#many of my ancestors came from Poland :)

[tragedyposting]

Is tumblr unusually popular in Poland I feel like that’s the number one non-anglophone producer of tumblr users. Is this just some weird bias on my dash? If so what is it abt me that attracts such a volume of Polish blogs into my blogosphere.

[judaismandsuch]

A bit about Minhagim (particularly in relation to the terms Sephardic, Ashkenazi, Yemmeni, Mizrahi, Beta Yisrael, etc.)

I saw this post, and I realized that what I take for granted knowledge wise may not be so, and people rarely talk about the intricacies of Minhagim.

(btw, what I am saying applies to all the different groups but for the rest of the post I'll be mainly using the Sephardic and Ashkenazi b.c. I am lazy)

We use the terms "Ashkenazi" and "Sefardic" (etc.) to refer to where our ancestors came from (or more likely lived in 1500s or so), which is fine! But that not 100% accurate. Or at least it would be more accurate to say that that is a secondary meaning that is used a lot, but there is a primary meaning which can get confusing.

The primary meaning of these terms is "Which bundle of Minhagim do you follow?"

Now seeing as minhagim are traditions that carry the weight of a law, usually it is your ancestry, but not always!

We will take 2 obvious cases first, then talk about some other ones:

First Someone who converted. Now obviously since they converted they have no (halachically) relevant Jewish traditions. So what do they take? One might be tempted to say "whatever area their ancestors were from" but honestly that makes no sense. They don't have a tradition from those people, just geographical happenstance.

Rather they are to take on the traditions of the community/location where they converted. So a Polish person might become Sephardic, or a Italian person Ashkenazi.

The Second is marriage. When people get married (with some exceptions) the wife is supposed to take on the husbands traditions (don't @ me, we can discuss gender in Judaism another year). So, a Ashkenazi woman who marries a Sephardic man is now Sephardic (though they would usually say that they follow Sephardic customs to avoid confusion).

And it is worth noting that many people keep their exes traditions even after getting divorced.

Now to some more interesting ones:

A Jew who was raised not religious in any way has no tradition! So if they become religious later in life, they can take on any minhag they desire. Usually they do end up taking their ancestral one, or the one of the community they live in, but there is no need! (lpt for those becoming religious: 1 hour between meat and milk is a valid minhag that you can take!)

And finally: Moving. If a Ashkanzi Jew moves to a purely Sephardi area, they are obligated to take on Sephardic customs! This is actually the big one, all the others kinda fall from it, but on the other hand it is basically not applicable anymore.

Way back when, when travel was a big deal, you would probably be the only Sephardi in Poland, so you couldn't really keep it.

Nowadays that basically everywhere is uber multicultural that ruling isn't applicable, but still interesting!

N.B. Not my best write up, I may redo it completely later

[hero-israel]

just seen a palestinian auntie post about her niece being born w red hair and she constantly fans over it and goes on about how it’s a blessing and the comments are other palestinians and arabs fanning over the white pale skin and blue eyes and blonde/red hair of some of their relatives. even going on to call those relatives swedish/russian/white as nicknames.

but when jews esp israeli jews talk about their natural fair skin, or blue eyes/light hair (which is a minority in the jewish world, majority of jews do not have light features the same as arabs) in the slightest, they are called hitler 2.0 and it’s used as ‘proof’ that we as a whole can’t possibly be indigenous. like these features have always existed in the levant. they weren’t as prevalent in the levant as some ppl think, but they were there.

i see the same happen w black jews. despite black ppl being in the levant for a very long time, pre-enslavement and after, due to migration, pilgrimage, intermarriage etc etc etc, they are told they can’t possibly be native. while some afro-palestinians who came just a few decades before are native? and i’m not talking about those that are the descendants of enslaved people, if you are trafficked from you land and assimilated/forced into a new ethnicity due to that you have every right to consider yourself a native bc you were literally forced to be one. i’m talking about those that are the descendants of migrants and pilgrims, who set up shop in jerusalem during the ottoman empire and are now supposedly more native than black jews who in most cases are there bc their ancestors were expelled or had to flee and bc they have an actual cultural, genetic and historical link to the land even before that.

Don't be shy about citing this:

My grandfather, born on an actual shtetl in Poland, was the spitting-image lookalike for Hafez Assad. Speaking of Syrians, here's pro wrestler Sami Zayn. Hajj Amin al-Husseini famously had blue eyes and red hair, which might have helped him befriend Hitler. As bad as colorism is in any context, it is all the more infuriating from an I/P perspective when so many people just accept from the outset that people like you, people who look like you, have no right to live in certain areas (even though we always have). Read long enough in Palestinian, Syrian, and Lebanese communities to see their perspectives on Jews and Israel and you can't help but notice the fairly frequent comments about (and I swear I have seen this quote near-verbatim) "We Syrians have such beautiful white skin and beautiful blue eyes, we are not at all like those Saudis or Yemenis, who are as dark as Indians!".

Afro-Palestinians are pretty much always used unfairly and tokenistically by pro-Palestine outsiders; in their daily lives they are regularly called "abeed" (slave) and sometimes even with their neighborhoods known as that. It's not unlike how goyim only ever bring up Ethiopian Jews to spin yarns about "sterilization" while also cheering for groups who want to kill them alongside the rest of Israel.

[psychologeek]

Free!

"Leave our country alone!" they say "This isn't your land - go back to where you came from!"

And as my brother's being shoot, And my sister's being paraded naked - For their great sin of: living [Re'im, Israel, 2023]

As my great-grandfather was pushed down in the streets And his beard was brutally shaved As they raped and enslaved and murdered- [Birkenau, Poland, 1943]

[just like in 1941 Farhud, Iraq ; Jedwabne pogrom;  1945 Tripoli pogrom, the 1946 Kielce pogrom, and the 1947 Aleppo pogrom]

In 1934 there were pogroms against Jews in Turkey and Algeria.

Other parts of my family were lucky enough to survive the 1929 Hebron massacre during the 1929 Palestine riots. [Mandatory Palestine under British administration]

In 1919, soldiers marched into the center of town accompanied by a military band and engaged in atrocities under the slogan: "Kill the Jews, and save the Ukraine." They were ordered to save the ammunition in the process and use only lances and bayonets during the Proskurov pogrom.

[Proskurov, Ukraine, 1919]

[100 years, and nothing changed, huh?]

You know, my grandma's arab. I still remember sitting in class in high school, hearing about the 1840 Damascus affair, and thinking: hu.

I'll skip several years and countries, but:

Their grandparents were there to witness as the outbreak of violence against Jews (Hep-Hep riots) occurred at the beginning of the 19th century.

The 1821 Odessa pogroms marked the beginning of the 19th century pogroms in Tsarist Russia

That's  Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648–1657 in present-day Ukraine.

