The New York State Folklore Society is hosting Legends and Tales on November 12th at Binghamton University. The tentative schedule includes:
The Fabled and the Fabulous: Dawn Saliba of Binghamton University on “Shakespeare, Three Sisters and a Scottish King: The Witchlore of Macbeth as Influenced by King James’s Demonology;” Daniel Irving, of Binghamton University on “You Can’t Lose What You Ain’t Never Had: Southern Mythology and the Precariousness of Performance;” and, Trisha Cowen of Binghamton University on “A New Perspective on Happily Ever After: Children Dying to Close the Portal Between Worlds.”
Legendary Transformations: Chris MacKowski of Binghamton University on “The Legend of Stonewall Jackson’s Arm;” Nick Hilbourn of Binghamton University on “The Stranger Upstairs: Disability Representation in Urban Horror Legends;” and Bambi Lodell of the State University of New York at Oneonta on “Mythic Elements in the Life and Legend of Lucy Ann/Joseph Israel Lobdell.”
The Keynote Address, “Haunted Halls, Mansions, and Riverbanks: Legends of the Southern Tier” will be delivered by Dr. Elizabeth Tucker.
Other sessions include a reading by Novelist Jaimee Wriston Colbert from her work “Shark Girls,” “Folklore in Practice: Collecting Narratives after Disaster Strikes” with an esteemed panel of folklore professionals, and a closing session focusing on storytelling in performance with Milbre Burch, “Changing Skins: Folktales about Gender, Identity and Humanity.”
Milbre Burch is a grammy-nominated and internationally known storyteller. She is currently a graduate student in theater and folklore at the University of Missouri. Her performance, “Changing Skins” is informed by research on the wealth and persistence of gender-bending folktales and cultural expressions around the world. The tales — adapted from print collections by folklorists, anthropologists, linguists and literary scholars – are interwoven with personal observations of the social construction of gender, and notes on historical and contemporary thinking about the diversity of gender expressions.
The Society will also be presenting “Folk Arts in Education Development, a Workshop for Artists and Teachers” on Friday, October 21st from 8AM till 3:30PM at Celtic Hall, 430 New Karner Road, Albany, NY
The presentation will be led by Arts in Education Specialist Dr. Amanda Dargan of City Lore, Inc. along with featured artist Andes Manta.
Amanda Dargan holds a Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. She is the Arts in Education Director for City Lore, Inc., a folk arts organization in Manhattan. In a joint effort with the Bank Street College of Education, Amanda Dargan pioneered a program of staff development sessions and seminars for teachers, administrators, and artists on how to integrate cultural studies and the arts into the core curriculum. Through a national initiative, Amanda Dargan and Paddy Bowman of the National Task Force on Folk Arts in Education have offered these trainings on how to effectively and creatively use students’ and communities’ resources in classrooms throughout the United States.
The session provides a forum where teachers may meet traditional artists from a variety of backgrounds, discover resources available for arts in education, make curriculum connections to traditional arts, and enhance local learning possibilities.
The event is free, but registration is required. For further information, contact Lisa at the New York Folklore Society at 518-346-7008.
2011 Summer Community Documentation Program
In the summer of 2011, the New York Folklore Society teamed up with the Schoharie River Center, the Schenectady Job Training Agency and the Schenectady High School to offer a six
week Community Documentation Program. NYFS staff Lisa Overholser and Ellen McHale joined SRC staff John McKeeby, Scott Haddam, and Ben McKeeby in working with nineteen Schenectady teens to document Schenectady’s green spaces and the activities which occur in and around Schenectady’s parks and waterways. The successful program was given special notice by the Schenectady Job Training Agency for its innovation.
The Grand Re-Opening of the Adam Mickiewicz Library took place at the Adam Mickiewicz Library & Dramatic Circle on Saturday, September 17th. I was once a member of the Adam Mickiewicz Library and Dramatic Circle and had visited its tremendous library several times. There are true treasures there and great resources for historical research.
The library had been officially closed and generally inaccessible for the last 17 years. During the reopening tours were provided by librarian Mary Lanham.
Here is a video of the re-opening ceremony:
The library is located in the Adam Mickiewicz Library & Dramatic Circle building at 612 Fillmore Ave., Buffalo, NY.
Father Major Sławomir Andrew Biliński of the Polish National Catholic Church served as 2011 Pulaski Day Parade Military Marshal.
