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The number of people with deep national values and knowledge of Czech and Slovak history over the last half century is shrinking. One of the people that fell in this small margin of the Czech and Slovak population just passed away. Jakub Cermin (May 2nd, 1917 – August 27th, 2009), the former head of the Freedom Fighters, could really say a lot about his life experiences. As a matter of fact, he wrote hundreds of articles reflecting his memories, feelings, views, and hopes about our nation. His blindness, towards the end of his life, however, did not stop him as he still continued in sacrificing his life and dignity for our liberty until his passing. Read the rest of this entry (Čtětě více ZDE) »

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What great news when you hear about Czechs abroad making a significant impact on local communities or even the whole world. Many of you may recall how hard it was for you, your parents or other people in your family to start a whole new life in another country. It not only requires lots of courage but also determination and energy, especially when you can’t see “the light at the end of the tunnel.” Yet, lots of Czechs and Slovaks were able to overcome these obstacles. Today, five Czech women abroad received the award for Significant Czech Woman Abroad for 2009 from the Czech Senate chairman Premysl Sobotka. Each of the women lives in a different county, has a different career, but all of them equally contribute to their home country, the Czech Republic. Read the rest of this entry (Čtětě více ZDE) »

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Who has not heard of Karel Gott, a Czech singer, an amateur painter and a successful entrepreneur that has been voted the best male singer 34 times during his lifetime? The popular singer, also known as the Sinatra of the East, just celebrated his 70th birthday on July 14, but he is still full of energy and drive to continue in his brilliant work.

Gott already celebrated his birthday in style last month. A total of 140 of his colleagues, friends, performers, artists and more came to the O2 Arena to wish him a Happy Birthday. The concert started with a 5-minute applause from about 13 thousand of his fans that filled the auditorium to its full capacity.

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Author: Josef Čermák (CzechFolks.com PLUS)

According to an announcement made by his family on June 30, 2009, Jan Rubeš, one of the most impressive, most important and best loved Czechoslovak artists in the world, died at the age of 89. No cause of death was given.

Rubeš was born in Volyně, Czechoslovakia, on June 6. 1920, attended Real-Gymnasium (a Czech term for a high school) in Strakonice (graduating in the year of the Munich surrender), and matriculated at both the Faculty of Medicine. Read the rest of this entry (Čtětě více ZDE) »

Barbara Semenov, a journalist, reporter, producer, publisher of CechoAustralan magazine and an author of articles in our “Czech Only” version of CzechFolks.com named CzechFolks.com PLUS,was a guest at Helena Vondrackova‘s birthday celebration and was kind enough to report back to us with her experiences and memories of the singer. She wrote:

Today I would like to share with readers of CzechFolks.com PLUS a wonderful experience from Monday evening in the Prague Theater “Kalich,” where Helena Vondrackova celebrated her sixty-second! birthday. Read the rest of this entry (Čtětě více ZDE) »

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This year we had the great honor of hosting the Slovak singer Peter Nagy. The word “we” here actually means all of us living in North America. This May, Peter Nagy visited Canada and the USA and performed at four concerts: Toronto, New York, Boston, and Los Angeles. From what we have heard from him and organizers, we can tell you that he felt like at home here. He had a very good time while meeting new people, sightseeing, and of course at his concerts; thanks to the audience and everybody who was involved in organizing the concerts. Moreover, he was even able to make a new video clip for his song named “Rozhladna 25.” Read the rest of this entry (Čtětě více ZDE) »

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The story below is about a very important Czech doctor, Premysl Pelnar, who recently passed away (5th of April, 2009) at the age of 95 years old. Dr. Pelnar, a Czech physician, who immigrated to Canada from the former Czechoslovakia in 1964, played a significant role in the area of occupational health. For example, he organized several research projects that resulted in hundreds of scientific publications and lead several research projects all over the world. A fund named “Dr. Premysl (Mike) Pelnar Academic Enrichment Fund” was also established in his honor in the Department of Occupational Health at McGill University in Montreal. The story is written by our new author Josef Cermak, a Doctor of Law, journalist, writer, poet, actor and a lifelong organizer of public and scientific life for Czech and Slovak countrymen in Canada. The Czech version to this article can be found in our “Czech Only” version of CzechFolks.com named CzechFolks.com PLUS, where he regularly contributes with his insightful and brilliant articles.