So they said, during the attacks against Jews also took place in Barcelona and other Catalan cities during the massacre of 1391.

Their ancestors were cast away and murdered in Spain, 1492.

The same way we were banished and cast away from  Bern (1427) and Zürich (1436) for almost 400 years?

Let us not speak of  the alaughter on Holy Saturday of 1389, a pogrom began in Prague that led to the burning of the Jewish quarter, the killing of many Jews, and the suicide of many Jews trapped in the main synagogue; the number of dead was estimated at 400–500 men, women, and children.

Brussels massacre of 1370.

Or - do you want to hear about the 510 jewish communities that were destroyed? (1348-1350)  including in Toulon, Erfurt, Basel, Aragon, Flanders[16][17] and Strasbourg.[18]

Just like Rhineland massacres in 1096

Some of them made it to England, around 1060. It took less than 30 years for the first Podrom in 1189-90 in England, 

Oh, and let us not forget 1066 Granada massacre [again, in Spain].

Or the  Alexandria in the year 38 CE, followed by the more known riot of 66 CE.

The Jewish population of the land on the eve of the first major Jewish rebellion [66 CE] may have been as high as 2.2 million. The monumental architecture of this period indicates a high level of prosperity.

In 66 CE, the Jews of Judea rose in revolt against Rome, sparking the First Jewish–Roman War. The reverse seized control of Judea and named their new kingdom "Israel"

The revolt was crushed by the Roman emperors Vespasian and Titus. The Romans destroyed much of the Temple in Jerusalem and took as punitive tribute the Menorah and other Temple artifacts back to Rome. Josephus writes that 1,100,000 Jews perished during the revolt, while a further 97,000 were taken captive. The Fiscus Judaicus was instituted by the Empire as part of reparations.

[And here we come to a full cycle of blood, land, and pain].

And those are only those I found out about. Only those we have a record of. Only those we know to this day. They were so massive, or left enough impact so we still remember.

[I could go on, this is just a short list.]

It seems like no matter what we do, we'll always be accused for

Let me know, please - where can I be a jew, and just

Live?

[humusboii2thereturnoftheking]

Talking to Palestinian Refugees as a Diaspora Jew

These are quotes from a discussion I encountered and I believe will bring insight to many, on both sides of the conflict.

It starts as follows:

"There is this one woman who sings for a local band and is from a Palestinian family. She often tells the story of how her family owned a house and a shop in Ashkelon but during the war of independence they had to leave their house and ended up in a refugee tent city in Gaza. Eventually they made there way to Cairo and then to America. She has the key to the family's old Ashkelon house that her grandfather passed down to her father, passed down to her and will show people it to tell about how she lost her homeland. Something she often says is "how come they get to be on the land because their ancestors were there 2000 years ago but I can't even go to the land my grandfather was at 75 years ago?"

how am I supposed respond to that? Am I really supposed to say no you don't have a right to your family's land???"

The answers I found most insightful:

• You can empathize with her families story while still realizing that the Palestinian leadership is failing her people.

• Half of my family were forced out of their home in North Africa and ethnically cleansed from there alongside nearly 1M other Jews. My grandparents did not get to keep the keys to their house or business because that’s not usually what happens when you get kicked out. they came to Israel with nothing but the clothes they were wearing. We didn’t even know grandmother’s birthdate because their citizenships were revoked. They lived in tents for months and a new disease was spreading every week. How come I’m still not legally allowed where my grandparents were born? How come Palestinians are eternal refugees and my grandparents weren’t? The irony here is just insane.

• Not to mention Arab countries encouraged Palestinians to leave and return once the genocide (war) is over: "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades." - 1st secretary of the Arab league, 1948.

• “The Arab states encouraged Palestinian Arabs to leave” - Jordan’s newspaper, Feb 19, 1949

• “it must not be forgotten that the Arab higher committee encouraged refugees’ flight from Jaffa, Haifa and Jerusalem” - near East Arabic broadcasting station, April 3, 1949

• “since 1948 it is we who demanded the return of the refugees while it is we who made them leave. We brought disaster upon Arab refugees…”- Khaled Al Azm, Syria’s prime minister.

• Refugees all over the world (including Jews!) are forced to leave their homes. They make new lives in new lands. I don't hold onto the key of my great-grandparents' house in Belarus and demand the government give me our house and try to kill random Belorussians because of it.

• A quarter of Baghdad in the 30' was Jewish. My friend's grandparents came from there, they were so rich her grandmother didn't even know how to brush her own hair or dress herself because they had servants. They had to leave everything behind and live in a tin hut in Israel. Wars cause population to move. It's a tragedy but it's been happening everywhere. You think Germans were happy about leaving their homes in what is Poland today? I don't see them trying to go home to Poland.

[mariacallous]

What is haluski? The answer, like with many dishes, depends on who you’re asking. 

Different varieties pop up across Eastern Europe, including Slovakia, Romania, Poland and Ukraine, where it’s the national dish. The variations likely stem from the fact that haluski simply means “dumplings.” Just as there are many ways to make a kugel, there are many ways to make a dumpling dish. 

In general, the dumplings are made from a dough of flour and potatoes. Depending on the consistency of your dough, you might roll it out and cut it up before dropping it into boiling water, not unlike a gnocchi. With a wet dough, you’d simply drop small pieces of the batter one by one into boiling water. There’s even a haluski-specific strainer for the task.

The dumplings are commonly accompanied by cabbage, eggs, and/or cheese. The Slovakian version, for instance, called bryndzové halušky, uses fried cabbage and a sheep’s milk cheese (that’s the bryndzové), but no eggs.

When the dish made its ways to the States, likely in the early 20th century, the potato dumplings were ditched in favor of egg noodles. The reason isn’t entirely clear. What’s clearer, though, is that the dish — also known more plainly as cabbage and noodles — at some point found its way into the Hungarian Jewish community. 

Haluski follows the same logic of any classic dish that’s stood the test of time: It’s quick and easy, filling, has few ingredients, and can be served as a side dish or as the main course. 

I found it while exchanging emails with a cousin, Sandy Mott, in search of heritage recipes to better understand what my ancestors were eating.

“My grandmother was a phenomenal cook,” Sandy wrote. “She used to make a dish called haluski, which was basically sautéed cabbage and onions with wide egg noodles mixed in.”

This recipe comes from Sandy by way of her grandmother, Helen Greenfield, whom likely got it from her husband, Mr. Louis Darnell Sterns. Louis came to the United States from a 19th century shtetl of the Austro-Hungarian empire outside of modern-day Bardejov, Slovakia where Sandy and I trace our shared ancestry. Now that shared heritage lives on in this smoky dish of haluski.