Polish-born priest and doctor, Father Major Slawomir Andrew Bilinski has a distinguished career of service in military and civilian settings. After arriving in the U.S. as a priest in the Polish National Catholic Church, he was assigned to Holy Mother of Sorrows PNC Church in Dupont, PA, where he served as pastor until 2000. After earning a B.S. in pre-medical studies at Wilkes University, Father Bilinski entered Thomas Jefferson University Medical College in Philadelphia and joined the U.S. Army as a Lieutenant. Upon completion of his medical degree in 2004, he was promoted to Captain and served his internship in Emergency Medicine at Hahnemann University Hospital and residency training at the Underwood Memorial Hospital of Thomas Jefferson University. At that time, Father Bilinski also assisted at St. Valentine’s Church in Philadelphia.
In 2007, Captain Bilinski was transferred to Brooke Army Hospital and Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, TX, where he served as medical doctor in the Emergency Room, Troop Clinic, and wounded soldiers unit. He was promoted to the rank of Major in October, 2010.
Major Bilinski now serves a triple vocation as U.S. Army officer, priest and physician by caring for our soldiers and their families at Fort Lee, Virginia. When he visits his hometown of Philadelphia, he assists with Father Krzysztof Mendelewski at St. Valentine’s PNC Church on Margaret Street, in the Frankford section of Philadelphia.
Prime Bishop, the Most Rev. Dr. Anthony Mikovsky, accompanied by the Rev. Gregory Młudzik visited Poland from August 13th to the 23rd.
Prime Bishop Mikovsky and his party first visited Warsaw, attending Holy Mass at Good Shepherd Parish, accompanied by the Rt. Rev. Sylvester Bigaj, Bishop of the Canadian Diocese of the PNCC.
Following Holy Mass, the group attended by a contingent of Scouts laid a wreath and offered prayers at the tomb of PNCC Bishop and Martyr Joseph Padewski.
The Prime Bishop next visited the Polish Catholic Parish of St. Barbara in Bolesław (Krzykawa-Małobądz) on August 15th for their Dożynki (Harvest) Festival. The Prime Bishop also visited the birthplace of our first Bishop, and organizer of the Polish National Catholic Church, the Most Rev. Francziszek Hodur in Żarki as well as the Parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and monument to Bishop Hodur in Libiąż.
The Prime Bishop ended his visit at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Strzyżowice on September 20th where he took part in the Parish’s 50th Anniversary Holy Mass and celebration. Rev. Młudzik was baptized and raised in the parish at Strzyżowice.
The retired pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is the Very Rev. Eugene Stelmach. Fr. Senior Stelmach served the parish for forty-nine years and was also Dean over five parishes in his Seniorate. Fr. Senior Stelmach was also active in ecumenical circles, serving as Vice-chair of the Silesian branch of the Polish Ecumenical Council. The Parish’s current pastor is Rev. Adam Stelmach, the son of Fr. Senior Stelmach.
The jubilee celebration was attended by representatives of the Churches in the Silesian branch of the Polish Ecumenical Council (PRE) including: the Protestant cathedral choir “Largo Cantabile” from Katowice, Bishops from the Evangelical Lutheran Church Dioceses of Katowice and Cieszyn, the honorary chairman of the Silesian branch of the PRE, the Rev. Jan Gross of Cieszyn, and representatives from the Mariavite parishes in Gniazdów and Sosnowiec. Faithful from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Czech Republic from Czech-Cieszyn as well as guests from across Poland, the United States, and France were also in attendance.
Church filled to capacityProcession into churchEcumenical guestsLargo CantabilePrime Bishop Mikovsky and Fr. Gregory MłudzikBlessing before the Proclamation of the GospelThe Prime Bishop addresses the faithfulOverflow crowd seated outdoors - a frequent sight at churches in PolandHonor Guard of soldiers and coal minersPrime Bishop Mikovsky at the reception and dinner after Holy MassFellowship, great friends, faith, and kiełbasa!Fr. Senior Stelmach (foreground), Prime Bishop Mikovsky, and honored guests
The lecture notes of University of Kansas Professor Anna M. Cienciala: Nationalism and Communism in East Central Europe. The notes cover the history of East Central Europe from the partitions of Poland beginning in 1772 through to the post-Communiest period.
Protestant kids from rural Kansas, discovered a Polish Catholic woman who saved Jewish children. Irena Sendler and these students have chosen to repair the world. This web site shares the legacy and life of Irena Sendler, plus her ‘discovery’ for the world.
Editions Bibliotekos announced that Dr. John Guzlowski will participate in a series sponsored by the English Department of St. Francis College on October 11th from 4–6 pm. John’s reading and discussion, entitled War Remembered – Lightning and Ashes: Two Lives Shaped by World War II, will be the third such event initiated by Editions Bibliotekos and hosted by St. Francis. The event will be held in Founders Hall, 180 Remsen St., Brooklyn Heights, NY, and is free and open to the public.
