Funny

This is a funny story from way back. I had a very good friend, may he rest in peace, whom I knew most of my life. We came from the same neighborhood, he was about two years older and a lot smarter than me. Our mothers were very good friends and stayed in touch until my mother passed away.

He left Hungary about a year before I did and thanks to our moms, we found each other here in the US. He and I grew up in the same political system where religion was kind of outlawed. We didn't practice it and did not follow it but knew where we belonged to.

Here in this country,g he made a good life, had a nice family, lived in the suburbs in a nice house. I found it curious that since we grew up in a very similar environment he did become observant. Not zealous just moderately observant. He lost his father in the Holocaust, his mother lived alone but frequently visited him here. I knew her and liked her. She was a nice lady. Not very Jewish but still Jewish.

One time, years ago I visited him at his house when his mom was here. A cousin of his mom came by. This person was retired and since he had the time he decided to investigate their family tree. This investigation involved talking to still living relatives and also spending time in the Mormon Library. This library supposed to have a tremendous amount of information about people who lived in Europe.

He fed everything into a computer and then printed out the results. The results were very thick bundle of computer paper. No cd at that time.

After he connected all the dots he came to some very interesting conclusions., and he told that story to my friend's mom. Her ancestors came from a small village from Transylvania (Erdely). The village was predominantly Jewish as well as the entire area including several villages and also very likely orthodox.

History has it that a few hundred years ago this village was all Christian and since it was surrounded by the Jewish villages, the inhabitants decided to become Jewish. It was more advantageous for them. Bottom line: my friend's mother came from a Christian ancestry. She was pretty shaken up at this enlightenment. Her family suffered through the war as Jews but if they would have known this it might have changed some of the outcomes.

This thing didn't change his attitude toward the religion but both he and I found the results of this search a little hilarious. 

A funny postscript.

My friend's wife came from a very religious upbringing (also Hungarian). Father was a Levi and he was extremely observant. He wasn't very enthusiastic about my friend as his future son-in-law. His casual approach to Judaism was almost as bad as if he were a Christian, said he (or hinted). If he would have known that my friend's ancestors were really Christians he would have flipped. Fortunately, he was not alive by the time of this discovery.

Don't get used to this. I will not write this long very frequently.