[2q5b]

VAYECHI

By Ezra

December 26th, 2023

I am a diaspora Jew. This is partly by accident and partly by choice. I was born in the U.S. My Jewish grandparents came to Boston from Poland and Germany after the Nazis made them into child refugees. My mother, raised Catholic, chose Judaism, married my father and converted.

As for me, I could move to Israel, the Promised Land, anytime I want. Many people I know have done this. But I don’t want to.

How can this be? I am a religious person. My prayerbook is dripping with longing for this land, full of texts written by people who couldn’t get there. The Torah that I study week after week is in large part a chronicle of my people inhabiting that land and then trying to return to it. And even if I prefer to stay in the US, how is it that millions of traditional religious Jews are happy to live all over the world, when they could easily relocate to their beloved spiritual homeland?

Today, that land has descended into hell. The IDF perpetrates mass murder, Hamas insists on acts of war, prisoners suffer in desperate conditions, Palestinians starve en masse in a Gaza that has become a ghetto.

It is more obvious than ever that Jewish statehood in the Holy Land has not ended our spiritual exile. A Jewish state may be a political reality, but it is not a spiritual solution. It cannot satisfy our longing. We yearn for something far, far deeper. We yearn for the repair of the world, the end of falsehood and bloodshed, the reign of peace and justice.

I think this deeper yearning, not satisfied by land acquisition, goes way back, back before the Exodus, back to the late chapters of the book of Breishit.

In this week’s Torah portion, Jacob and his children are living happily in Egypt. Before Jacob dies, he asks that they bury him in Canaan. After his death, the Jewish people travel together to the Promised Land for his burial and funeral. It’s not that big a deal. It doesn’t take forty years. They just ask the Pharaoh, he says yes, and they go. And then they come back to their homes in Egypt.

These are, maybe, the first diaspora Jews, and their exile seems voluntary. They could move to Israel, but that’s not where they live, that’s not where they’re raising their children and involved in government and generally thriving. And more: there is a deep purpose, perhaps one they’re not even aware of, for their exile in Egypt.

Jacob’s death ends the period of the patriarchs and matriarchs, the avot and imahot. These iconic three generations of ancestors–Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel and Leah–are credited as the originators of our spiritual tradition. Genesis has been largely a book not so much about a community as about these towering individuals, whose personalities and accomplishments still reverberate in our liturgy, our mythology, our souls. 

And from the beginning there is this strange pressure for each of these generations to have one single spiritual inheritor. A chosen child to continue the mission, to receive messages from God, never mind the familial discord this may create. It’s Isaac, not Ishmael. It’s Jacob, not Eisav. And Jacob seems poised to father the next great inheritor.

But something changes in Jacob’s generation. His plan to marry Rachel goes awry when he is tricked into marrying Leah first, and he eventually also marries two of their servants for a total of four wives, with whom he fathers thirteen children. Rachel is the last one to give birth, and her firstborn son Joseph seems, early on, to be that special chosen one, the one Jacob favors. But that plan, too, goes awry. Joseph has ten older brothers who are not happy about this favoritism, ten Eisavs to worry about compared to his father, who had a hard enough time fending off just one. And the old model, of one saint passing the torch to the inheriting saint, finally breaks. The brothers turn on Joseph and sell him into slavery in Egypt.

Joseph, like the three patriarchs, is a singular personality. His individual story is dramatic and righteous. But what he’s not is the next Isaac, the next Jacob. There is no next Jacob. A new era has begun: the era of B’nei Yisrael, the children of Israel (Jacob’s alternate name). This becomes the name of the nation which will be used throughout the Bible. The dynasty is no longer a dynasty, but an expanded family in which all are equal inheritors of the tradition, with no single clear leader. A large group in solidarity and spiritual alignment.

Simultaneous with this shift is the movement from Canaan to Egypt. Our parasha is the end of Breishit and the beginning of Shmot, the second book of the Torah, which will be radically different than the first. Jacob gives his parting blessings to his children at the dawn of the exile and transmits a crucial message: “God will be with you and will bring you back to the land of your ancestors.”

They could return right now. The text makes sure we know that they are able, shows us how easy it is. But they don’t. Instead they allow their holy land to exist as a horizon of spiritual possibility. Here the Promised Land becomes what it remains for the rest of the five books of Moses: an ever-receding myth, somewhere we approach, but never fully reach.

And this is how the Jewish people as we know it is born.

Exile is dangerous, make no mistake. Though Joseph wants his family to live with him in Egypt and share in the power and abundance he has attained there, Jacob needs explicit encouragement from God before going. “Have no fear of descending to Egypt,” God told him in last week’s parasha, “for I shall establish you as a great nation there. I myself shall descend with you to Egypt and I myself will also surely bring you up.” Jacob is right to be afraid: in Egypt, his descendants will face mass enslavement and murder. And yet there is something about exile that is necessary to the Jewish mission in the world, that both expands and deepens it. As Joseph tells his brothers when they are first reunited, “Don’t be distressed…God has sent me ahead of you to ensure your survival in the land and to sustain you for a momentous deliverance.”

Exile is not all bad, the Torah tells us. In fact it is indispensable. It has a very real purpose. It widens the capacity of the Jewish people. It allows us to grow beyond a closed-off little family that talks to God. It allows our spirituality to impact history.

The late 19th-century Polish hasidic thinker known as the Sfat Emet is one of my personal favorite Torah commentators. I doubt my love for his teachings can be separated from my love for my own Polish grandfather, z”l. Living amidst rampant and institutionalized anti-Semitism, the Sfat Emet taught, “This is the purpose of exile: that Israel make visible God’s kingdom, which is indeed everywhere. The true meaning of the word galut (exile) is hitgalut (revealing), that the glory of God’s kingdom be revealed in every place.” 

These two Hebrew words share a root for a good reason. Exile is dangerous, one is uncovered. Without protection, vulnerable. Showing oneself, speaking truth, can be dangerous in the same way. The faith of the Jewish diaspora is that this kind of vulnerability can be worth it. If you stay in your fortress, you are safe but you are cut off, you cannot communicate. If you grab your flashlight and walk into a dark, uncertain world, you light up the road on which you walk.

The transformation of the patriarch era into an era of communal expansion in Egypt has a similar kind of opening quality, an uncovering that also entails a loss. The patriarchal intimacy with God, a clarity and protection, give way to an imperfect but much more widely shared relationship with God.

Jacob himself feels this loss as it happens. His blessing of his twelve sons in this week’s parsha begins with a mysterious introduction. “Assemble yourselves,” he announces, “and I will tell you what will befall you in the latter days.” B’acharit ha-yamim. But he never seems to get to that information, nor does he specify what days he means. What follows instead is an oblique poem containing cryptic blessings for his children. An old midrash sheds light: “He wanted to reveal the end of the exile, but the Shchinah (the Presence of God) departed him, so he began to speak of other things.” 

