Remembering the lost million in Israel

Published: Saturday April 23, 2011

View of Mt. Scopus campus from Jerusalem's Old City. JerusalemShots.com

Jerusalem - In Jerusalem, the Armenian Genocide anniversary ceremonies will be highlighted by an annual symposium, conducted by the Armenian Studies Program of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and representatives of the city's Armenian community. The event will take place April 28 at the University's Mt. Scopus campus.

The organizers have chosen as chief speakers some of Israel's most prominent luminaries, Prof. Israel Charny who will remind the world that the "memorial of a people's genocide is for all humanity" and Prof. Elihu D. Richter from the University's medical school who will lecture on a doctor's perspective, "From Memory to Prevention."

The program will also celebrate the Armenian cultural heritage, including Armenian poetry and music.

The Hebrew University's Armenian Studies program issued a statement noting that the April 1915 genocide destroyed "by varied estimates, between one million and 1,500,000 Armenian men, women and children in acts of organized killing and during forced marches into exile from their historical homeland, then within the borders of the Ottoman empire, towards the Syrian desert.

But it was careful to point out that the pogroms were "carried out by the Turkish authorities of the early 20th Century."

"Those who survived became refugees, scattered over the world, some of whom joined the old Armenian community of Jerusalem. The great Armenian cultural tradition received a dreadful blow, but continues to flourish in both the old and new Armenian communities throughout the world, and in the Republic of Armenia," the statement said.

"Many nations have recognized this Genocide, the first of the organized atrocities of the 20th Century, three decades before the Jewish Holocaust," but "unfortunately, the State of Israel is not yet numbered among them," the statement added.

Hebrew University's Armenian Studies program was established in 1967 and Dr. Michael Stone directed prior to retirement in 2009. For more information visit http://atar.mscc.huji.ac.il/~armenia/ . For further details about the event call Mr. Yoav Loeff, mobile (052) 267-3939. About Armenian Studies at the Hebrew University, contact Professor Michael E. Stone, michael.stone.e@me.com or the Institute of Asian and African Studies at (02) 588-1220.