I am hoping that Dr. Premysl (Premík, Mike) Pelnar is with us in spirit. I am sure that if he could, he would be with us in body as well. And most likely would deliver a riveting, charming and smiling oration on the vicissitudes of his life. And what a life it was! Read the rest of this entry (Čtětě více ZDE) »

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Yesterday, a great Czech singer and actor, Waldemar Matuska passed away at the age of 76. Waldemar Matuska was actually born in Košice, Slovakia, but he spent most of his life in Prague. During his life in the former Czechoslovakia, he was very popular and twice won the Golden Nightingale poll. As an actor, he performed; for example, with Jiri Suchy and Karel Stedry and he played in many movies, such as, All My Good Countrymen (Všichni dobří rodáci), Lemonade Joe (Limonádový Joe), If a Thousand Clarinets (Kdyby tisíc klarinetů), A Night at Karlstein (Noc na Karlštějně), The Hit (Trhák) and more. When he immigrated to the USA in 1986, the communist party published an article in “Rudé právo” magazine entitled “The moral fall of a singer.” His songs were banned and even his opening song for a Czech TV series Cottagers (Chalupáři) was edited and his voice was removed. Luckily, the infamous label he received soon vanished after the fall of communism in 1989 and Matuska was able to frequently visit his home country.

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Zdenek Sverak is well known in the Czech entertainment world. This Czech actor, humorist, and writer found his new niche – writing books. Sverak was born on March 28th, 1936 in Prague. He studied pedagogy at Charles University in Prague. Throughout his career he was an author of several musical texts and also plays. He, however, never fulfilled his dream to write books with short stories. It was only recently that he fulfilled his dream when he finally wrote his book called “Povidky” that contains stories from times from 1966 till 2008. The book is full of humor, honesty, and meanings that will keep readers interested and entertained.

If you live abroad and are not familiar with Czech entertainment, you may have still heard of Zdenek Sverak. Among his famous film scripts stands out one written for a movie called “Kolja” (Kolya) – Academy Award winning film in 1996 that he also starred in. This was the second film he worked on with his son and director Jan Sverak after their first film “The Elementary School” that was nominated for an Academy Award. If you are interested in learning more about Czech movies, you can visit our page HERE.

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About a month ago we had an opportunity to meet Stefanie Vocasek. She is a young woman of Czech origin, who was born in the United States and knows a lot about her Czech heritage. Stefanie is 22 years old and lives in Lincoln, Nebraska. She is not only a student, but also has two jobs to support her independent and fascinating life. On top of that she just started making appearances at local elementary schools and events speaking about her Czech heritage. She has recently become the Czech-Slovak Queen of Lincoln and we were thrilled to find out more about her and how the Queen selection process works. We also wanted to find out how she was able to learn about Czech heritage so remote from the country her ancestors came from.

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Helena Houdova is not only known as a Czech model but also as a philanthropist with a passion to help disadvantaged children around the world. Her charity named Sunflower Children is known around the world for helping many children thanks to the generous donations of people that attend her events and galas in many foreign countries: poker events, golf outings, film festivals and more. Just yesterday, Houdova started a new campaign right on the New York Times Square named Save a Baby from HIV, where people can text the word SUN to 90999 to donate $5 to her charity. The billboard depicts a woman holding a disadvantaged child with a very simple message to people willing to help. The woman on the image is the Czech model herself.

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Today you can read a great story by Jan Drocár, published today in Pozitivni Noviny. The editors-in-chief kindly asked us to provide English translation of this story to give more people the opportunity to read about the history of the Czech Republic and its significant “players” throughout the history of the country. The article was created in honor of the new U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to the Czech Republic.

In the article below, you will learn about famous royal ancestors of today’s eminent and important members of our society. Did you know that the first American President, George Washington, and the British Queen Elizabeth II were descendants of the Přemyslid Dynasty? Surprisingly, even Tom Cruise is related to Czech royal families. Find out more in the article below or read its Czech version HERE.

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