporting that emphasized sensationalism over facts. During its heyday in the late 19th century it was one of many factors that helped push the United States and Spain into war in Cuba and the Philippines, leading to the acquisition of overseas territory by the United States.

Therefore, to claim a Haredi absence is yellow journalism in its own sense. To state that "the two haredi parties" were absent is sensationalistically acting like the Haredim were entirely absent, after all.
Besides, Jeremy Sharon also noted that Rabbi Ovadia Yosef had appointed an heir∗:

Roi Lachmanovitz, a former Shas spokesman, said that the designation of Moshe as inheritor, in particular of the rabbi’s library and publishing rights, gives him increased influence within the Shas party and the Yosef family.
Lachmanovitz noted that it had been Yosef’s other sons who had been chosen for public roles. Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef was nominated by Yosef himself, before he died, to be the new Sephardi chief rabbi, and Rabbi David Yosef was appointed to the Shas Council of Torah Sages after the rabbi passed away.
“Moshe and his wife are returning to the center stage, because whoever has control of the books and library... can direct the [haredi] public, can tell the public what the rabbi meant. They will have increased status because of this,” he said.

In conclusion, Jeremy Sharon cut off 34-67 years of history (34 years counting from 1947-1981; 67 counting from June 1947-2014) and submitted a yellow-journalism article for The Jerusalem Post to print and publish (and apparently fell for his own revisionism).

Update (10:54:45 PM EST on December 8, 2014): Now here comes the "Told ya."

Here's Looking At You, Dad...And Pop-Pop, And Great-Granddad, And Whoever Else

This, again, is where the mixed feelings come in. I am staring at a picture of a notable actor. I am staring at a picture of a relative (I'm not joking. I said that "Danilovich" was a patronymic in his case. Then I saw the pictures, and I knew who Pop-Pop pretty much looked like. Right now, I see maybe who Dad will look like down the road.). I am also staring at a picture of the guy who raped Natalie Wood and murdered Jean Spangler.

What do you do when you know that your family wreaked havoc on the world and yet had some of the most-influential people come out from among them? Even my granddad, one of the three IRS Agents who served tax papers to Richard Nixon, came from the Daniloviches.

A long time ago, my aunt Mary (z"l) told me of the following exchange at a funeral:

*Fist slams on table* "Do you know what that Jack Czarnecki did today?"
"That's my father."
"Oh...I'm so sorry."
"No; it's okay—I agree with you.

And this coming on the day before the anniversary of Great-Granddad's suicide...




What the heck have we done?

My father's current wife with her late in-law father on her and my father's wedding day. She put this picture up after he passed away.

On the Rusnak Family Reunion Page. My dad is behind his wife and her daughter. The Rusnaks are another story, too, by the way; I'll just leave my description at that for right now.

And the mistaken obituary will be published for real soon. I guarantee you that. I guarantee you that since God finally did in Jack Czarnecki (and I have never backtracked from saying that), He will do in Kirk Douglas. Here's hoping, too, that Lana Wood can finally name her sister's rapist.

That shouldn't be said about a relative (ideally at least), although truth outweighs family loyalty—and in the end, might save the family in at least the next few generations. I know that the truth saved my generation (at least me and my sister), and I hope that'll it save the ones to come (for all sides of the Danilovich Family, too, might I add; not just "Katarzyna" Danilówiczowna Czerniecka's side, and certainly not just Kirk Douglas' side).

As an in-law Danilovich (my great-grandmother Mary Trudnak Czarnecki) told my Aunt Mary, "I want to talk about it." That's exactly what I myself intend to do as a Danilovich and as a human being, so that I don't see my family wrecked again or wrecking the world again—and so that many other families won't wreck themselves or the world again.

With 2014 and 5774 Almost Over...

