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A KOSHER LECTURE AT A KOSHER ARMENIAN DINNER
EDITORIAL | AUGUST 1, 2013 1:29 PM
________________________________
By Edmond Y. Azadian
An announcement was sent to the media about a lecture to be delivered
on August 18 at the Congregation B'nai Israel in Tustin, Calif. A
prominent scholar in the person of Richard Hovannisian has been invited
as the lecturer. The context and the format are both interesting to
the academic community as well as the general public.
The lecture will follow a "Kosher Armenian dinner" and will deal
with the similarities and differences between the Jewish and Armenian
genocides.
When the historiography of the Armenian Genocide was still in its
infancy, Hovannisian became one of the early pioneers on the topic
driving the issue not only to the Armenian audience, but to an
international audience. This latest undertaking is also directed at
an audience whose sensitivity to the issue cannot be overestimated.
Hovannisian is taking the Genocide discussion to the Jewish community,
which is also traumatized and tormented with a catastrophic experience
that befell Armenians early last century.
Ever since the Jewish Holocaust, it has almost become a cliche to
state that had the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide been punished,
perhaps the Holocaust would have been avoided. But the cruel logic of
history and politics is that human nature will not change and given
the opportunity any dictator would become a Talaat, Hitler or Pol Pot.
But by comparing the Armenian experience to the Jewish experience,
some lessons could be learned by politicians, scholars and even by
the nations affected and shaped by those historic events.
There are similarities and differences between the two cases. The
similarities are within the realm of cause and effect. The Ittihadist
leadership blamed Armenians as traitors to the Ottoman Empire, just
like Hitler blamed the Jews for all the ills of German society and
determined to bring the Final Solution to Jewish existence in Europe.
The dissimilarities are much more pronounced since the Armenians were
exterminated in their own native land while the Jews met the same fate
in an alien land. As a result of the Genocide, the Armenians lost 75
percent of their population, along with their ancestral homeland of
3,000 years. The Jews received a homeland as a direct consequence of
the Holocaust. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 to grant a homeland
to the Jews did not become a reality until 1948, when the Jews took
their destiny into their own hands and many European Jews sought to
live lives as Israelis, not a fearful minority in Europe.
The surviving Armenians lost their homes, houses of worship and all
their belongings and at best, they were granted some charity in host
countries, while Israel became the beneficiary of the compensation
owed to the victims of the Holocaust, despite the fact that it did
not exist as a sovereign country during the Holocaust.
Genocide scholars will certainly dig more similarities and differences
in these to historic cases. But mutual education is necessary for
both nations to understand each other and stand together as a bulwark
against any future threat of ethnic cleansing.
Many serious and righteous Jewish scholars, including Israel Charny,
Yair Auron and others, maintain that the denial of the Armenian
Genocide by the Israeli government erodes the moral foundations of
the Holocaust itself.
These Jewish scholars consider it a moral imperative for the Israeli
government to recognize the Armenian Genocide, over and above
the political expediency of placating the Turks. The louder these
righteous voices resonate, the better the chances are for recognition
of the Armenian Genocide, which eventually will pave the way for
the US government to join the fray. It is no secret to anyone that
the impediment to that recognition comes from the people of Abraham
Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League and some pro-Israeli lobbyists
in Washington. Whatever these scholars of high integrity believe and
profess, does not necessarily translate into political currency.
Every time Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Erdogan makes a blunder by
accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinian people,
rumors circulate and actual parliamentary hearings are held in Israeli
parliament in preparation of the Jewish State's recognition of the
Armenian Genocide. Those inconsequential rumors evaporate and the
hearings are discontinued, as soon as Ankara signals a conciliatory
note.
The most outrageous incident took place when Israeli President Shimon
Peres visited Ankara and announced that the murder of Armenians in
the Ottoman Empire did not amount to genocide. That was a political
compliment presented to his Turkish hosts with the blood of 1.5
million Armenian martyrs. However, history is full of ironies. Not
too much later, Mr. Erdogan faced Mr. Peres in Davos, Switzerland and
walked away from a dispute shouting in the Israeli president's face
that his country was committing genocide against Palestinians. The
Armenian victims insulted by Mr. Peres were vindicated inadvertently
by the Turkish leader.
Mr. Foxman and his ilk maintain that holding the Armenian Genocide
or any other mass murder on the level of the Holocaust will chip
away the political capital of the Holocaust. However, unless the
Jewish Holocaust and the genocides perpetrated against Armenians,
Cambodians and Rwandans, among an unfortunately long list, are treated
as integral dimensions of the universal pain, they will be devalued
as moral and historical cases.
We are certain that Prof. Richard Hovannisian will drive the point
to his Jewish audience, as have other Genocide scholars, including
Vahakn Dadrian, Taner Akcam, Robert Melson and others have done.
In the meantime, we hope Professor Hovannisian will enjoy his
well-deserved Kosher Armenian Dinner.
