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LA Daily News, CA
April 18 2015
Armenian Genocide, America's helping hand remembered in Los Angeles exhibit
By Susan Abram, Los Angeles Daily News
The children were almost lost to the desert.
They had left their villages under death threats. They saw their
fathers killed by swords, watched mothers, grandmothers and aunties
die of starvation on the death marches to Syria.
But from thousands of miles away, Americans found them.
Through telegrams, news articles and film reels, the story of how
children became orphans of the Armenian Genocide reached America's
shores in 1915. An organization called Near East Relief was founded
and a national movement rose. Silent movie stars such as Irene Rich
and Jackie Coogan held sandwich boards asking for donations and cans
of milk. Churches and community groups raised money and sent clothing
while President Calvin Coolidge called for Golden Rule Sunday, when
Americans ate modest meals to remember "the starving Armenians."
"Back then, there was a groundswell of a response," said Ani
Boyadjian, research and special collections manager at the Los Angeles
Public Library. "They were hearing that people were being
slaughtered."
The American reaction to the needs of the orphans and those who
survived the Armenian Genocide is the theme of a traveling exhibit now
on display at the Los Angeles' Central Library. Called "They Will Not
Perish: The Story of Near East Relief," the exhibit includes 26 panels
that show photographs of orphans as well as posters used at the time
to raise funds. But at its heart, the whole exhibit is meant to show
America's generosity in the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide,
Boyadjian said.
The display is there to say "America, we thank you," she added.
"Many of us are direct descendents of those orphans and survivors
helped by Near East Relief," Boyadjian said. "Their response is an
untold story of American philanthropy."
Now called Near East Foundation, the nonsectarian, New York-based
non-profit organization is also celebrating its centennial this year.
It was founded after U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Henry Morgenthau sent
telegrams about what was happening in the Ottoman Empire.
"At that time communication had been revolutionized by the telegram,"
said Molly Sullivan, director and curator of the Near East Relief
Historical Society. "It was the first time that communication could
move faster than the fastest runner, fastest ship and fastest horse.
It meant that the perpetrators of the genocide used the same
technology."
With the help of President Woodrow Wilson, the small-scale relief
operation went on to raise more than $117 million -- today's equivalent
of about $2 billion -- to aid Armenians in the aftermath of the
genocide. That money helped save 132,000 orphans, according to the
Near East Foundation.
Any orphan of any religion was welcomed, Sullivan said. And the
organization still works today to help displaced people in the Middle
East and Africa. With the ranks of the Islamic State swelling,
thousands of Assyrians, Syriacs, Chaldeans and Armenians whose
families fled to Syria and Iraq for safety during the genocide are now
being displaced and killed. Sullivan said the American response is
different now, again, because of technology.
http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20150418/armenian-genocide-americas-helping-hand-remembered-in-los-angeles-exhibit
April 18 2015
Armenian Genocide, America's helping hand remembered in Los Angeles exhibit
By Susan Abram, Los Angeles Daily News
The children were almost lost to the desert.
They had left their villages under death threats. They saw their
fathers killed by swords, watched mothers, grandmothers and aunties
die of starvation on the death marches to Syria.
But from thousands of miles away, Americans found them.
Through telegrams, news articles and film reels, the story of how
children became orphans of the Armenian Genocide reached America's
shores in 1915. An organization called Near East Relief was founded
and a national movement rose. Silent movie stars such as Irene Rich
and Jackie Coogan held sandwich boards asking for donations and cans
of milk. Churches and community groups raised money and sent clothing
while President Calvin Coolidge called for Golden Rule Sunday, when
Americans ate modest meals to remember "the starving Armenians."
"Back then, there was a groundswell of a response," said Ani
Boyadjian, research and special collections manager at the Los Angeles
Public Library. "They were hearing that people were being
slaughtered."
The American reaction to the needs of the orphans and those who
survived the Armenian Genocide is the theme of a traveling exhibit now
on display at the Los Angeles' Central Library. Called "They Will Not
Perish: The Story of Near East Relief," the exhibit includes 26 panels
that show photographs of orphans as well as posters used at the time
to raise funds. But at its heart, the whole exhibit is meant to show
America's generosity in the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide,
Boyadjian said.
The display is there to say "America, we thank you," she added.
"Many of us are direct descendents of those orphans and survivors
helped by Near East Relief," Boyadjian said. "Their response is an
untold story of American philanthropy."
Now called Near East Foundation, the nonsectarian, New York-based
non-profit organization is also celebrating its centennial this year.
It was founded after U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Henry Morgenthau sent
telegrams about what was happening in the Ottoman Empire.
"At that time communication had been revolutionized by the telegram,"
said Molly Sullivan, director and curator of the Near East Relief
Historical Society. "It was the first time that communication could
move faster than the fastest runner, fastest ship and fastest horse.
It meant that the perpetrators of the genocide used the same
technology."
With the help of President Woodrow Wilson, the small-scale relief
operation went on to raise more than $117 million -- today's equivalent
of about $2 billion -- to aid Armenians in the aftermath of the
genocide. That money helped save 132,000 orphans, according to the
Near East Foundation.
Any orphan of any religion was welcomed, Sullivan said. And the
organization still works today to help displaced people in the Middle
East and Africa. With the ranks of the Islamic State swelling,
thousands of Assyrians, Syriacs, Chaldeans and Armenians whose
families fled to Syria and Iraq for safety during the genocide are now
being displaced and killed. Sullivan said the American response is
different now, again, because of technology.
http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20150418/armenian-genocide-americas-helping-hand-remembered-in-los-angeles-exhibit