A lot is already over and becoming over for me:

1. Right now, it's December 1, 2014 and Kislev 7, 5774. So, both the current Gregorian and Biblical years are almost over.
2. My Reilly just turned eight months old on November 25, 2014. So, her puppyhood is almost over. (I'm crying right now. Where has the time gone?)
3. The Kittleman campaign is over.
4. My chances at talking once more to some relatives are over. Granduncle Tony (z"l) died on July 31, 2014; and Grandaunt Bern died on November 20, 2014 (z"l). May I see them both at HaTechiyat HaMetim (Even though Mashiach seems to tarry, I wait for Him and hasten His Second Coming, as well as His return after the Tribulation. May Reilly and I be Raptured together, by the way; whether both of us are living or dead, or one of us is living or dead.).

There's also a lot of other times, matters, chances, etc. that are over for me. By the way, there is Scriptural proof that animals do have souls, although they have different kinds of souls. They either go into soul sleep, since their souls go down, or they wait in Abraham's Bosom (where hakedoshim had to wait until Mashiach died, rose, and conquered death) and certainly do not go up for judgement, since they can't reason like humans can.). Incidentally, someone on the Jews For Jesus forums along time ago pointed out that animals have souls per Bereshit 1; and I think that, that was a part of what got me eventually wondering if animals do actually have souls, and finding that (unlike plants), animals do have souls. Those who take the Jewishness out of Christianity (Nazarene/Messianic Judaism) and/or don't read Tanakh for what it is conclude that animals have no souls at all.

Meanwhile, I'm going to go give Reilly extra scritches.

Your Vote and Comments

Public OpinionPoll Results

By the way, I've been blogging more at The Times of Israel lately.

Even If Nobody Else Is Saying This...

Quite honestly, I wonder if it didn't have to do in part with the Haredi constituency in New York City that follows Yevamot 62b. Sure, this Vietnamese couple made their argument; nonetheless, was someone also trying to appease the Haredim?

"Our Rabbis taught: Concerning a man who loves his wife as himself, who honours her more than himself, who guides his sons and daughters in the right path and arranges for them to be married near the period of their puberty, Scripture says, And thou shalt know that thy tent is in peace.49  Concerning him who loves his neighbours, who befriends his relatives, marries his sister's50  daughter,"

Incidentally enough, I had no clue that it was that specific. I just knew about the reference. Anyway, don't kid yourself; the Haredim have a very-strong presence in New York City (e.g., Williamsburg, Crown Heights). By the way, the decision reads in part:

There is no comparably strong objection to uncle-niece marriages. Indeed, until 1893 marriages between uncle and niece or aunt and nephew, of the whole or half blood, were lawful in New York. And sixty years after the prohibition was enacted we affirmed, in May, a judgment recognizing as valid a marriage between a half-uncle and half-niece that was entered into in Rhode Island and permitted by Rhode Island law. It seems from the Appellate Division’s reasoning in May that the result would have been the same even if a full uncle and full niece had been involved. Thus Domestic Relations Law § 5(3) has not been viewed as expressing strong condemnation of uncle-niece and aunt-nephew relationships.

I wonder, too, if that's why some Haredim immigrated to New York. They may not have been literate in haleshonot l'goyim, though they still knew what was going on. Remember that back in Krasne nad Krasnopol, Wojciech and Marianna Krusznyska Danilowicz were smart enough to claim negligence in baptizing Katarzyna—by the way, Jews did use and even adopt shemot hagoyim; though I'm not sure if we'll ever know the real names of "Katarzyna" et. al.. "Marianna" is probably the one real name, though, since that's "Miryam Chanah".

As for their cousin Rochla (and I'm definitely not fooled in light of this, since Aleksandria listed Katarzyna as her in-law mother and nearest relative, even though they were not talking to each other after Julian and Aleksandra became Anusim), she came to New York with enough English literacy (or maybe she talked to a customs official who could speak Yiddish) to get into New York (Her aunt had to pick her up; so, who knows?).