This failure to communicate is connected to exile. Far from home under foreign rule, Jacob is in some way blocked from prophecy. A kind of perfect awareness has been lost to him, signaling the end of his era of patriarchal perfection and the beginning of something else, something larger and deeper.

When the Sfat Emet, a wise man living in the exile of his own time, tries to teach about this midrash, he too is partly blocked, his memory fails him. He teaches, “I believe my grandfather quoted the Rabbi of Pr-shiss-cha (Przysucha) as wondering why Jacob wanted to reveal the end. His answer was that when the end is known, exile is made easier. That’s all I remember, but it seems to mean the same: revealing the end means knowing there is an end to exile, and that shows it to be but a matter of hiding, not a force of its own… Jacob our Father just wanted there to be no mistake about this, that it all be obvious, but that goal eluded him. You need to struggle to find truth.” 

The contemporary spiritual exile, the one you and I are living through, is not easy, at times it is horrific. How it will end, how a better world could be revealed, is not yet clear. But if we are struggling to find the truth, struggling to uncover it, then we will not have wasted our time. Wherever we are in the world, it is our task right here and now to reveal and enact the good and the holy, the better world that is possible, hiding in plain sight.

Chazak Chazak v’Nitchazeik.

[bobemajses]

Patrilineal here, my mother's side is from Puerto Rico and has no Jewish ancestry. My father's side is 100% Ashkenazi. The areas I know are:

His paternal grandfather: Telšiai, Lithuania (Telz). Family appeared to have been in that area for centuries. Fled the tsar's army draft in 1900.

His paternal grandmother: Suceava, Romania (Shots). Was a citizen of Austria-Hungary (Bukovina) until the empire fell in 1918, and Romania did not yet consider Jews to be citizens. Came to the US in 1921.

His maternal side came to the US longer ago so some records are unclear or missing. His maternal grandfather's ancestors came from Hungary (unsure if Hungary proper or former Hungarian crown lands), Germany(?), Prussian Poland (I believe my research led me to Kcynia/Exin). His maternal grandmother's father came from Myszyniec/Mishnitz which was formerly part of Łomża, Poland, and mother came from somewhere else in Russian Poland. I wish I knew which area because we have photos of them and that line is descended from a rabbi, and I have that family's shabbat candlesticks.

Since I'm patrilineal I had to convert, but I've always been proud of my family history so I like to think of it as finally doing the paperwork for citizenship by descent :)

As eastern European as it can get! Thank you for sharing! Suceava had a very thriving Jewish community dating back to the 15th century. The Jews lived in relative harmony with the many other peoples in the region. In the 18th century representatives of Suceava Jewry took an active part in the struggle of the Bukovinians against the oppressions of Austrian authorities.

On July 28, 1914 in the house of the Rabbi Mosche Hager "the biggest wedding of the Bukovina", the double wedding of his two oldest daughters was held. It was supposed to last 8 days. On the eighth day, the District Captain, Dr. Korn carrying orders from the Austrian government appeared in the Rabbi's court and gave the official order to cancel the festivities since Austria had declared war against Serbia. As the Russian army approached Suceava in the process of this war, a Cossack was shot from his horse. The Colonel Bakunin gave the order that as punishment for the murder, the entire city should be set in flames. The mayor of the city, Orthodox Priest Dr. Sarbu, who was a friend of the Jews went with a delegation of citizens of the city to the Colonel and pleaded with him to withdraw his order. Eventually he gave in to the request of the delegation and so the city was saved from destruction. Today, the Jewish community still exists (although very small) with a functioning Jewish center, cemetery, ritual bath and synagogue.

The first account of Jews living in Łomża comes from 1494. Judka Blumowicz was the richest Jew in the town in the early 19th century and built the largest house in Lomża; it is said that Napoleon himself stayed there during the invasion of Russia. Jewish people from Łomża also participated, together with Poles, in the 19th-century national uprisings, for which they were sent to Siberia.

Between 1840 and 1846, Beniamin Diskin worked as the rabbi of the town and he became quite a distinguished figure. The Russian authorities invited him to participate in the European Rabbinical Council, which assembled in Petersburg in 1843. In 1893, 8,767 Jews (47,8% of the total population) lived in the town. During World War I, the community was quite supportive of Russian troops. In the great synagogue, the rabbi appealed to Jews to make sacrifices and be loyal to Russia; several superior officers were present at the ceremony.

The German army conquered Łomża in September 1939, left after a short time, and reconquered the town in June 1941. The local Jews were forced into a ghetto, and most were murdered in nearby forests and in death camps - thereby marking the community’s end.

[chaotictommy]

What country would you most like to visit?

Hi, thank you for the question. That’s kind of a hard question to answer 😂 I’ve always been interested in visiting Italy 🇮🇹 especially Florence, because of the rich history and the decades of art, also I’m particularly partial to Italian cuisine, so I guess it would be a trip of my dreams. I also would love to travel to Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 and Ireland 🇮🇪 since I would love to know more about where many of my ancestors came from and the history is so amazing there. Other trips I’d love to take would definitely be to Ecuador 🇪🇨, Poland 🇵🇱, France 🇫🇷, Spain 🇪🇸, Canada 🇨🇦, and Vietnam 🇻🇳, but I guess basically anywhere 😂, I just want to travel really, because apart from traveling all over the USA, mostly while moving house, I haven’t really traveled anywhere else, expect Mexico 🇲🇽 I honestly want to go everywhere and see everything. I guess Amsterdam and Prague sound like amazing places to go as well. I also want to go to Norway 🇳🇴, Peru 🇵🇪, Paraguay 🇵🇾, Sweden 🇸🇪, Egypt 🇪🇬, Greece 🇬🇷, Thailand 🇹🇭, Australia 🇦🇺, New Zealand 🇳🇿, and a lot of other countries. Cave diving in a Cenote in the Yucatán would be amazing actually. I’ve been entering free travel giveaways for a while now, hoping I can win a few and take my mom on a vacation, since we haven’t had one since we went to Mexico in 2007 for a family friend’s wedding. Yeah, it’s really been that long 🙁 it would be nice to go just one place honestly, since my mom and I need a break from everything and she deserves a vacation. Honestly, my whole family needs a vacation, lol 😅 what about you? Where would you like to travel? Thanks for the question by the way! Hope you’re doing well!