Through interviews and in-depth coverage, get an up-close look at the country in an international context on TV and online.
In 1989, Poland became the first member of the Soviet bloc to establish a non-Communist government.
Since then it has run headlong into the western world with one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe. The CIA World Factbook calls Poland a regional success story…
Poland’s multiethnic past is remembered in A Commonwealth of Diverse Cultures. Highlights include the contributions of Poles whose heritage is Jewish or is from the Ruthenian/Byzantine East, Lithuania, Italy, France, Germany, Armenia, the Islamic southeast. This history of Scotts in Poland is not covered, but is also interesting.
James Conroyd Martin recently finished his manuscript focusing on the Polish Insurrection of 1830. He has posted lines from the manuscript on Facebook. Also, check out Morgen Bailey’s interview with James Martin at Morgen Bailey’s Writing Blog
Kanonia Square below was aglow with torches borne by people streaming towards Długa Street. Events had moved fast, much faster than Viktor had imagined. The people had joined the cadets’ insurgency with unexpected enthusiasm and resolve. Russians had always underrated the Poles, just as the Turks had at the Battle of Vienna. Here was more modern proof.
From 1943 to 1946, Colonia Santa Rosa in Guanajuato, Mexico was the site of a US-government sponsored home for Polish refugees. About 240 miles northwest of Mexico City and “10 minutes’ ride by mule-drawn tram from the Leon railway station,” the hacienda included a 39-room ranch house, a flour mill, ten wheat storage warehouses, a chapel and other buildings, as well as several acres for growing crops. By October 1943, almost 1,500 Poles were sheltered at Colonia Santa Rosa.
Their path to Mexico was an unlikely one. Having been removed from their communities by the Soviet military in 1939, they first were put to work in Russia and Siberia. They were resettled in Iran by the Russians, and fell into the care of the British government. The British relocated them to camps in Karachi, then still a part of India, and sought US assistance for their support. An agreement was reached between the British, US and Mexican governments with the provisional Polish government in London to relocate these refugees to Mexico…
Martin Stepek seeks to understand and pass on what he has learned about his family’s life in Poland, and their odyssey to find refuge in Polish Legacy. His grandmother and grandfather died in Poland during World War Two, and his father and two aunts narrowly avoided the same fate.
Two 90-minute film adaptations of Alan Furst’s acclaimed novels will bring to BBC Four a combination of historically located, intelligent narratives, interlaced with flawed, romantic and utterly compelling characters. Furst, widely recognised as the current master of the historical spy novel, evokes a Europe stumbling into a Second World War, his taut and richly atmospheric thrillers grace the bestseller lists right around the globe. They have been described as “Casablanca meets John le Carre”.
Richard Klein, Controller, BBC Four, says: “Alan Furst is one of the world’s finest writers on war and the costs of war on human relationships. It is with great pleasure that I can confirm that BBC Four will be dramatising for television one of his best known novels, Spies Of Warsaw. Furst and Four are a very good fit and I hope our audiences will enjoy the result of this collaboration.”
The characters of Alan Furst’s best-selling spy novels roam the foggy nights and steal across the rainy, cobbled streets of Prague, Berlin, Warsaw, Rome, and Paris. Furst’s protagonists join the ranks of the Resistance in one way or another. They include faded nobility, b-movie filmmakers, newspapermen, ship’s captains and compromised businessmen as well as waiters, shopkeepers, jaded intellectuals, tarnished grand dames, and boozy British secret agents. Together they march in the underground army that seeks to fight back against the Nazi occupiers.
Spanning the decade from 1933 to 1943, as the Germans slowly consolidate their political stranglehold on Europe, Furst’s stories are portraits of subjugated peoples who try to resist the suffocating inevitability of Hitler’s regime. They show the potency and the importance of espionage and pure intelligence in the run up to the war…
Mr. Alda, who has written five screenplays and a carton-full of television scripts, said on Monday that “Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie,” is his first attempt at playwriting. The idea struck him about three years ago when he was planning to organize a reading of excerpts from Curie’s letters for the World Science Festival. “Then I found out her letters were all still radioactive and I switched to Albert Einstein,” said Mr. Alda, who has a passion for science. “But I love Marie Curie and I think her story is so important and dramatic, I wanted to explore it and write a play about it.”
Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in 1902 – for the theory of radioactivity that she developed with her husband, Pierre – and the first person to receive the award twice. She was awarded her second Nobel in chemistry in 1911 for her discovery of two elements, radium and polonium. There have been several renditions of Curie’s life on stage, television and film, including the 1943 drama starring Greer Garson. Without giving too much of the plot away, Mr. Alda said his play focuses on the period between her first Nobel Prize and her second nine years later. The Nobel committee did not originally want to include Curie in the award and only backed down after pressure from her husband. “But they wouldn’t let her get up and accept the award,” Mr. Alda said. “She had to sit in the audience.” In the intervening years, Pierre Curie died and Marie had to run a gauntlet of setbacks and obstacles, but by 1911, Mr. Alda said, “her work is finally recognized, and she takes full credit for it, even though by now she’s weakened by radiation poisoning.”
“I think she had a kind of cognitive dissonance about it,” Mr. Alda said of the damaging fallout from her experiments. “She didn’t want to believe it was sickening her,” he added. “It’s part of the heroism of science itself. We as a species are just so interested in understanding things that might be dangerous to mess with, but nothing stops us.”
Mr. Alda, a voracious reader of nonfiction, said he did his own research. “All I read is science,” he said, though confessed that the math and chemistry involved still elude him…
A grim-looking farmer with a pitchfork and communist-era industrial cityscapes – such are the images of Poland often presented in modern-day history books in Western Europe, finds a new report.
The backward image of Poland so often presented in history books has been tackled in a report issued on behalf of the Foreign Affairs Ministry by historian Professor Adam Suchoński from Opole University, who looked into the history textbooks used in high schools throughout Europe.
…
“These textbooks are still very much in use. Reprinted every couple of years, reinforcing negative stereotype of Poles and their country,” says Professor Suchoński, adding that “[Poles] are depicted as fighters, victims of war, persecution and failed national uprisings.”
…
The historian suggests that Poland should prepare an extensive overview of its history, which it should forward to the Georg Eckert Institute, an acclaimed reference center for textbook research in Germany and a Mecca for authors of history books.
Helena Modjeska was born in Krakow, Poland, on October 12, 1840. She received her only formal education while attending the convent run by the Order of the Presentation Sisters. She was seduced at a young age by one of the family guardians, Gustave Sinnmayer. He later fathered her two children, Rudolph and her daughter Marylka, who died in infancy. As the couple traveled with their acting troupe around the provincial towns of Galicia, Gustave used the stage name “Modrzejewski” while Helena adopted the feminine version “Modrzejewska”. Later, when performing abroad, she anglicized her name to “Modjeska”.
Realizing that her impresario could no longer advance her career, Helena left Sinnmayer, taking their son Rudolf, and returned to Krakow. While engaged in the Krakow theatre, she met the Polish nobleman, Karol Bozenta Chlapowski. They married in 1868 and left for Warsaw where she became the most celebrated actress of the Polish national theatre. Her brothers Jozef and Feliks Benda were also respected actors in Poland. The Chlapowski home became the center of the artistic and literary world. Yet, due to the political situation in Poland and its influence on her work, Helena’s life became unbearable.
In 1876, for personal and political reasons, Modjeska and her family emigrated to the United States with a small group of friends. They purchased a ranch in Anaheim, California, forming a Polish colony of intellectuals. The colonists knew very little about farming and the utopian experiment eventually failed.
Modjeska returned to the stage, debuting in San Francisco with an English version of Adrienne Lecouvreur and reprising the Shakespearean roles that she had performed in Poland. Despite her accent and imperfect command of English, Modjeska achieved great success in her thirty-year career in the United States and abroad.
In 1893 Modjeska was invited to speak in a women’s conference at the Chicago World’s Fair. She described the hardships of Polish women in the Russian and Prussian-ruled parts of Poland. The Russian tsar banned her from traveling or performing in Russian territory.
Modjeska became known for her support of charitable causes. She had ignited and influenced the careers of many international artists, such as Sienkiewicz and Paderewski. She advanced and uplifted the profession of acting for women…
The battle in the Polish Corridor was especially intense. It was here that the myth of the Polish cavalry charging German tanks was born. As Gen. Heinz Guderian’s panzer and motorized forces pressed the weaker Polish forces back, a unit of Pomorska Cavalry Brigade slipped through German lines late in the day on Sept. 1 in an effort to counterattack and slow the German advance. The unit happened on a German infantry battalion making camp. The Polish cavalry mounted a saber charge, sending the Germans fleeing at that moment, a group of German armored cars arrived on the scene and opened fire on the cavalry, killing several troopers and forcing the rest to retreat. Nazi propagandists made this into “cavalry charging tanks” and even made a movie to embellish their claims. While historians remembered the propaganda, they forgot that on September 1, Gen. Guderian had to personally intervene to stop the German 20th motorized division from retreating under what it described as “intense cavalry pressure.” This pressure was being applied by the Polish 18th Lancer Regiment, a unit one tenth its size.