By the way, all of Great-Granddad's families stuck together in Northumberland County, PA, too (Look it up. If you're too, quite honestly, lazy to do it, I'll give you the names and links to searches for "Czarnecki", etc.; "Danilowicz", etc.; "Andrulewicz". etc.; and "Margiewicz", etc.. Otherwise, you're on your own from there. I've proved myself enough—and I don't need that "Both sets of parents?" argument again, since Alexandria gave her parents' name as "Antoni" and "Katarzyna" as well. As far as I know, that neither is my fault nor was the fault of Great-Grandaunt Alice. I didn't even know that Great-Granddad's parents were here—let alone Crypto Jews who escaped the pogroms—until I was close to 20 years old, and she was simply writing what her mother told her to write. So, I wouldn't even be counted in an Israeli Census before then, and she was a bat chayil.

Anyway, back to my point (since I just needed to say all that in case I would get the "That's not enough evidence," "That's coincidence," etc. arguments): since Haredim are (as I must mention, in case one didn't know that Haredim are) very much a constituency in New York City (and, thus, New York State) and knew enough to immigrate to the "treif medina", could they somehow have played into "Nguyen v. Holder" (2014), even if quietly? After all, I perhaps would darned well consider that if I were a Second Circuit Court judge—especially if I wanted to get reappointed, and even someday appointed to the Supreme Court (As is known, elective politics plays even into appointive politics.).

Let's not be fooled: if (and since) Katarzyna's parents could (so to speak) pull strings to be under-the-radar Anusim, and Rochla knew enough to get into New York, the Haredim could and do know enough to (at least if they wanted) play into a gentile case that has implications for Haredi Jewish tradition.

Let me conclude one incidental observation as well: "Antoni" and "Katarzyna" seem to be to Poland as "Juan" and "Maria" are to Mexico.

September 11, 2014

In a few painful hours, the memorial of September 11, 2001 will occur...

לעולם שכחו ; לעולם עוד פעם. זכרו דנה פלקנברג והאחר קדושים מעונים, ז''ל והי''ד.

How A Skewed Taglit-Birthright Study Endangers Both the Jewish Community At Large And Will Taglit-Birthright's Reputation

I see plenty of issues with this study:

1) "Saxe and research associates Michelle Shain and Shahar Hecht collected data from August 6-11 via an online questionnaire, which included versions of the Pew survey questions. It was sent to eligible US Birthright Israel-Taglit candidates who had applied for a trip between summer 2011 and winter 2013/14."

There is no real "control" group. There are only Birthright applicants.

2) "Encouraged through an an opportunity to win one of two $100 Amazon.com gift cards, 1,756 young Jewish adults filled out the survey. The respondents included 1,122 who actually did go to Israel on a Birthright trip, and 634 nonparticipants."

The one group that there was, was pooled and divided unevenly. There should've been a total of either:

1.  878 Birthright travelers and 878 non travelers (still 1,756 people total, and and bringing in a control subgroup of 878 people—because, again, there was no control group; and a control group within a group does not count as a separate control group), or 
2. 1,122 travelers and 1,122 non travelers (keeping the 1,122 travelers who filled out the survey and bringing in a control subgroup). 

Either way, the surveyed ("treatment")-to-control group ratio is completely absent, let alone lacking.

3) "For the study, the Birthright applicants’ results were compared to a recent Pew survey and a Gallup poll, both of which were completed at the end of July."

The same problem regarding the subject pool and control groups is here, and data collection is also a problem here. Data from June 21, 2011-December 21, 2013 is older and more plentiful than data from July 2014, for example. Thus, there is no adequate amount of recency and amount of data to compare. In other words, the study would have been less skewed if both sets of data were from June 21, 2011-December 21, 2013; June 21, 2011-July 31, 2014; or July 31, 2014.


4) "Saxe feels the young Jews polled are a representative cross-section of young American Jews for several reasons. Primarily, bluntly, “because Birthright is free — and fun,” said Saxe, meaning the trip doesn’t only draw those who think it’s worth spending money on  a trip to Israel."

Any "representative cross-section of young American Jews" would include Messianic Jews (who are banned from applying to [and even specifically targeted for persecution by] Taglit) and others who Taglit bans .

In fact, the specific wording is in part:

"Eligible individuals are those who identify as Jewish and are recognized as such by their local community or by one of the recognized denominations of Judaism. Applicants must also have at least one Jewish birth parent, or have completed Jewish conversion through a recognized Jewish denomination. 

