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TURPANJIAN FAMILY ENDOWS $3 MILLION CHAIR IN CONTEMPORARY ARMENIAN STUDIES AT USC
By MassisPost
Updated: April 20, 2012
Mr. Jerry Turpanjian and USC President Dr. C.L. Max Nikias
Announcement Made at Banquet Honoring Shoah Foundation Established
by Steven Spielberg
By Tamar Mashigian
LOS ANGELES, CA - The USC Institute of Armenian Studies' Leadership
Council proudly announced at its Seventh Anniversary Gala Banquet on
Sunday, April 15, a $3 million endowment for a Chair in Contemporary
Armenian Studies at USC by the Turpanjian Family.
With USC Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
Elizabeth Garrett in attendance and an audience of just under 1,000,
the Institute's Leadership also announced the establishment of
a $2 million Armenian Genocide Studies Endowed Fund at USC. The
total of the two funds, including previous endowment funds, means
that Armenian studies programs at USC are supported by a $7 million
endowed structure.
Jerry and Pat Turpanjian, with their daughter Lori Muncherian,
stood center stage in the Beverly Hilton's International Ballroom
Sunday night, joined by fellow members of the Honorary and Leadership
Councils: John Marshall Evans, Paul Ignatius, Mihran Agbabian, John
Berberian, R. Hrair Dekmejian, Charles Ghailian, Vahe Karapetian,
Varrant Melkonian, Gerald Papazian, Harut Sassounian, Sinan Sinanian,
Dickran Tevrizian and Savey Tufenkian.
The April 15 event was organized to honor the USC Shoah Foundation
Institute for Visual History and Education for championing the Armenian
Genocide Digitization Project.
The second half of Sunday evening's program focused on the USC
Shoah Foundation Institute, represented in force at the International
Ballroom, and the Armenian Genocide Digitization Project, and featured
a videotaped message from Steven Spielberg.
"I'm really pleased that the USC Shoah Foundation Institute is
being recognized tonight by the USC Institute of Armenian Studies
Leadership Council," Spielberg said in a videotaped message. "We are
working together to preserve and to disseminate this collection of
400 interviews of survivors and witnesses gathered by Dr. J. Michael
Hagopian and the Armenian Film Foundation for over 39 years. So I
applaud them for their pioneering efforts and ... for their tireless
dedication."
Spielberg established the Shoah Foundation in 1994 to record the
stories of Holocaust survivors, and in 2006 the foundation became a
part of the USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts &
Sciences. The Shoah Foundation Institute's Visual History Archive
contains 52,000 Holocaust testimonies, and the digitized copies of
documentary filmmaker J. Michael Hagopian's interviews with Armenian
Genocide survivors will be disseminated on the worldwide web by Shoah.
Hagopian, who founded the Armenian Film Foundation in 1979, was
posthumously honored with a video presentation of his life. His
daughter, Joanne Hagopian Eknoian, who accepted a medal in his honor,
urged the audience to donate to the Armenian Film Foundation to help
fund the digitization of Hagopian's archive of 400 filmed eyewitness
testimonies. The backdrop of the evening's cinematic presentation
was a mosaic of faces of Armenian Genocide survivors, testimony to
Hagopian's work to preserve their voices.
In addition to honoring the USC Shoah Foundation Institute and
Hagopian, the Armenian Institute's Leadership Council paid special
tribute to Armin T. Wegner, the humanitarian who took the iconic
photographs of the 1915 massacre of the Armenians and later wrote
an open letter to Hitler to stop the Jewish Holocaust. Wegner's son,
Mischa, who traveled from Europe to be present at the April 15 event,
gave a moving, poetic story about his father, whose crusade earned him
the title of Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1967. Part
of Wegner's ashes were taken to Armenia in 1996.
The goal of the USC Armenian Institute's Leadership Council is to bring
together digital copies of all of the collections of interviews with
Armenian Genocide survivors and eyewitnesses, essentially creating
what may become the largest archive of Genocide eyewitness interviews
in the world - proof of the Armenian Genocide.
USC Shoah Foundation Institute Director Dr. Stephen Smith's eloquent
remarks about Wegner and Hagopian concluded with the statement:
"What happened was a genocide - factually, historically. And anyone
who wants to engage in a conversation about that is not engaging in
controversy, they're engaging in denial. And we don't accept denial."
The evening began with the USC Trojan Marching Band parting the crowds
as they marched into the ballroom. The evening ended with a message
of unity from filmmaker Carla Garapedian, Armenian Film Foundation
Digitization Project Director: "Remember this day. It is the day we
honor our survivors and witnesses - not by mourning, but by taking a
step forward and exercising our power as a community. On this day,
we shine a light on the darkness, we share these testimonies with
the world, as part of an archive which will include the voices of
survivors from other genocides, in one of the largest archives of its
kind in the world. Remember this day. April 15, 2012. We are here. We
survived. And on this day, we go global."
Steven Spielberg's videotaped message applauded the digitization of
the J. Michael Hagopian interviews of Armenian Genocide survivors
Former U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Evans
USC Provost Elizabeth Garrett
Mischa Wegner, son of German humanitarian Armin T. Wegner, who risked
his life to photograph the Turkish massacre of Armenians.