[benchortkoffphotos]

Sims2 Time Travel Machine: My family in Old Hollywood-1920s-30s Los Angeles

Simulated time travel via- The Sims 2 video game. Music by Mark Mothersbaugh. I recreated my great grandparents in the Sims 2! Then I had them have kids... and they came out looking just like my grandmother Millie and her brother Bob! See how close the DNA is! Maybe I should have made the sims eat more, lol. Tell me what you think! it's light and fun and moves fast! Great Sims 2 score by Mark Mothersbaugh. I wonder what he would think!? Another one of my "simulated time travel" films! This one will take you way back to the early 1900s! You get to watch a simulated version of the house my ancestors grew up in in downtown south east Los Angeles. The house is still standing! Maybe one of these days I will go see it. I would love to know what the inside looks like. And what kind of attic those stairs on the side lead to! Lewis Newman owned the house featured in the video. Unlike my similar auto-biographic film, "Life in Long Beach" I had no idea of the inside or the furnishings so I guessed! Not too many photos were taken indoors in those days! The film speed on those old cameras required full outdoor light! Mildred Newman was my Nana (grandmother) Millie who I developed a deep bond with. She told me next to nothing about her early years. And she never sat down and shared her photos with us. A lot of folks including her brother and mother, died young and I think she just wanted to forget. I got the photos after my dad died and have been digitizing ever since! But everyone looks so HAPPY! So this is a happy video! Featuring a great soundtrack of Sims 2 video game music by Mark Mothersbaugh. (Founder of the rock band Devo!) I don't mention it much in this one but my family was running from Pogroms and Nazis. That is why I am an American! And this video is about that period of time Lewis and his family got to enjoy the American dream! Lewis's family story is amazing and will be covered in a future episode. For now enjoy a good and simple time in their lives! This sweet story is dedicated to my great Aunt Rachel Rosenblatt. I wish she had come to the US too! Sadly she and her children and grandchildren stayed behind in Chortkov Poland. They never made it to the US and she and her daughter and her family were deported to and died in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Her sons made it to Israel however and I hope to find them and their descendants someday! #family #old #hollywood #angelenos #california #sims #sims2 #oldendays #1920s #flappers #children #grandparents #parents #simulator

[alsjeblieft-zeg]

438 of 2022

Medical How many surgeries have you had?

Two, one of them was major.

Do you have a doctor that you see regularly?

Yeah, a neurologist and the doctor who takes care of my rehabilitation.

Do you have health insurance?

Of course I do, one from work and one private. Without it, my medical costs would overpower me.

What are some medical issues you're currently dealing with?

Rather lifelong, but oh well. Epilepsy and some physical disability.

Why did you last take pain medication?

I don’t take pain medication. Most of it would make the medication I have to take daily less effective. I only do it after consulting it with my doctor so it’s safe for me.

Biological What physical traits have you inherited from your father?

Eyes.

How about your mother?

Nose shape, definitely.

Do you have any children?

No, and I don’t want to have.

What are your parents names?

Ellen and Stefaan, seems to be common here.

What personality traits do you wish your children would inherit from you?

I don’t want to havre children.

Geographical Where are you, right now?

On the couch in my living room.

What country were you born in?

Belgium.

Where were you raised for most of your life?

Middelkerke, Belgium.

What parts of the world are your ancestors from?

Well, Belgium of course. :P My mum is half-German, my dad is half-Dutch, and I have some ancestry in Poland and France, too.

What's the closest major city to your hometown?

I guess Oostende, but when it comes to capital coty of the whole province, it’s Bruges.

Zoological What is your favorite animal?

Cat. Seriously, miauwtjes all the way.

Do you have any pets, and if so, what kind and what are their names?

I do, I have two cats, their names are Victoria and Suzanne.

Have you ever had a strange pet, outside of the normal animals people keep?

No, never.

When was the last time you went to the zoo?

30 years ago? I remember I hated it.

What's the last wild animal you've seen in person?

Deer, I guess.

Psychological Do you have any mental disorders?

Yeah, I have OCD and generalised anxiety disorder, and also my latest medical form says I show symptoms of depression. I’m not sure if it counts, but I’ve been diagnosed with ASD at some point in my life.

Do you take anti-depressants or anti-anxiety meds?

I don’t at the moment, but I used to.

When is the last time you saw a therapist or psychologist?

Two months ago.

What do you tend to think about the most, throughout the day?

Not what, but who :P one certain guy. And I tend to overthink everything.

Would you consider yourself paranoid or delusional?

No, not really. Just pretty anxious.

Astrological Do you believe in astrology?

Not at all.

What is your star sign?

Taurus.

When's the last time you read a horoscope and it actually came true?

Four years ago. But I came across it after it came true, so.

What are your best friends' signs?

I don’t feel like calculating it. It doesn’t even matter to me.

Do you think people act differently when there's a full moon?

Nah, I don’t believe in such things.

Physical Would you consider yourself to be in shape?

Well, I’m physically disabled.

When's the last time you went for a walk or went jogging?

I don’t run. Last time I went for a walk was yesterday.

What is your favorite work out?

Arm exercises, really.

How many times have you had sex in the past month?

Once or twice. It’s already too much.

Do you play any sports?

I used to play basketball in a team when I was a teenager, but later my health issues have forced me to stop. I miss it very much, though.

Environmental Do you recycle?

We have to sort our trash that goes to recycling later, if that counts. The government demands it.

Do you drive an electric car?

No, we have a diesel. All because diesel used to be cheaper than petrol back in time. And way cheaper than electric, not everyone can afford it.

What are your opinions on global warming?

No opinion, I’d rather not take sides.

Does your country use solar energy or wind power at all?

Of course? We have wind turbines all over the country, and it’s not uncommon to see houses with solar panels installed on the roof.

What do you do to make the world around you more environmentally friendly?

All above.

[tiltingplanet]

I think the worst part about being like

Third generation immigrant

Is so much of my family's traditions have been lost to time

What are my great grandma Olga's original recipes for pierogi or bobalki?

Great grandpa Will's mother's original Easter babka recipe from Poland?

How do I lead a seder dinner in Russian like grandpa Jack?

I don't know. None of them wrote it down. We have a few of Olga's recipes that she wrote down but they're in Ukranian and. Well. No one in my family can read Ukranian.

We have Jack's journals and notes and battered torah. They're all in... some language? Russian I presume but I'm not actually sure.

There are so many things about my ancestors that are lost to time and myself thanks to the barrier of language and people not writing things down at all.

Yeah, I could do genealogy research on myself. Sure. But that feels almost opposite to the idea of being told about it by family members. The lack of written record feels like a missing touchstone to where I came from.

[joshuawister]

Warsaw Spy Mission 1978: Chapter 1

Story Untold from Cold War…

Warsaw Spy Mission is a story set in Eastern Europe 1978, about campus life and humanities. It focuses on Warszawa, Mazowieckie (PL) and Pryp'yat, Chornobyl (aka Chernobyl, UA) under Soviet occupation… both the cradles of Slavs.

