Born and raised in Romania, Adrian Jadic found himself caught up in the violent civil unrest in 1989 living in a country wrought with turmoil. The Romanian Revolution was a time period when citizens rose up to overthrow and topple the dictatorship and end a 42-year span of communist rule. The conflict resulted in over 1,000 deaths. Adrian and his wife Ruxandra had graduated from college and married the year before the Revolution broke out. Their hopes of starting out together in their new life were shattered by the violence surrounding them. “There was much unrest and violence. There was fighting in the streets and I was beaten and shot at. I was 29 and my wife was a year younger when we decided that we were going to try something else. We were both employed; my wife as a physician and I as a mechanical engineer. We were young and capable and did not want to stay in that authoritarian regime. We left for political asylum in Germany in 1990.”
The couple spent four years in Germany during which time their first child, Irene was born. “Having lived through those times, I came to know what it means to be treated with dignity and respect. I was afraid to go back there. It was not the money but rather the freedom that I was longing for. While we were in asylum in Germany, a friend told us to apply for immigration to Canada. We packed up and went to Canada where there was a solid immigration process. We became citizens of Canada and my wife wanted to become licensed as a physician in both Canada and the United States. She completed her residency in the United States with a fellowship in Geriatrics at Staten Island University Hospital in Staten Island, NY.
We lived in New York while my wife was completing her residency and we had our second child, Alexandra. Friends from Arkansas encouraged us to move there while we went through the process of becoming citizens and obtaining steady jobs.” The couple packed up their two young daughters and headed for Arkansas one week before September 11th. “Everyone was so scared after September 11th. When we showed up in Arkansas with New York license plates I was stopped by every police car. I was still working in New Jersey and flying back and forth to New Jersey for work.
We stayed in Arkansas for 8 years. My wife began looking for positions on the east coast so that it would be an easier flight to visit with our parents who were still alive and living in Romania. The flight from Arkansas was 24 hours and made it very difficult for us to see family. She applied and was offered a position as Division Chief of Geriatrics at the Reading Hospital in 2009. I stayed behind so the girls could finish school. My daughter Irene graduated from high school as class valedictorian and as a state champion in tennis. We then traveled back to be reunited with my wife at the home we bought on Cardinal Road in Wyomissing in 2010.
One of the most difficult aspects of immigration was having to leave parents behind in Romania. It was devastating for Adrian to lose his parents while not being able to be with them. “In 1991, My father suffered a heart attack and died at the train station in Prague on his way home from a visit with us in Germany. Later, we had my mother come stay with us in Canada so she would not be alone. One day she was not feeling well, my wife listened to her lungs and could not hear her breathing. It was discovered that she had lung cancer. She wanted to return to her home in Romania. I had just started my new job and my wife and Irene accompanied her back home where my wife as a doctor would be able to help. She died there and I was not able to be with her. It was very, very, difficult for me” he recounts emotionally.
Since 2010 Adrian and his family have put down roots in Berks County. Adrian works as an engineer in Capital Projects for the City of Reading. He has become more civically engaged through the years in a number of ways. He takes great pride in his citizenship and values the opportunity to be involved with government in a positive way. “We took US citizenship in 2016. Our citizenship certificate is signed by Barack Obama. I will keep that in a special place.”
Adrian sees government through a different set of eyes than many natural born citizens in that the issues of transparency, and accountability in government are of utmost importance for the leaders the public have put in place. Having lived in a society where this does not exist, his activism as a volunteer citizen of a watchdog group in his community has garnered a following exceeding 2.4k members who benefit from his research and follow up on meetings and issues that directly affect taxpayers. His extensive research, recording of meetings that community members may not be able to attend during the workday, breakdown of facts and figures through graphs and charts, and obtaining right to know documentation, are posted on the group’s Facebook page Real Wyomissing Boro for the public to stay updated and informed.
His time spent on gathering and disseminating this information is a gift to the community where he resides, and an opportunity for others to become civically engaged in their local government and the decisions, policies, issues that affect them. Citizen watchdog groups are encouraged in all communities to help monitor governments, or organizations to ensure accountability, and ethical practices, monitor fiscal waste, and raise awareness on issues of public concern. “After living in a communist country and all that we went through to become citizens and to settle here in America, I value good government, and I know the importance of transparency and accountability. At first I was not involved one iota, but then I started attending meetings and later recording them. In 2019 I was encouraged to set up a YouTube Channel and later Facebook page as an informative tool to help the community become engaged with their local government.”
Every citizen has an opportunity to be involved beyond the time they spend at the voting booth. Consistent engagement through groups like Adrian’s allow people the opportunity to stay abreast of the important issues and happenings and a way to let leadership know where the public stands.
Adrian is also active in the democratic party through the Berks County Dems and PA Dems, and the Romanian Community Center in West Lawn Pa. “I am most active with the Romanian society in helping with their various events surrounding traditions of the culture. I love to cook the traditional foods associated with these events, so that is where you will find me, in the kitchen.”
Both daughters have grown and flown, Irene graduated from University of Pennsylvania in 2014, and obtained a Masters in International Management from ESSEC in Paris, France, and she is currently working for Procter and Gamble in Paris.
Alexandra graduated medical school at UMF Cluj in Transylvania, Romania and recently passed her medical licensing examination here in the US where she will begin applying for a residency.
Adrian and his wife are enjoying their life in Berks County, the place they now consider their home. “What I like most is that it is very picturesque; it looks like Transylvania when you look at the rolling hills and the views. I also like that we’ve stopped immigrating.”