George de Wrzalinski, a retired General Services Administration librarian and the scion of an aristocratic Polish family who during World War II was pressed into forced labor in a German aircraft factory, died Aug. 13 at the Powhatan Nursing Home in Falls Church.
He was 85 and died of complications related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure and the effects of a stroke suffered in May, said his executor and friend, Margaret Shannon.
Mr. Wrzalinski (pronounced “Jalinsky”) retired from the GSA in 1997 as chief librarian of the technical division of the National Capital Region. This job included oversight of architectural, engineering and other blueprints for federal buildings in the Washington area, including the White House.
He came to the United States in 1954 and was naturalized as a citizen in 1960. His neighbors said he flew a U.S. flag at his house in Arlington County every day, but he also retained his Polish roots and Old World mannerisms.
“When he greeted me, he always kissed my hand,” said Shannon, who lived next door to Mr. Wrzalinski for 36 years.
Jerzy Ludwik de Wrzalinski was born Jan. 30, 1926, in Poznan, Poland. His father was a colonel in the Polish army and would later become mayor of Gniesno. His mother was a concert pianist, and a grandmother was a Polish princess. A twin sister died at birth.
In 1940, he was a 14-year-old high school student in Gniesno when the occupying Germans shipped him to an aircraft factory near Breslau, where he reinstalled oxygen lines in damaged aircraft. He would later tell friends that he began smoking in those years because laborers who smoked were allowed cigarette breaks. (He quit smoking in 1983.)
Near the end of the war, he was relocated to a forced labor camp at Aschersleben, which was a subcamp of Buchenwald. He was liberated by the British there in April 1945.
After the war, Mr. Wrzalinski lived in displaced persons camps in Germany for several years. He was fluent in German, Polish, English, French and Russian, and he had various translating jobs.
Upon immigrating to the United States, he settled in St. Paul, Minn., where he worked in the personnel office of Remington Rand, the business-machine manufacturer. He had said he was once denied a pay raise there with the explanation that “he can be happy that he’s in America.” He studied English at the University of Minnesota’s extension division.
When he became a U.S. citizen in St. Paul, he changed his first name, Jerzy, to its anglicized version, George.
He moved to the Washington area in the early 1960s and became a cataloguer and analyst for a College Park documentation company. Later he was a documents and information specialist for a NASA contractor. He joined the GSA in 1984 and retired in 1997.
Mr. Wrzalinski never married, and he had no immediate survivors.
In the last years of his life, his neighbors in Fairlington supervised his medical care and helped look after his house, where in addition to the American flag, he flew the Polish flag and the state flags of Maryland and Virginia daily. He had an elaborate and extensive flower garden.
He looked the part of a European aristocrat. On summer days, he wore tennis whites, unwrinkled and pressed immaculately, and he liked to invite friends and neighbors over for drinks in the evening. He frequented the Fairlington community swimming pool, where he befriended the Polish lifeguards.
Marian Wojciechowski, 97, of Las Vegas
Passed away June 5, 2011. Was born April 25, 1914, in Polaniec, Poland.
Marian was a World War II veteran, a platoon leader who fought German forces Sept. 1, 1939 at the Battle of Mokra, considered to be a tactical victory for the Polish cavalry. His regiment, the 21st Pulk Ulanow Nadwislanskich, was later awarded the Virtuti Militari. He continued fighting after Russia attacked Sept. 17, 1939, then joined the Polish underground resistance. He was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo in Radom, and sent to Auschwitz (Nr. 50333), Gross Rosen, and Leitmeritz concentration camps. In the displaced persons camps of post-war Germany, he met and married Wladyslawa Poniecka, who had survived the Gestapo prison Pawiak in Warsaw, and the concentration camp Ravensbruck (Nr. 7532) north of Berlin. In 1950, they came to America with their daughter, and settled in Toledo, Ohio.
Marian was awarded a master’s degree in economics and business administration from the Warsaw School of Economics in 1937. He worked as auditor for the Union of Agricultural Cooperatives before his arrest in 1942. From 1946-1947, he was an officer in the Polish Civilian Guard under the command of the U.S. Army in the American Zone of West Germany. He also served as chief liaison officer for Polish groups to the International Refugee Organization. Marian was the owner and editor of the Polish-language weekly newspaper “Ameryka Echo” in Toledo until 1961. He worked for many years as urban renewal project administrator with the City of Toledo. From 1980-1994 he was an administrator with the Neighborhood Housing Services of Toledo, finally retiring at the age of 80. Marian moved to Las Vegas in 1998 to be closer to his family.
