From Evil, Make Good
By Mayaan Jaffe
One-and-a-half million innocent individuals were killed. Women were raped and children were tortured. The survivors are few, the pain is great. But even ninety years after the Armenian Genocide, in which Armenians were systematically murdered at the hands of the Ottoman Turks, many ignore or deny the tragedy; many, but not all…
On 2 May 2005, the Hebrew University Armenian Studies Program, under the auspices of Professor Michael E. Stone, brought the massacre to the forefront of the thoughts of Israelis in a commemorative evening, one week after the 24 April official day of remembrance of the genocide. There was laughter, there were tears, and despite the pain of the speakers (who presented materials in English, Hebrew, Armenian and Russian), they offered sentiments of empowerment, outlooks of hope.[...].
The evening was not a small feat for the Hebrew University. Despite an Armenian-Israeli population of 25,000 and aside from scattered Israeli politicians who support genocide commemoration and study, the Jewish state has refused to recognize the Armenian massacre. The country’s reasons are twofold. First of all, Israel has few allies and is afraid to harm its relations with Turkey, a perpetrator who has still not taken responsibility for its crime. Second of all, there is a hesitation among Jews to give credence to other genocides so as not to detract from the world’s focus on the Nazi Holocaust, in which some six million Jews were murdered. While the former may be a viable reason for Israel’s stance, according to Monday’s keynote speaker Professor Israel Charney, the second reason is totally unfounded.
[...]
Professor Michael E. Stone {is} head of the Hebrew University Armenian Studies Program. [...]. It is through his work that the Armenian Studies Program has come alive in the last ten years; Stone plays a critical role in the education of Israel about the genocide, but also Armenian history, culture and art.
“It is vital that we not only focus on the horrible effect of genocide or the one-third of the Armenian people that were wiped out,” said Stone, “but also focus on rejuvenating the culture and history that the Ottomans attempted to eradicate.”
[...]
Echoing the Jewish message that as terrible as the pain could be, the happiness can be even greater, Stone said, “From evil, make good.”
And that is what the Armenians plan to do…
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears on:
http://www.infoisrael.net/cgi-local/text.pl?source=7/a/050520051
Source: Original text contributed by an IHC Feature Researcher and Reporter.Copyright © Israel Hasbara Committee, 5 May 2005.Jerusalem based jounalist David Bedein contributed to this article.
Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...].The bold emphasis is mine.
One-and-a-half million innocent individuals were killed. Women were raped and children were tortured. The survivors are few, the pain is great. But even ninety years after the Armenian Genocide, in which Armenians were systematically murdered at the hands of the Ottoman Turks, many ignore or deny the tragedy; many, but not all…
On 2 May 2005, the Hebrew University Armenian Studies Program, under the auspices of Professor Michael E. Stone, brought the massacre to the forefront of the thoughts of Israelis in a commemorative evening, one week after the 24 April official day of remembrance of the genocide. There was laughter, there were tears, and despite the pain of the speakers (who presented materials in English, Hebrew, Armenian and Russian), they offered sentiments of empowerment, outlooks of hope.[...].
The evening was not a small feat for the Hebrew University. Despite an Armenian-Israeli population of 25,000 and aside from scattered Israeli politicians who support genocide commemoration and study, the Jewish state has refused to recognize the Armenian massacre. The country’s reasons are twofold. First of all, Israel has few allies and is afraid to harm its relations with Turkey, a perpetrator who has still not taken responsibility for its crime. Second of all, there is a hesitation among Jews to give credence to other genocides so as not to detract from the world’s focus on the Nazi Holocaust, in which some six million Jews were murdered. While the former may be a viable reason for Israel’s stance, according to Monday’s keynote speaker Professor Israel Charney, the second reason is totally unfounded.
[...]
Professor Michael E. Stone {is} head of the Hebrew University Armenian Studies Program. [...]. It is through his work that the Armenian Studies Program has come alive in the last ten years; Stone plays a critical role in the education of Israel about the genocide, but also Armenian history, culture and art.
“It is vital that we not only focus on the horrible effect of genocide or the one-third of the Armenian people that were wiped out,” said Stone, “but also focus on rejuvenating the culture and history that the Ottomans attempted to eradicate.”
[...]
Echoing the Jewish message that as terrible as the pain could be, the happiness can be even greater, Stone said, “From evil, make good.”
And that is what the Armenians plan to do…
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears on:
http://www.infoisrael.net/cgi-local/text.pl?source=7/a/050520051
Source: Original text contributed by an IHC Feature Researcher and Reporter.Copyright © Israel Hasbara Committee, 5 May 2005.Jerusalem based jounalist David Bedein contributed to this article.
Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...].The bold emphasis is mine.
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 6:42 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home