Dr. Stephen Smith, Director of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute
for Visual History and Education
Rose Garjian, age 104, Armenian Genocide survivor
http://massispost.com/archives/6122
By MassisPost
Updated: April 20, 2012
Mr. Jerry Turpanjian and USC President Dr. C.L. Max Nikias
Announcement Made at Banquet Honoring Shoah Foundation Established
by Steven Spielberg
By Tamar Mashigian
LOS ANGELES, CA - The USC Institute of Armenian Studies' Leadership
Council proudly announced at its Seventh Anniversary Gala Banquet on
Sunday, April 15, a $3 million endowment for a Chair in Contemporary
Armenian Studies at USC by the Turpanjian Family.
With USC Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
Elizabeth Garrett in attendance and an audience of just under 1,000,
the Institute's Leadership also announced the establishment of
a $2 million Armenian Genocide Studies Endowed Fund at USC. The
total of the two funds, including previous endowment funds, means
that Armenian studies programs at USC are supported by a $7 million
endowed structure.
Jerry and Pat Turpanjian, with their daughter Lori Muncherian,
stood center stage in the Beverly Hilton's International Ballroom
Sunday night, joined by fellow members of the Honorary and Leadership
Councils: John Marshall Evans, Paul Ignatius, Mihran Agbabian, John
Berberian, R. Hrair Dekmejian, Charles Ghailian, Vahe Karapetian,
Varrant Melkonian, Gerald Papazian, Harut Sassounian, Sinan Sinanian,
Dickran Tevrizian and Savey Tufenkian.
The April 15 event was organized to honor the USC Shoah Foundation
Institute for Visual History and Education for championing the Armenian
Genocide Digitization Project.
The second half of Sunday evening's program focused on the USC
Shoah Foundation Institute, represented in force at the International
Ballroom, and the Armenian Genocide Digitization Project, and featured
a videotaped message from Steven Spielberg.
"I'm really pleased that the USC Shoah Foundation Institute is
being recognized tonight by the USC Institute of Armenian Studies
Leadership Council," Spielberg said in a videotaped message. "We are
working together to preserve and to disseminate this collection of
400 interviews of survivors and witnesses gathered by Dr. J. Michael
Hagopian and the Armenian Film Foundation for over 39 years. So I
applaud them for their pioneering efforts and ... for their tireless
dedication."
Spielberg established the Shoah Foundation in 1994 to record the
stories of Holocaust survivors, and in 2006 the foundation became a
part of the USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts &
Sciences. The Shoah Foundation Institute's Visual History Archive
contains 52,000 Holocaust testimonies, and the digitized copies of
documentary filmmaker J. Michael Hagopian's interviews with Armenian
Genocide survivors will be disseminated on the worldwide web by Shoah.
Hagopian, who founded the Armenian Film Foundation in 1979, was
posthumously honored with a video presentation of his life. His
daughter, Joanne Hagopian Eknoian, who accepted a medal in his honor,
urged the audience to donate to the Armenian Film Foundation to help
fund the digitization of Hagopian's archive of 400 filmed eyewitness
testimonies. The backdrop of the evening's cinematic presentation
was a mosaic of faces of Armenian Genocide survivors, testimony to
Hagopian's work to preserve their voices.
In addition to honoring the USC Shoah Foundation Institute and
Hagopian, the Armenian Institute's Leadership Council paid special
tribute to Armin T. Wegner, the humanitarian who took the iconic
photographs of the 1915 massacre of the Armenians and later wrote
an open letter to Hitler to stop the Jewish Holocaust. Wegner's son,
Mischa, who traveled from Europe to be present at the April 15 event,
gave a moving, poetic story about his father, whose crusade earned him
the title of Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1967. Part
of Wegner's ashes were taken to Armenia in 1996.
The goal of the USC Armenian Institute's Leadership Council is to bring
together digital copies of all of the collections of interviews with
Armenian Genocide survivors and eyewitnesses, essentially creating
what may become the largest archive of Genocide eyewitness interviews
in the world - proof of the Armenian Genocide.
USC Shoah Foundation Institute Director Dr. Stephen Smith's eloquent
remarks about Wegner and Hagopian concluded with the statement:
"What happened was a genocide - factually, historically. And anyone
who wants to engage in a conversation about that is not engaging in
controversy, they're engaging in denial. And we don't accept denial."
The evening began with the USC Trojan Marching Band parting the crowds
as they marched into the ballroom. The evening ended with a message
of unity from filmmaker Carla Garapedian, Armenian Film Foundation
Digitization Project Director: "Remember this day. It is the day we
honor our survivors and witnesses - not by mourning, but by taking a
step forward and exercising our power as a community. On this day,
we shine a light on the darkness, we share these testimonies with
the world, as part of an archive which will include the voices of
survivors from other genocides, in one of the largest archives of its
kind in the world. Remember this day. April 15, 2012. We are here. We
survived. And on this day, we go global."
Steven Spielberg's videotaped message applauded the digitization of
the J. Michael Hagopian interviews of Armenian Genocide survivors
Former U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Evans
USC Provost Elizabeth Garrett
Mischa Wegner, son of German humanitarian Armin T. Wegner, who risked
his life to photograph the Turkish massacre of Armenians.
Dr. Stephen Smith, Director of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute
for Visual History and Education
Rose Garjian, age 104, Armenian Genocide survivor
http://massispost.com/archives/6122