Marian was a past commander of the Polish Army Veterans Association Post 74 in Toledo for 10 years, a member of American Legion Post 545 in Toledo, and a member of the VFW. He actively participated in many organizations, such as the Polish American Congress and Polish National Alliance. Marian also received many honors and awards during his lifetime, including medals for his military service during World War II and his work in urban development. In 2009, at the age of 95, Marian realized his wish to return to Mokra to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II. He also visited the former Polish Army Cadet Officers Cavalry School in Grudziadz, and even Auschwitz along the way. He was accompanied on this splendid adventure by his grandson Craig with Jodi, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur of Toledo, and Dr. Roman Rozycki of the Las Vegas Polish community.
Born 17 August 1935. Died 14 July 2011. Tadeusz Bociański served as the President of the Modjeska Club from 1983 to 1989. His activities contributed to elevating the Club to its high social status and to establishing its broad scope of cultural activities. With an extraordinarily limited budget, he was able to bring to California the most distinguished Polish politicians, actors and artists. As the owner of a Cultural Agency PolArt he organized performances by famous Polish theaters and cabarets throughout the entire West Coast and the Southwest. He was also active in other social and cultural organizations. On 17 January 1998, he received the Cavalier Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland for his achievements in promoting Polish culture abroad.
At Dawn. Going to Work, Czesław Wasilewski, ca. 1930
The history and tradition of the Polish National Catholic Church’s is the life and history of its people and their relationship with their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The documents, hymns, and writings of the Church, and its civic action all reference its relationship with Labor. That relationship was founded so that the struggles of its members would not go unheeded, but rather to support them in prevailing in their fight for freedom, recognition, fair treatment and wages as workers, and their dignity as citizens and Christians.
These references include, from the Hymn of the Polish National Catholic Church:
Now again He comes from heaven,
Midst the lab’ring, toiling people,
In the form of Bread and God’s Word,
To His humble, needful people.
To His humble, needful people.
From the Hymn of Faith:
To Thee we come, O Lord our God,
Before Thine altar Father,
Thou knowest best our yearning hearts,
This supplication answer. Lift up from want thy people, Lord.
Bless us O God, O Father bless our toil.
Under Thy Cross we stand prepared,
To serve Thee with devotion,
Be it with sweat of blood or tears,
Or humble resignation.
For we Thy people are, O Lord,
Save us O God, O Father bless our toil.
The Church, addressing criticism of Bishop Hodur’s support for workers and their efforts. Some saw a necessity for removing religion from the workers movement. From Straz (21 January 1910):
As it was in 1897, so it is today in the year 1910, that Bishop Hodur is a supporter of reform in the civil or the social spirit, he is for the nationalization of the land, of churches, schools, factories, mines and the means of production. He has stated this openly and states it publicly today, he does not hide his sympathies for the workers’ movement and he will never hide them, and he considers himself nothing else than a worker in God’s Church.
But the bishop is an opponent of erasing religion from the cultural work of humanity — indeed, Bishop Hodur believes strongly and is convinced that all progress, growth, just and harmonious shaping of human relations must come from a religious foundation, lean on Divine ethics, and then such growth will be permanent and will give humanity happiness.
Bishop Hodur stood with strikers and those in the Labor movement. He participated in strikes and supported striking workers, and called the PNCC together to respond to the Lattimer Massacre. The following is from a November 30, 1919 speech at a reception for delegate Maciej Łacszczyński, editor of a labor newspaper in Poland and a delegate to the International Conference of Workers held in Washington. The address was attended by members of congress and John T. Dempsey, President of the United Mine Workers Union:
One of the greatest achievements of modern civilization is respect and honor for human labor. ln the past, labor was undervalued, work was shameful, and what goes with that, working people were mistreated and abused. There was kowtowing and bowing before those who did not need to work hard, and those who did work hard and with their toil created wealth and fed others were regarded as half-free or slaves. Even the greatest of the ancient thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle regarded this economic system as just and the only one recommended, in which a minority rules and possesses full rights of citizenship and the majority works and produces. This majority of people had no rights, it was not free. And such a system lasted whole ages.
Truly Jesus Christ came on earth as the greatest teacher of humankind, the spiritual regenerator, and he condemned a social order based on cruelty and injustice, and His immediate disciples tried to create a new order, the Kingdom of God on earth, but the exponents of force and exploitation soon managed to gain for themselves the leaders of the Christian Church and impose on them their points of view. And the entire Middle Ages, that is, for about a thousand years more, this unjust system was tolerated, this order in which two castes, that is, the magnates, nobles and clergy, possessed rights and privileges; townspeople had limited rights, but the great masses of peasants and laborers were without rights, without influence whatsoever. It was not even permitted to change one’s lord. One was tied to the field or to the workplace like some kind of thing without a soul.