"*Those applying for trips leaving from the Former Soviet Union are eligible if they have at least one Jewish birth grandparent. The accuracy of information pertaining to the heritage of an applicant for a trip leaving from the Former Soviet Union is also verified by a local Consul before an applicant is considered eligible."

This on an international level alone would single out Karaites (who Rabbinate Judaism often slanders) and many other Jews, including Lemba Jews (who go by Patrilineal Descent and are mostly Messianic— despite that most sources try to separate them from the Jewish community at large because they "are Christian" [as if Christianity is not Jewish], etc..). Therefore, this certainly would not allow for just a "representative cross-section of young American Jews".

5) "Saxe said his team has analyzed the backgrounds of those who responded and the profiling is in context with last year’s massive Pew survey study of American Jews. The years of Jewish education, day school all look just about the same, he said, noting one slight difference — Birthright draws a lower proportion of children from intermarriages."

This skews the study as well. The "cross-section" are mostly Rabbinically-Jewish Rabbinical Jews (with a Rabbincally-Jewish Rabbincal Jew being a Jew who has at least one Matrilineally-Jewish parent "[and/]or have completed Jewish conversion through a recognized Jewish denomination".

([Do not kid yourself; Taglit would not look twice at Jews whose family was raised outside of a Rabbinate shul for two or more generations. In other words, for instance, Isaac Kaganowicz would not be considered a Rabbincally-Jewish Rabbincal Jew if both of his parents were Atheistically-raised Jews who were raising Issac in the same way that their parents raised them.)

"Since Taglit was founded in December 1999, annually some 20-25% of candidates have had no prior involvement in Jewish life, said Saxe. “The great piece of Taglit is that it levels the playing field,” said Saxe."

They do go to shul, though. In fact, I had a peer at UMBC who is an Atheist and whose family goes to a Reform shul. So, the "20-25% of candidates" have either parents and/or grandparents who at least go to shul.

6) "Pew doesn’t consider many of the people who went on Taglit to be Jewish because they don’t call themselves Jewish by religion, rather by parentage. “They might not count themselves as Jews until they go on Birthright,” added Saxe."

The Pew data also skews the study.

In other words, the Taglit study (which is called a "Brandeis University" study) is flawed and both dangerous to the Jewish community at large (who, for example, loses numbers according to Taglit-Pew-Saxe standards) and Taglit Birthright itself (and Taglit Birthright has had trouble in the past).

Update On Reilly

All groomed
- Nicole Czarnecki

How Were and/or Are You Affected By the Holocaust?

One incident that is particularly in my mind is the following:

For whatever reason, God appointed me to break through my family's bubbe meise that family had simply written for money during the Depression, and that we sent them food although we had to stop writing. I had found out that we are Jewish and started looking on YadVashem. When I saw the pictures of Vilmosz and Aron David "Dudus" Rusznak, I (so to speak) blew the cover off of what really happened. Then the story quickly changed from what Grandaunt Mary Ann hideously wrote in the 1999 family reunion letter (that is, that we stopped writing and sent food) to that Vilmosz and his in-law brother Zoli Grinfeld (z"l) wrote to us for financial help for which they never would have written otherwise.

As the convert branch and the descendants of Gyorgy "Gyorgy Kvetkovits" Rusznak, we were their absolutely-last resort. Realizing that they should've risked getting out of Europe after all (despite that, for example, they had young children with them and Vilmosz's mother had died in 1937), they wrote to us to ask for help—it was an act of piku'ach nefesh, not an act of wanting money (After all, they could've done quite well without us had they had the chance to do so. Vilmosz, e.g., owned a bakery; and he knew that the U.S. was hit harder in the Depression than Slovakian Hungary was hit, since the U.S. had been the better-off country.

When I blew that cover (and part of doing so was contating Alan Sidransky and telling him what we did), people got mad. The reason that I say "what we did", by the way, is because we're just as responsible as Great-Grandma Gaydos as long as we continue to cover up for her and lie about what she did, and what she did is out in the open now. Besides, compare Andrew Rusnak in a few years prior (He was born on November 1, 1877.):

Incidentally, this is one that I scanned in poorly from my own copy of the 1999 Reunion Book.

