Defiant Requiem Documentary Screening Thursday, December 4 | 6:00 pm at the Katz JCC Auditorium Join us for an unforgettable evening as we present Defiant Requiem, the award-winning documentary that tells the remarkable true story of Rafa...

For anyone in the NJ area, come see our Defiant Requiem documentary film showing at the JCC Margate! Reception prior and a Q&A with me after!

jccatlantic.org/2025/11/12/d...

In the Terezín ghetto, music became resistance. Help us keep that courage alive this Giving Tuesday:
🔗 secure.givelively.org/donate/defia...

NJ friends: see Defiant Requiem Thursday in Margate:
🔗 www.jccatlantic.org/event/defian...

For anyone interested I am still accepting genealogy clients! Would love to help others find their roots and their beginnings the way I’ve been lucky enough to find mine. Feel free to message me here as well if interested or pass on to others who may be interested!

Music friends! Below is info for our fall meeting of the AMS Capital Chapter. Deadline will probably be extended so ignore that. But please submit and encourage others as well!

This CFP also especially goes out to my friends from the former AMS Mid-Atlantic chapter!

www.ams-net.org/chapters/cap...

What’s happening in DC right now, just minutes away from where I work and less than 30 min from where I live, is appalling. Violent crime is at an all time low. You know what is at an all time high? Hate crimes. Crimes based ln religious hatred. And make no mistake, the statistics are clear.

For anyone who may be interested, I am taking on genealogy clients! Feel free to message here or at the email address listed. I love doing this as a break from my regular academic research, so I hope to hear from anyone interested!

For anyone in the DMV, tonight we are showing of our Defiant Requiem documentary at St John the Baptist Church in Silver Spring! This will be followed by an interfaith discussion. Many thanks to Father Andrew Wakefield for this beautiful letter he put in the church bulletin these past 2 weeks!

Hi everyone! Due to being asked by several people about genealogy work, especially in relation to dual citizenship, I consolidated my info into a flier here. Feel free to message me on here if you are interested in finding out family history info!

Today was my last day after an amazing weeklong seminar on Christianity in East Central Europe during the Holocaust. The irony that I was literally fenced in at the Holocaust Museum in DC today was not lost on me.

Congratulations to all of the winners at tonight’s Tony Awards! An amazing Broadway season and so excited for Broadway’s future!

My favorite day of the year in DC: EU Embassy Open House Day! The lines are already starting, and I can’t wait to embassy hop and visit friends and get some great food, drinks, and culture!

This literally is the best thing I have seen all morning! Love me some Rick Astley!

Pope Francis’s funeral took me back 25 years, when at age 17 I stood on the steps of the Vatican to sing for the beatification of the Blessed Martyrs of Nowogrodek with Pope JPII presiding. This is what 250k people looks like; it is overwhelming and unlike anything I have ever experienced.

Did I get up at 3am to watch the funeral for Pope Francis? Absolutely. It was a beautiful service, and as a Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic I loved seeing the Eastern Churches give their own prayers and blessings.

I am a Musicologist & Central/Eastern European historian. Yet somehow I feel like for my current work on Catholic victims of the Holocaust I need degrees in theology, philosophy, politics, psychology, and religious studies.

Side note, if anyone is an expert on the theology of martyrdom message me!

23 years ago, I sat in my dorm room at Muhlenberg College as Adrien Brody got the Oscar for The Pianist. 23 years later, with a career in Holocaust Studies, seeing Adrien get another Oscar for another brilliant story of a Holocaust survivor, it is amazing what a journey it has been.

a poster that says stand with ukraine with a heart in the middle ALT: a poster that says stand with ukraine with a heart in the middle

Not that I think any of my circle would expect anything less, but as an Eastern European historian, as someone whose Eastern European ancestors were put under tyranny and ethnic cleansing, I will ALWAYS stand for democracy, for freedom, and with those being oppressed. Slava Ukraini!

Anyone else just feeling exhausted and burnt out with just…everything? I am just TIRED. And yes I will get the energy to fight another day but today I need to just sit in this being exhausted and tired and rail at the world.

I can’t be at the parade but I got my NFC championship shirt on and I’m repping my Birds in DC. GO @philadelphiaeagles.bsky.social!!!!

It’s times like these I miss my hometown, but I am celebrating our SUPERBOWL CHAMPIONSHIP here in DC. Such an amazing win @philadelphiaeagles.bsky.social, so insanely proud of you for brining that Lombardi back where it belongs!

Today is the day! FLY EAGLES FLY BABY LET’S WIN THIS THING!

My beloved hometown has been through it this past week. This one is for the city, and for our boys, who deserve it all. One more game. Just one more. Let’s go show everyone what we are made of @philadelphiaeagles.bsky.social!

We got one more boys. Let’s show all the doubters that you mess with Philly at your peril. Make this the most physically punishing game of the season. Let’s have that green and white confetti converting NOLA. GO BIRDS! #PhillyGirlinDC #SportsLovinAcademic

SUPERBOWL HERE WE COME! FLY EAGLES FLY!!! @philadelphiaeagles.bsky.social 🦅🦅 #PhillyGirlinDC #SportsLovinAcademic

Nothing brightens my day more than seeing Philly people in DC with Eagles gear (or any Philly sports team gear!) on. When Philly people see each other outside of our native city, it is an automatic bonding experience. So to all my fellow Philly people in DC…GO BIRDS! 🦅🦅

Come on @philadelphiaeagles.bsky.social let’s bring this NFC Championship home to the Linc where it belongs! Let’s win this thing! GO BIRDS! #FlyEaglesFly🦅 #PhillyGirlinDC #SportsLovinAcademic

Let’s go Eagles and beat Green Bay!!! 🦅🦅 @philadelphiaeagles.bsky.social
#PhillyGirlinDC
#SportsLovinAcademic

My great great grandfather came to Northeastern PA and my family settled there and then eventually to suburban Philadelphia (where my birth father grew up). I am still trying to see if I can find a baptism record for my great great grandfather Johannes Gula in any records from Cisowiec.

These are great resources! My family name from Poland was Gula (or Guła) and from Slovakia’s Prešov region was Karas.

I only know very little about Cisowiec but am hoping I can learn more!

In Poland my family is from Cisowiec