Not until the beginning of the nineteenth century were the commandments of Christ the Lord remembered, His teaching about the worthiness and value of labor. But it was not the priests, not the bishops, not the pope – these representatives of the Christian Church – who recalled this splendid teaching of Christ about the value of the human soul and labor, but lay people, first in England, then in France. It began to be taught that work is the foundation of the social structure, that work is the source of wealth, prosperity and happiness, and what goes with this, that it is not the nobility, not the magnates, not those presently ruling who should be the ruling class, but if there is to be a ruling class then it should be the working class.
And from that time, that is, more or less from the middle of the last century, begins the organization of workers on a larger scale in the name of the rights of man, in the name of the value and worthiness of labor. Everything that workers did in the name of their slogans was good.
And today one may say boldly that the cause of labor is the most important one, and that progress, the development and happiness of the whole nation, of all mankind, depends on its just resolution. Workers today have more privileges than they have ever had.
In this reasonable and just struggle for rights, bread for the family and education for children, for common control of the wealth created by the worker, our holy Church stands before the worker like a pillar of fire, and the hand of Christ blesses him in his work.
The Polish American Encyclopedia, edited by James S. Pula, is now available.
At least nine million Americans trace their roots to Poland, and Polish Americans have contributed greatly to American history and society. During the largest period of immigration to the United States, between 1870 and 1920, more Poles came to the United States than any other national group except Italians. Additional large-scale Polish migration occurred in the wake of World War II and during the period of Solidarity’s rise to prominence.
The encyclopedia features three types of entries: thematic essays, topical entries, and biographical profiles. The essays synthesize existing work to provide interpretations of, and insight into, important aspects of the Polish American experience. The topical entries discuss in detail specific places, events or organizations such as the Polish National Alliance, Polish American Saturday Schools, and the Latimer Massacre, among others. The biographical entries identify Polish Americans who have made significant contributions at the regional or national level either to the history and culture of the United States, or to the development of American Polonia.
A proud old man died the other day and a window on history closed.
Jerzy Einhorn was 92 when he passed away at his Mt. Lebanon home on July 4.
A prominent doctor in his native Poland in the 1960s, he came to the U.S. in 1967 and became an endocrinologist at Montefiore Hospital, where he treated thousands of patients and directed the thyroid screening program. He also established health clinics in Hazelwood and Greenfield and taught at the University of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Einhorn leaves behind a wife and three children from two marriages. He also leaves behind a back story from his youth straight from the movies — a tale full of Nazis, narrow escapes and dangerous liaisons in occupied Poland during World War II.
A Polish cavalry officer, he fought the Germans in 1939 and then served with the Polish underground Home Army in the Warsaw Uprising, a battle that ended with the Nazi annihilation of the city in 1944.
He won military decorations, escaped captivity multiple times, twice crossed the Eastern Front, swam the Vistula River and ended up imprisoned and beaten by the Soviet secret police in 1945.
He lost his father — forced to dig his own grave before being shot — and a sister, sent to a concentration camp with her two children.
His story is one of millions from that time, but unlike many others, he wrote it all down in a memoir, “Recollections of the End of an Era,” published in Polish in 2000 and translated into English in 2005…
Chicago Polish-American author Wesley Adamczyk invited me to his home on July 14, 2011, to see his exhibition. As I make my way in, he advises me to watch out for the electrical cords running to a strategically placed floor lamp in his living room. He has positioned several lamps to shine on his collection of memorabilia and publications related to the Katyń Massacre and the deportation of Poles to Siberia at the beginning of World War II.
“Some of my collection I have displayed on the walls and tables,” he says, “and some things I am going to display through multimedia. This is a display of a performance piece titled Two Christmas Eves,” he indicates, pointing to a poster, “one in Poland shortly before the war, one in Siberia in 1941, after my family and thousands of other Polish people were deported to Siberia in 1940.” The drawings contrast the cultured family life Adamczyk knew as a child with the brutality of the Soviets…
Lauren Redniss has written a very modern portrait of this celebrated couple that is a treat to read. From the custom type created by the author to the layout of the sparse text to the illustrations, the author presents a biography that captures not only the linear progression of the lives of these scientific giants, but connects their work to its effects in the world. “Radioactive” is a work of art.
One key to the success of this book is the incorporation of numerous quotes of Marie, Pierre, and others. Actual words help the reader relate to the Curies and to their time. In addition, the accounts and testimonies of other sources linked to the Curies’ work help the reader understand the magnitude of their discoveries. This is especially evident in chapter 5 “Instability of Matter” in which Marie’s thesis that radiation may inhibit malignant cell growth is followed by the 2001 testimony of a cancer patient being treated for Non-Hodgkins lymphoma with a thermoplastic radiation mask. The same chapter included the development of the atom bomb, the Manhattan Project, a copy of declassified FBI files, and the testimony of a Hiroshima survivor.