And in 1946 (He died on February 9, 1947. He also assumed that his brother Stef was still in Czechoslovakia—he didn't even want to know if his brother died.):



That's when that he was as complicit as his daughter became clear. G-d will punish those who hurt His people (including those among His people who hurt their mishpacha) and their descendants down to the third and fourth generations. I'm of Generation Four (from Andrew Rusnak) and Generation Three (from Mary Gaydos), and the subsequent third and fourth generations will be punished if we do not talk about it.

By the way, that Julia Fosko Rusnak died when she did is a blessing. Indeed, the righteous are taken away while nobody understands why they are! How do you think that she felt sending her sons (including Andy) to war when she damned well knew that they could become Holocaust victims? After all, a Jewish POW—whether Messianic or Non Messianic, Anusi or openly Jewish, or from the U.S. or England—held no distinction to the Germans:




To the Germans (save for the Gomerim Tzdukim), a Jew was a Jew (and not in a good way!). In fact, Great-Great-Grandma Rusnak (like so many other Jewish mothers) has to be one of the unsung heroes of the Holocaust—sending a son or daughter to fight the very enemy who could commit ethnocide against him or her is one of the ultimate acts of maternal sacrifice.

By the way, to Grandaunt Mary Ann, you don't necessarily have to be part of the Czarnecki Family Tree—in fact, your sister's dad-in-law's family wanted nothing to do with Great-Granddad Czarnecki once his parents became Anusim; so, you don't have to worry about the Czarneckis! You are responsible for covering up for your mother, though—and you are Sandor's age (and I'm sure that Sandor is in Heaven with his brother and his parents, and I fully believe that Jesus was with them as He was with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego)!

The damage that your mother did and the damage that you have continued is unbelievable! All I can tell you is to remember that Jesus Himself said that what is hidden will be revealed, and that what is in the darkness will come to light—and I can only hope that you get to meet Sandor and the rest of our family in Heaven, because to do what you've done and not repent for it is not a good sign.

Perhaps you'll take Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's words to heart:

So I ask: How is it possible that so many people failed to understand the reality? The bitter and tragic truth is this: it is not that they did not see it. They did not want to see it. And why did they choose not to see the truth? Because they did not want to face the consequences of that truth.During the 1930′s, when the Nazis were gaining momentum, the influence of the trauma of the First World War was still fresh. Twenty years earlier, the people of the West experienced a terrible trench war, a war which claimed the lives of 16 million people. Therefore, the leaders of the West operated on the basis of one axiom: avoid another confrontation at any cost, and thus they laid the foundation for the most terrible war in human history. This axiom of avoiding conflict at any cost, this axiom was adopted not only by the leaders. The people themselves, primarily the educated ones, shared it too....
Month after month, year after year, more and more information was received in London, Paris and Washington regarding the capabilities and intentions of the Nazi regime. The picture was becoming clear to everybody. However, “they have eyes, but cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear.”When you refuse to accept reality as it is, you can deny it. And this is precisely what the leaders of the West did. They dismissed the murderous Nazi rhetoric as internal German politics; they downplayed the seriousness of the danger of the military build-up of the Nazis, claiming that it was the result of the natural will of a proud nation, that it should be taken into consideration, that it should be accepted.The reality was clear, but it was cloaked in a bubble of illusions. This bubble was burst by the stealth attack by the Nazis on Europe. And the price of the illusion and desire was very heavy because by the time the leaders of the West finally acted, their people paid a terrible price. World War II claimed the lives not of 16 million people, the unimaginable number of victims during World War I, but of 60 million, including one third of our people, who were butchered by the Nazi beast.Citizens of Israel, my brothers and sisters,Has the world learned from the mistakes of the past? Today, we are again facing clear facts and a tangible threat.

Closing Thought For the Night: Affirmative Action and Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson (Originally To Have Been a Facebook Page Post)

Think about this: Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, an African-American man of Puerto Rican descent, had to overcome ethnic discrimination (including ethnic stereoptying), for example. Nobody just gave his Ph.D. to him because he was a Black man who'd been presumptuously asked if he wanted to be an athlete.