(Tumblr version of light novel series "Warsaw Spy Mission 1978" on https://commaful.com/play/jw2019/)

Delo 1: Ruin

-Somewhere in Poland-

There are many men digging the earth. These years, the Polish government has been eager to dig the ruin - for the discovery of its history.

The grassland was full of men wearing poor clothes, but a luxuary car came from over there. It’s called Lada in black. The black car stopped near the director, and opened the door. A lady got out of it, and the director shouted.

“Guys look, Lada is coming!”

The name is her name, not car’s.

“Don’t call me by first name, Polsky!" (meaning 'Polish')

“Sorry... Comrade Afanasyeva!”

She looked upset in contrast to her dull looks with black hair, and asked the director.

“Tell me the truth, did you find the bombs here?”

She asked in fluent Polish. The director was worried to answer, looked around and chose the words seriously.

“Tak, the bombs are found here, so I think that we’d revise the plan of construction.”

“Never change the plan since it must be a proper instruction as long as the committee decides!”

- Warsaw, the capital of Poland

The campus of Warsaw University is located in front of the Presidential Palace, nearby Praga district on the bank of Vistula river. The streets look dull and some old monuments were chipped, and people are forgetting there was a royal palace different from the presidential one. The interior of the auditorium there’s decorated by a long red banner, and a portrait of Edward Gierek, the First Secretary is put on the wall.

The course beginning here is the Slavic history and archaeology.

“Imagine that our great ancestors made great history. Remember Slavic people were a family and now got tied firmly…”

The lecture still continues.

“Under the flags of the Warsaw Pact Organization…”

A girl listening to that was about to fail on her face. Then a boy behind her poked his finger then called her in a lower voice.

“Hey Katarzyna, just keep you awake!”

“Shhhh. What if they find us snubbing?”

At that time, this city was the place of the signing of Warsaw Pact Organization led by the Soviet Union.

“But I’ve heard this campus is free from the Secret Service.”

He passed a note to Katarzyna. Wouldn’t they get interested in the professor's lecture?

“KGB is an exception, their hands can reach anywhere from Moscow,” it read.

“Well, I won’t waste life again as dad did…”

They suddenly heard professor shouted,

“You two, seem very restless. Come and see me after the class. That’s all for today.”

The class is over, after the other students got out with leaving the two, the professor beckoned.

“Katarzyna and Boleslaw!”

They imagined what punishment they’d receive.  

“I expected some not interested in such an ideological lecture, don’t you think so?”

Hardly answered Boleslaw,

“I just tried to wake her, for the class. Please let me go…”

“You misunderstand something, certainly you disturbed the class. But it’s true that my class is boring though. Isn’t it Katarzyna?”

Then she answered,

“My father was an archeologist, and he’s never heard of the Warsaw Pact. This word has nothing to do with archeology nor our history.”

Professor drummed on the table and said, “well”.

“If I was born a decade ago, I’d agree with you… Perhaps, you’re interested in the true archeology not ruined by Bolshevik.”

Then he showed her a piece of ‘copied’ old paper.

“I’ll give you a week. Translate this thousand-year-old document, or try to contact anyone who can read it.”

The students looked at each other. Katarzyna looks very admired.

“Interesting homework…”

The professor still worried to tell them what,

“Frankly, I thought this should be lectured in the class instead of Party propaganda, as you think. This copy is my present for you.”

Katarzyna studied the paper, but it’s not written in the alphabet she knows.

“What’s this strange script?”

“It’s an ancient alphabet called Gligoric, but we’re banned from even reading it anyway.”

Boleslaw said thanks to receive it, and added the question:

“Then why did you keep us here? I thought we would be kicked out of the class ‘cause of disturbing your lecture.”

But there’s no answer but professor just leave some words as advice, 

“When you go out for some fieldwork, take care of yourself, remember this; Though our mother Poland won’t shoot 'cause of deviation, but then see the hands of KGB everywhere.”

Listening to his wording, Katarzyna felt this document is something like prohibited literature.

Delo 2: Call of Polesia

-Pryp’yat, Chornobyl (Ukraine), 1978

The forest covered the secret city known for hi-tech.

I’m aboard a bus at the southern checkpoint on the road to Pryp’yat. Though narrow roads are closed by the boom gate, it’s always crowded by cars.

“Stoy! Park your car and follow the instructions!”

Driver passed the paper.

“It's AN(Academy of Sciences), well you’re good to go!”

The bus passed the inspection. I called a professor on my front seat.

“Pardon Dr. Viitol, can I have a minute of your time later?”

10 km distant northward from it, Durova was in the command room of the Duga radar station,  just with old-school military antennas. When she looked at the monitor, heard a beep from her pocket.

The city provided a mobile communication network for simple text messaging.

“Found an informant, see you tonight at No. 227 Hotel Polesia, from Dr. Viitol”

She promised Dr to accompany, but Dr says the informant is a stranger.

Hotel Polesia, Pryp’yat

Tonight, I lured a Soviet IT expert to my room with Western tech info. I met her at the Palace of Culture for the conference of new technologies to improve the economy. Anyway it’s a great chance to study the clue for “their” mysterious activity in the academic field through the conference.

The city was founded a decade ago, the closed city built for the electricity and military demand.

The view from this hotel is great to see the silhouette of huge reactors over there.

Here she came, the name’s Kroot Viitol majored in informatics. I read some of her achievements reported by the Zvezda newspaper.

Her office is over there seen from this room, westward away, ongoing construction. I know the Jupiter factory she’ll work for is a secret military electronics manufacturer since documents read when I was in the Air Force.The mother plant in Kyiv produces chips for avionics and radars used in prototype fighters I tested. Or perhaps, for rockets?

This room is No. 227.

“Hi comrade, good to see you.”

“Dr. Viitol, how’s it going? Your contribution to the lunar rover Lunokhod is great.”

“So the Academy awarded me a medal to praise it, thanks.”

“Oh I have some questions, just about some computer systems for the military...”

Dr. Viitol made a cynical smile on her face.

“Wait, I don’t know where you are from.’

“I come from Baikonur, Kazakh republic. I’m impressed with your contribution to the state-level computer network…”

Baikonur is well-known as the cosmodrome, or spaceport.

“Sorry to say, I used to work in Baikonur for a long time, but I never see you… isn't it strange?”

Then Dr. Viitol took a pistol. I reacted as quickly as she did.

“Don’t deceive me, no one was on the invitation list for this conference from Baikonur... You must be a spy!”

I shot at the gun in her hand to disarm.

“By the way did you remember me, Dr? We’ve worked together for MiG-23 fighter project… And you sold me to the KGB!

