Code,999035
Subject,James Cracium
Date,6/9/2007
Interviewer,Mark Souther
Abstract,"In this 2007 interview, James Craciun, an owner of Craciun funeral home, talks about his family's involvement in the Romanian and Italian communities of Detroit-Shoreway.  Craciun's Romanian and Italian immigrant grandfathers settled in Detroit-Shoreway at the beginning of the twentieth century.  His Italian grandfather owned an Italian Import store in the neighborhood at the corner of W. 65th and Herman.  Craciun's father started the family funeral business on Detroit Avenue across the street from the old St. Mary's Romanian Orthodox Church in 1945.  Craciun himself as been active in the community--as a businessman; a parent; a parishioner at Our Lady of Mount Carmel; and as an activists for human rights in Romania.  In this interview, he tells a number of interesting stories about his Romanian and Italian grandfathers, and many stories about his involvement in fighting for human rights in Romania."
Special Notes,
minutes:,60
0,Detroit Shoreway has the oldest Romanian neighborhood in America.
1,Government decided to send Romanians to Cleveland.  1904 - Romanian community decided to build a church.  Discussion of the first meetings - Byzantine v. Orthodox.
2,
3,"Beginning construction of Orthodox Church in neighborhood in 1906.  His grandfather had a job protecting the site.  Story of church walls being torn down at Detroit and West 62nd.  As a result, St. Helena's Byzantine Church was first built at W. 65th and Detroit several months before St. Mary's Orthodox Church."
4,
5,Story about founding of fraternal organizations and Romanian bank.  His father was a founder of the bank.
6,First Romanian baseball team in Cleveland.
7,Formation of first dance troupe; his grandmother in it.  His uncle founded it.  Raised money to save church in tough economic times - 1905.
8,His dad started the funeral business in 1945 after the war.
9,His mother is Italian--his Italian grandfather's story--getting into the ice-selling business.
10,The Teamsters beat up his grandfather; he got even and later joined the Teamsters.
11,Had Italian Import Store and W. 65th and Herman.
12,His father opened up funeral home across the street from the old St. Mary's Church.  Story about buying an interest in the Arcade and then the market collapsed in 1929.
13,His grandfather making and selling bootleg liquor in the Depression.
14,Grandpa met politicians; got  a political job.
15,How his Italian grandfather kept the neighborhood together in the Depression -- different than another Cleveland Italian family--the Carneys.
16,
17,His grandfather contacted Sen. McCarthy about another Romanian from Cleveland going to Romania a little too often.  Someone then threatened his grandfather that his relatives in Romania would be harmed.
18,Grandfather got the other Romanian deported from the US.
19,More talk about communism and Stalin in the late 1940s.
20,Story about Craciun family refusing to do business with people who sided with the wrong group in the Romanian community in Cleveland.
21,Story about him (James Craciun) smuggling bibles and prayerbooks into Romania.
22,His involvement in the struggle for religious freedom in Romania.  Stories about his family involved in folk dancing.   Story about his son Jesse as a dancer.
23,
24,More about the brutalization of Romanians by Communist Russia.
25,
26,
27,Impact on Orthodox Church in Romania - 1940s to 1970s.
28,Story about Bishop being released from jail as a result of American foreign policy under Kennedy; visit by parishioners of St. Helena to Romania in 1971 to meet bishop.
29,Current problems in Romania--controlled by KGB today.
30,
31,His involvement in advising the Clinton administration about expanding NATO to include Eastern Europe.
32,
33,
34,
35,
36,2006 - Bush Administration different than Clinton administration--offered to help Romania get into NATO even though former communists still control Romania..
37,
38,Problem with America today as told by a 3rd generation Romanian-American.
39,
40,Story about the first Slovak fireman (grandfather of his wife) in Cleveland--married an Irish girl (Dever)--got him onto the Dept.  His involvement with group that helps refugees from countries where civil rights are denied.
41,Role of immigrants in Cleveland.
42,
43,Pro-communism words of Demitri Monaluski (?) - representative to UN from Russia.
44,"More about communists around the world today.  Story about his mother attending St. Mary's Academy (now St. Joseph's Academy on Rocky River Drive), but then located in the 1930s where St. Ed's is today."
45,
46,"Story about Romanian priest in 1930s who predicted back then that communists would take down America with pornography and drugs.  ""We've been disarmed."""
47,
48,America is at a crossroads.
49,Problems with American foreign policy.
50,His run for State Senate against Dale Miller.  Issue:  School vouchers and gambling--both of which Catholics need to keep schools in the inner City.
51,
52,
53,His funeral home's plans for the future.
54,Being a dad to his two youngest sons.
55,
56,"Our Lady of Mount Carmel - a ""fine school teaching Catholic doctrine."""
57,How Catholics have educated America.
58,He has fought for human rights in Romania since 1974 when he was thrown out of Romania as a tourist taking pictures.
59,International network of KGB still exists today-- exporting drugs and pornography around the world.  They steal legal wealth throughout the world.
60,END of CLIP.
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,