- See more at:
http://www.mirrorspectator.com/2013/08/01/a-kosher-lecture-at-a-kosher-armenian-dinner/#sthash.4p0LSCOX.dpuf
EDITORIAL | AUGUST 1, 2013 1:29 PM
________________________________
By Edmond Y. Azadian
An announcement was sent to the media about a lecture to be delivered
on August 18 at the Congregation B'nai Israel in Tustin, Calif. A
prominent scholar in the person of Richard Hovannisian has been invited
as the lecturer. The context and the format are both interesting to
the academic community as well as the general public.
The lecture will follow a "Kosher Armenian dinner" and will deal
with the similarities and differences between the Jewish and Armenian
genocides.
When the historiography of the Armenian Genocide was still in its
infancy, Hovannisian became one of the early pioneers on the topic
driving the issue not only to the Armenian audience, but to an
international audience. This latest undertaking is also directed at
an audience whose sensitivity to the issue cannot be overestimated.
Hovannisian is taking the Genocide discussion to the Jewish community,
which is also traumatized and tormented with a catastrophic experience
that befell Armenians early last century.
Ever since the Jewish Holocaust, it has almost become a cliche to
state that had the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide been punished,
perhaps the Holocaust would have been avoided. But the cruel logic of
history and politics is that human nature will not change and given
the opportunity any dictator would become a Talaat, Hitler or Pol Pot.
But by comparing the Armenian experience to the Jewish experience,
some lessons could be learned by politicians, scholars and even by
the nations affected and shaped by those historic events.
There are similarities and differences between the two cases. The
similarities are within the realm of cause and effect. The Ittihadist
leadership blamed Armenians as traitors to the Ottoman Empire, just
like Hitler blamed the Jews for all the ills of German society and
determined to bring the Final Solution to Jewish existence in Europe.
The dissimilarities are much more pronounced since the Armenians were
exterminated in their own native land while the Jews met the same fate
in an alien land. As a result of the Genocide, the Armenians lost 75
percent of their population, along with their ancestral homeland of
3,000 years. The Jews received a homeland as a direct consequence of
the Holocaust. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 to grant a homeland
to the Jews did not become a reality until 1948, when the Jews took
their destiny into their own hands and many European Jews sought to
live lives as Israelis, not a fearful minority in Europe.
The surviving Armenians lost their homes, houses of worship and all
their belongings and at best, they were granted some charity in host
countries, while Israel became the beneficiary of the compensation
owed to the victims of the Holocaust, despite the fact that it did
not exist as a sovereign country during the Holocaust.
Genocide scholars will certainly dig more similarities and differences
in these to historic cases. But mutual education is necessary for
both nations to understand each other and stand together as a bulwark
against any future threat of ethnic cleansing.
Many serious and righteous Jewish scholars, including Israel Charny,
Yair Auron and others, maintain that the denial of the Armenian
Genocide by the Israeli government erodes the moral foundations of
the Holocaust itself.
These Jewish scholars consider it a moral imperative for the Israeli
government to recognize the Armenian Genocide, over and above
the political expediency of placating the Turks. The louder these
righteous voices resonate, the better the chances are for recognition
of the Armenian Genocide, which eventually will pave the way for
the US government to join the fray. It is no secret to anyone that
the impediment to that recognition comes from the people of Abraham
Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League and some pro-Israeli lobbyists
in Washington. Whatever these scholars of high integrity believe and
profess, does not necessarily translate into political currency.
Every time Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Erdogan makes a blunder by
accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinian people,
rumors circulate and actual parliamentary hearings are held in Israeli
parliament in preparation of the Jewish State's recognition of the
Armenian Genocide. Those inconsequential rumors evaporate and the
hearings are discontinued, as soon as Ankara signals a conciliatory
note.
The most outrageous incident took place when Israeli President Shimon
Peres visited Ankara and announced that the murder of Armenians in
the Ottoman Empire did not amount to genocide. That was a political
compliment presented to his Turkish hosts with the blood of 1.5
million Armenian martyrs. However, history is full of ironies. Not
too much later, Mr. Erdogan faced Mr. Peres in Davos, Switzerland and
walked away from a dispute shouting in the Israeli president's face
that his country was committing genocide against Palestinians. The
Armenian victims insulted by Mr. Peres were vindicated inadvertently
by the Turkish leader.
Mr. Foxman and his ilk maintain that holding the Armenian Genocide
or any other mass murder on the level of the Holocaust will chip
away the political capital of the Holocaust. However, unless the
Jewish Holocaust and the genocides perpetrated against Armenians,
Cambodians and Rwandans, among an unfortunately long list, are treated
as integral dimensions of the universal pain, they will be devalued
as moral and historical cases.
We are certain that Prof. Richard Hovannisian will drive the point
to his Jewish audience, as have other Genocide scholars, including
Vahakn Dadrian, Taner Akcam, Robert Melson and others have done.
In the meantime, we hope Professor Hovannisian will enjoy his
well-deserved Kosher Armenian Dinner.
- See more at:
http://www.mirrorspectator.com/2013/08/01/a-kosher-lecture-at-a-kosher-armenian-dinner/#sthash.4p0LSCOX.dpuf