As the story of Pierre and Marie Curie progresses chronologically through the nine chapters of the book, the author mirrors the characters’ personal and professional lives with other seemingly random events…
One underlying theme of the book is the remarkable partnership of individuals who, working together, discover something new. At the turn of the century, an amazing confluence of scientific discoveries and ideas created an atmosphere where information was shared among scientists. Beginning with Pierre and Marie who never sought a patent for their discoveries, to Marie and Paul Langevin, then to Marie and her daughter Irene, then Irene and her husband Frederic Joliot, etc., these relationships clearly show the benefit of sharing ideas and how those ideas spread with a life of their own throughout the scientific community.
The book spotlights Marie’s great personal strength. As the reader follows Marie’s life, one begins to understand the tremendous challenges she overcame starting with her Polish childhood in Russian-occupied Poland. Her clandestine studies through the secret “Flying University” allowed her to acquire an education so thorough that she could ably compete as one of 23 women of 1800 students attending the Sorbonne. Conducting the physically exhausting work of proving the existence of polonium and radium, and later suffering through radium toxicity did not detract from Marie’s focus on scientific study and the raising of her two daughters…
Radical Gratitude is both narrative and inspiring practical guidance, telling the story of one family’s survival in Stalinist Siberia. That experience develops into a guide to becoming a person who can give to others. Each chapter details the ways we can achieve radical gratitude (learning to be grateful even for the difficult experiences in life). Andrew Bienkowski has spent more than 40 years as a clinical therapist. At the age of six, he and his family were forced to leave their Polish homeland for Siberia where his grandfather deliberately starved to death so that the women and children might have enough to eat. The years that followed were harrowing and influenced his entire life. After Siberia, the family spent a year in an Iranian refugee camp where Andrew nearly died from dysentery, malaria and malnutrition. Three years in Palestine followed, a year in England, before he finally immigrated to America where he went on to earn a Masters in Clinical Psychology. Mary Akers’ work has appeared in a number of international literary journals, many related to health and healing.
From the Unknown Chicago Blog of John R. Schmidt which now appears to be offline: Dingbat’s Funeral (Chicago Tribune, March 12, 1930)
In Washington today, the big story was the funeral of William Howard Taft, 27th President of the United States. In Chicago, the big story was also a funeral. The city was saying good-bye to the Dingbat.
The Dingbat was John Oberta, his nickname derived from a comic strip. He was 27 at the time of his death. Like Taft he was a Republican politician, the 13th Ward Committeeman. Unlike Taft, he was a gangster.
Oberta was a protege of Big Tim Murphy, bootlegger and labor racketeer in the Back-of-the-Yards neighborhood. One morning Big Tim opened his front door and had his head blown off by a shotgun blast. A few months later, Dingbat married Big Tim’s widow.
Now Dingbat was gone, too. He had been found shot dead in his car, along with his chauffeur, on a deserted road near Willow Springs.
By 1930 the garish gangster funeral had become a familiar Chicago custom. Dingbat’s friends would not scrimp. “I’m giving him the same I gave Tim,” Mrs. Murphy Oberta told reporters.
Dingbat was waked in his home on South Richmond Avenue. He lay in a $15,000 mahogany coffin with silver handles, under a blanket of orchids. Joe Saltis, Bugs Moran, Spike O’Donnell, and all of Dingbat’s pals were present. So were assorted politicians.
Two priests of the Polish National Catholic Church conducted a brief service. Then the pall bearers prepared to carry the coffin to the waiting hearse. Out on the street, a crowd of 20,000 people had gathered. (In Washington, half as many were reported at Taft’s funeral.)
“Carry my Johnny out the back way,” Dingbat’s mother wailed. “Don’t let them see him! They didn’t care about him!” The pall bearers ignored her and brought Dingbat out the front door.
The coffin was loaded, then the hearse moved away. Following it were four carloads of flowers and a procession two miles long. When the funeral cortege arrived at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery, hundreds more curiosity seekers were there to greet it.
Dingbat was laid to rest a few feet from Big Tim Murphy. There was just enough space between them for another grave. Presumably that spot was reserved for their mutual wife.
The murder of Dingbat Oberta was never officially solved. And with the Great Depression fast descending on the country, the gaudy gangland funeral went out of fashion.
Oberta was a protege of Big Tim Murphy, bootlegger and labor racketeer in the Back-of-the-Yards neighborhood. One morning Big Tim opened his front door and had his head blown off by a shotgun blast. A few months later, Dingbat married Big Tim’s widow.