Dr. Viitol shut up for a while, and stepped down without saying but,

“Valentina… the rumor was right that you really left the Soviet Union?”

Suddenly the door of my room broke with someone knocking it out, and I heard an officer shouting, then I remembered the voice.

“Who’s there? Dunno shooting is a crime?”

The two accused me of 'collusion with enemies' in the line of my test-pilot duty.

“Lt. Durova... I remember this great boffin and you, who obeyed the KGB attempted assassin plan on me. Let me go or shoot her.”

I caught Dr. Viitol and took her as the hostage. Then Durova shot at me with a silenced assault rifle with scope.

I shot in response to Durova's bust.

“Aghhh”

It hit my shoulder so I let Dr. Viitol go and just ran away and jumped out of the window, but some hit her skin.

“Alert, an enemy spy!”

Just after I left, Durova tried to rescue Dr Viitol.

“You’re about to kill me!”

“Sorry, aimed and avoided hitting in need to save you…”

Astonished though her damage was far less than Durova’s.

“Lieutenant, you bleed a lot… let me call the ambulance!”

Dr took her mobile phone for  the emergency call '103'.

“No, my rank is Major now…”

The Hotel parking

I managed to take “the taxi”, and the driver asked her for a countersign when riding.

“Hey, when’s the first year for the Hall of Fame?”

“In '36, I'm Tina!”

Then he tossed her a baseball cap. The taxi quickly got out of the hotel area, then a line of smoke and roaring from a hotel window.

“Oh hurry, a rocket is coming!”

I saw Durova still standing by the window of No.227 with her rocket launcher and she’s full of blood.

Then heard her voice says:

“Smyert’ shpionam blyat (Death to spies shit)!”

The car escaped on the city boulevard northward, I heard full of gun shooting.

"Tina, a tank is on the road!"

“That tank’s old enough to use RPG rocket here!”

I put the launcher bipod on the roof to aim at the tank outside.

“It’s a T-62, an old type!”

Then I fired it as Durova did.

“Slava Ukraini (Glory to Ukraine)!”

The moment I pulled the trigger, the launcher flew away from recoil.

That launcher hit a Soviet UAZ jeep chasing us and it got a flat tire.

“Bang!”

The jeep exploded when crushed into the wall at full speed.

The T-55 was running, and hit then stopped without burning.

Along the long boulevard, we saw an endpoint with a waterfront.

“That’s the Pryp’yat riverside, get ready out of here!”

The car stormed into the wharf of a river port, I jumped out of the door when the car flew up.

Dive into the river running nearby the city, both two swimmed and floated on water.

“Oh shit…”

“Let’s wait for an ally ship to pick us up, just like a triathlon.”

This river goes through the land of Polesia with the cities of Belarus and Poland.

“But where should we go?”

“Embassy in Warsaw... if we survive hundreds miles more!”

Then a boat heads to us…

-To be continued

[motaka-chan]

I'm disappointed

I know my account is basically dead but it's the only place I feel safe expressing my thoughts without the possible flood of trolls.

I'm Polish and I live in Poland. I consume media in 3 languages and that includes online spaces. I'm constantly trying to be informed, even if it makes me uncomfortable in reading propaganda - I need to know both sides. Not to make a judgment, but to know how to fight it. What buffles me is the fact, that my government and a lot of people (mostly influencers and celebrities) support Isr*el. Now, I need to explain a little bit of Polish history.

Between 1772 and 1795 Poland was partitioned by three huge countries - Austria, Prussia and Russia. The last partition that happened in 1795 marked the death of Poland as a country. From that year on, poles were systematically colonized and the oppressors tried to eradicate our country. We were seen as lower people. We fought. In 1792, 1830, 1863. And those were not the only uprisings that happened. People who have fought were imprisoned or sent to Syberia - and ultimately killed.

During the Great War, we didn't have one army. Poles served under German, Russian and Austrian uniforms and that means we killed each other. And we did it to show the more mighty countries that we deserve to be seen as a country. And we succeeded in 1918 - Poland was reborn. It was small, way smaller than it was in 1772. It was also poor and because of the years of oppression, we were really behind with everything. But, we were free.

We had our freedom for mere 20 years. In 1939, when both Germany and Russia attacked, we were ultimately partitioned yet again. Even historians call it the 4th partition. Poland was erased from the maps yet again. Poles (and not only us! There were Belarusians, Ukrainians and Jews living there and they too suffered the same fate) were tortured, raped and killed for being Polish. They were put to camps like Treblinka or they were sent away to Germany or Syberia to work and many of them died because of that. My late grandma's friend, we called her Jeżka, was a teenager who was sent away to work in Germany during the war. Her family died and she came back with a man she met there and decided to marry him. She never talked about what happened to her, she never wanted to. My father's uncle was sent to a camp in Sztutowo. We don't know what happened to him. He might have survived but the things that he had lived through must have tortured him untill his end.

The war ended in 1945, but not for us. Up untill the late 50s there was a strong resistance movement towards the new communist government that was installed in Poland without our agreement. Since the 1945 up untill 1990 we were under Russia's control. The men and women who fought and their families were punished. Poles were not silent, they fought. Up untill 1989, there were a lot of protests - some of them ended bloody. Between 1881 and 1883 we had a martial law. People who were in the resistance were arrested. In the first week only - 10 thousand people. My teacher's father was brutally beaten up by the police and she and her family saw everything. She was less than 15 in 1881. As a response, people went on strikes and some of them were killed as a result.

That was not the end of the fight, but I don't want to wrte everything because that is not the point of this post. In 1989 the government organized the first free democratic voting and the Poles decided - we want to be free.

Now, back the the topic I wanted to vent on a little. Knowing the newest history of Poland, I can't wrap my head around on how some of the Poles and our government supports Isr*el. By supporting what's been happening in Gaza since the 50s, you agree with the logic and the propaganda that was used on your ancestors. Knowing what happened in your family, in your friends' family - do you really agree with that's happening tho those people in Gaza?

Talk to your grandma. Make her tell you the things that the Nazis did to her, her friends and family. Talk to your grandpa, who has seen death and couldn't bury his closest people.

Your late grandparents and great grandparents who were murdered because of their nationality must be proud of you.

I'm sorry for the post, I needed to write how disappointed in my own people I am. I'm sorry for any mistakes since English is not my first language.

[hoskinsvarietyshow]

Now hear me out here.

There’s a certain part of being AMAB where you’ve got a high likelihood of getting pulled into the Knowing Things About World War 2 crowd. Some people get real cringe about it. Some people use it to learn about the horrors of war. But there’s a secret third thing, people who cry. Because when you start digging into stories from WWII you start finding people doing some really, really selfless acts of self sacrifice just to spit in the eye of a really evil feeling of oppression. You might not be a big Rah Rah My Country Is Great person. I feel you. Either you leave the military a Patriot or you leave a sane person who knows it’s all a sham.