Why, then, should other Blacks and Hispanics be unfairly favored or unfavored? Dr. Tyson had to work to get where he is today, even though Affirmative Action became part of the law when he was 14 years old. He stated:

"Interestingly, when I applied to Cornell, my application dripped of my passion for the study and research of the Universe. Somehow the admissions office brought my application to the attention of the late Dr. Sagan, and he actually took the initiative and care to contact me. He was very inspirational and a most powerful influence. Dr. Sagan was as great as the universe, an effective mentor." (PBS NOVA, "A Conversation With Neil Tyson")

Before that, "Neil attended the Bronx High School of Science and passionately studied astronomy.  He made a name for himself in the astronomy community by giving lectures at the age of 15." (Parle Magazine, "Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson – The Prodigy Astronomer")

Dr. Sagan didn't look at Neil Tyson because he was Black. He looked at him because he was intelligent, studious, and driven to work hard.

As someone quoted Dr. Martin Luther King here, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." And that's what the to-be Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson was judged by.

Quick Announcement Regarding My YouTube Channel

Alright; Alright; The Proverbial Cat Is Out Of The Bag

I thought that I hid this from Twitter, Facebook, and Yahoo!, since I didn't want to get into trouble with or being disfavored by Geraldo Rivera or other people. Nonetheless, I did ask, "Do you think that Geraldo Rivera will retire this year?" Even last night, Johnny Dollar tweeted me:

1. 63johnny dollar ‏@johnnydollar01Feb 1

   @Nickidewbear Remember Geraldo said big news about his tv show coming ‘by week’s end’? That was 2 wks ago! Have you heard anything? I havent

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2. 42N.V. Mara Czarnecki ‏@NickidewbearFeb 1

   @johnnydollar01 Me neither. I wonder what's going on.

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3. 63johnny dollar ‏@johnnydollar01Feb 1

   @Nickidewbear I don’t think his Saturday show has been on at all this year. Instead Red Eye and tonite a Hannity repeat. Odd.

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4. 42N.V. Mara Czarnecki ‏@NickidewbearFeb 1

   @johnnydollar01 I agree.

Please note that I made unequivocally and absolutely clear, "I'm a fan of Geraldo. I'm just seeing that Geraldo's glory days could possibly be coming to a sad end. He will be 71 on July 4th, though; and his dad did sadly die at the age of 72 on Thanksgiving Day of 1987. So, Geraldo could be slowing down professionally in (God forbid) his final years. Also, he did eerily say that he has four more years left in him professionally speaking a while back."

Please especially take careful notes of the phrase "I'm a fan", "sad end", "sadly", "God forbid", and "eerily". I also did not vote on the poll myself. I hope that Geraldo lives to be 120 years old and has 50 more professional years, and even makes a comeback that I would envy—e.g., 504 "likes" on a picture during the Superbowl is good enough; and imagine how many likes he'd get if he made a full comeback!

One voter (not to mention that my sister has) even asked (as my sister has several times), "Who gives a crap?" (As my sister has asked it, "Who cares?") My response is, "I cares." or "I care. Aren't I somebody?" or "I care. Am I a nobody?" Besides, as one person stated on Geraldo's photo, "Geraldo, you deserve major cheers for the reporting you did on Willowbrook and the mistreatment of the mentally challenged. That's what I always will remember you for."

As I've said myself (even though Mom and Michelle try to convince me of otherwise), Geraldo kept me out of Willowbrook—I would've been in there for having Cerebral Palsy alone. The OCD/Anxiety, Depression, and ADD would've just been the proverbial icing on the proverbial cake of excuses for someone who would've wanted to put me in Willowbrook (e.g., Dad or Pop-Pop, and they would have made sure that the divorce-case judge ordered Mom to do that or give custody to Dad so that he could do that).

So, at risk of getting into trouble and incurring disfavor, I ask whether you think that Geraldo Rivera will (in my opinion, sadly) retire this year.