But here are some cool stories and facts of people fighting and dying for their countrymen and sometimes complete strangers that I’ve learned over my wanderings through the 1930s and 40s. 

Franceska Mann was a Jewish ballet dancer from Poland. In late October of 1943, she and about 1800 other people were tricked into going to Aushwitz from Bergen-Belsen where instead of a stopover in a supposed POW exchange, they were to be gassed. Franceska used her brief time to put on a show for an SS officer, we know the little rat’s name, Josef Schillinger. We don’t exactly know what happened. But what we do know Franceska acquired his pistol and shot the reedy little fucker to death. Emptied the magazine into him and wounded at least two others as well. Now, this is a pretty inspiring story in and of itself. There’s a certain narrative of Jewish peoples going quietly into the chambers, but if you look, there’s quite a lot of very angry resistance. And Ms. Mann inspired an, unfortunately, unknown number of women into a frothing rage and also attacked the jumped up sadists working at Auschwitz. We don’t know how many there were, but we do know they were all shot to death and all of the survivors were gassed. But by golly by God they went into that good night with torn fingernails and red eyes. [link]

If you’re Greek, have some pride in your recent ancestors. Greeks went to their graves kicking and screaming and taking any axis soldier they could with them. Not one of the occupying force that wreaked havoc in Greece deserves your sympathy or a lifetime movie. There were truly evil and disgusting things done to Greek peoples for just the mere idea they might resist. Punished for having defeated the Italians and being punished for continuing to exist after Hitler said they shouldn’t. An estimated 13% of the Greek population was murdered. Through starvation, bombings, disease, or just outright mass murder. When allied Paratroopers were retreating to the southern end of Crete to fight another day, Greek Villagers, including three old women. Two in their 80s and one the age of 103 came out with kitchen knives and blunt objects to slow axis forces. They were all slaughtered and their village burned to the ground. Do you know what  the Greek Guerillas did when capturing a German unit after the Nazi surrender? When the Red Cross arrived with a truck full of rations, the guerillas led by a wizened old Priest had the Red Cross give the POWs the rations. Both groups were starving, but the Germans weren’t home and have a long trip back. [link] [link]

Here’s a fun “Did you know?” Did you know that for a large portion of the occupation of Poland, one of the leading resistance movements was actually the Polish Boys and Girls Scouts? Oh yes. They were known as The Gray Ranks. Children age 12 to 14 training as auxiliaries and postal service. Kids 15-16 attending secret combat schools. And kids 17+ more or less enlisting for some of the most organized and bloodiest resistance work of WWII. Girl scouts worked as munitions experts and transports, officers, and nurses. Boy Scouts organized in geurilla cells. Performing assaults on SS and German troops, prison breaks, disrupting German gatherings, sabotage, and even assassinations. The most important of which was the assassination of  SS-Brigadefuhrer Franz Kutchera a real fucking piece of shit excuse for a human being. Kutchera ordered the mass executions of Polish and Jewish citizens. The Gray Ranks finally got his ass in February of 1944. Ultimately at their height The Gray Ranks consisteted of nearly 9,000, for lack of a better word, children. And for 63 days those children took part in open rebellion during the Warsaw Uprising. A failed attempt to take back Poland from it’s heart. The only reason for said failure being the Red Army which was right across the river decided to leave thousands of Poles out to dry. I’m leaving a second link for this one that is to a wonderfully sad video about the specifics of the Warsaw Uprising. Please watch it. It still makes me cry. [link] [link]

I’ve been thinking a lot about these three occurrences in our relatively recent past. We’re rapidly approaching a century of distance between us and the earliest starts of the second world war. We’re running out of survivors to warn us. I didn’t include a few stories I couldn’t find complete confirmation of. Like nearly a thousand Hungarian Jewish prisoners being offloaded from trains at Auschwitz-Birkenau to replace the Polish Sonderkommandos who’s stay of execution had ended. When ordered to replace the Sonderkommandos, every single Hungarian refused. They were all executed for it. The Poles were also executed eventually. But nearly a thousand Hungarians saw the faces of nearly a thousand Poles and just refused. Fuck that. You’re going to kill us all anyway, I’m not making it easier for you. A thousand strangers standing in solidarity for a thousand more.

Just... it’s not about nationalism or patriotism or anything stupid like that. I collect these stories. People screaming in the face of pure and total defeat and making sure a few of their oppressors come with them. Old women. Children in the scouts. A beautiful Ballerina dancing her last dance. A thousand strangers going to their deaths with teeth gritted. And I just think people should know about them even in the abstracted masses we become with time and distance.

Thank you for reading. I hope you feel joy today.

[mariacallous]

What is haluski? The answer, like with many dishes, depends on who you’re asking. 

Different varieties pop up across Eastern Europe, including Slovakia, Romania, Poland and Ukraine, where it’s the national dish. The variations likely stem from the fact that haluski simply means “dumplings.” Just as there are many ways to make a kugel, there are many ways to make a dumpling dish. 

In general, the dumplings are made from a dough of flour and potatoes. Depending on the consistency of your dough, you might roll it out and cut it up before dropping it into boiling water, not unlike a gnocchi. With a wet dough, you’d simply drop small pieces of the batter one by one into boiling water. There’s even a haluski-specific strainer for the task.

The dumplings are commonly accompanied by cabbage, eggs, and/or cheese. The Slovakian version, for instance, called bryndzové halušky, uses fried cabbage and a sheep’s milk cheese (that’s the bryndzové), but no eggs.

When the dish made its ways to the States, likely in the early 20th century, the potato dumplings were ditched in favor of egg noodles. The reason isn’t entirely clear. What’s clearer, though, is that the dish — also known more plainly as cabbage and noodles — at some point found its way into the Hungarian Jewish community. 

Haluski follows the same logic of any classic dish that’s stood the test of time: It’s quick and easy, filling, has few ingredients, and can be served as a side dish or as the main course. 

I found it while exchanging emails with a cousin, Sandy Mott, in search of heritage recipes to better understand what my ancestors were eating.

“My grandmother was a phenomenal cook,” Sandy wrote. “She used to make a dish called haluski, which was basically sautéed cabbage and onions with wide egg noodles mixed in.”

This recipe comes from Sandy by way of her grandmother, Helen Greenfield, whom likely got it from her husband, Mr. Louis Darnell Sterns. Louis came to the United States from a 19th century shtetl of the Austro-Hungarian empire outside of modern-day Bardejov, Slovakia where Sandy and I trace our shared ancestry. Now that shared heritage lives on in this smoky dish of haluski.