CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Four outstanding scholars and researchers will speak at “From Musa Dagh to the Warsaw Ghetto: Armenian and Jewish Armed Resistance to Genocide,” on Thurs., March 31, at 8 p.m. at Harvard University, Science Center Auditorium D, 1 Oxford St., Cambridge.
The featured speakers are Eric Bogosian, actor, playwright, and author of Operation Nemesis: The Assassination Plot That Avenged the Armenian Genocide; Dr. Deborah Dwork, Rose Professor of Holocaust History and Director, Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Clark University; Dr. Dikran Kaligian, managing editor, “Armenian Review,” and author of Armenian Organization and Ideology Under Ottoman Rule, 1908-1914; and Dr. James R. Russell, Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University. Marc A. Mamigonian, director of academic affairs at the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), will serve as moderator.
This special symposium is co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard University, the Mashtots Chair in Armenian Studies at Harvard University, and NAASR. The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served during an intermission.
Prof. Salo Baron famously bemoaned what he called the “lachrymose” approach to Jewish history—a focus on powerlessness, homelessness, victimhood, and catastrophe. As the study of the Holocaust has developed, we know that the image of the Jews of Europe as sheep to the slaughter is at best inaccurate. There were many instances of organized resistance (ghetto fighters and forest partisans), and of retaliation (the killing of SS prisoners) at the end of World War II. The same situation obtains for the study of the Armenian Genocide of 1915: we now know much more than before about self-defense (at Van, for instance) and retribution (Operation Nemesis).
The Armenian Genocide was a precursor to the Holocaust: The Nazis admired both the Ottoman “final solution” of the Armenian Question and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s subsequent corporate nationalist régime, which completed that process and retroactively cleansed the historical record. In the interwar years and during the Holocaust, Jews knew of the Armenians’ fate and compared it to their own, even drawing inspiration during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising from The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, Franz Werfel’s novel about a desperate act of Armenian self-defense a generation before.
Although there are many affinities between Armenians and Jews, there are also historical and present geo-political factors that divide them. The conference is intended not only to shed light on the modern historical affinities, but to bring students, faculty, and community members into a positive dialogue about the future. The resistance of under-armed and outnumbered civilians to the overwhelming force of totalitarian states with genocidal ideologies also raises important questions about the relation of the individual to the system; the nature of the rule of law, and of international relations; strategies for overcoming conformity, passivity, and fear; and the parameters of human moral responsibility. All of these are as immediate now as they were in the two fateful conflicts of the past century.
For more information about this program, contact NAASR by calling (617) 489-1610 or e-mailing hq@naasr.org.
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I am impressed that a conference on both the Armenian Genocide & the Jewish Holocaust will be discussed. Although, I might not be able to attend, we hope the question to the Jewish scholar is why hasn’t Israel recognized the well documented Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923 by the Turkish Moslem regime as well as why Turkey for the past twenty years or so have been using five Jewish organization here in the U.S. telling them not to recognize the Armenian Genocide. These are important issues that should be brought forward at that conference.
Israel’s lack of support for the recognition of the Armenian genocide is an important topic but this is not the right venue nor are these the right people to ask about this. These speakers do not represent the Israeli government. Their perspective is historical not contemporary. This event addresses the universal qualities of the genocidal experience and the resilience of the victims in extremis – something the Armenian and Jewish people have shared — rather than divisive politics of the Turks’ cynical denials and byzantine power plays. Let us leave the Turks and the Israelis out of this particular discussion.
I could be wrong, but it seems to me that by not bringing the armenian question to the forefront will keep the holocaust at center stage. this is the tragedy of the genocide/holocaust situation to this present day. will it change? I leave the answer to your readers.
Israel must be brave and fair. everyone knows by now that hitler tailored this deed after the atrocities of the first world war that spilled into the second. if these two atrocities came together as one through knowledge, would this not make a substantial impact.
I don’t think you are wrong at all. In my opinion, in a sick fashion, Israel doesn’t want any “competition” that will move the limelight from the Holocaust and put the focus on the Armenian Genocide that took place nearly a quarter century prior. So far, they have used the Armenian Genocide as a political ping pong. When they had good relations with Turkey they helped the genocidal Turks, through their lobbies and agents within the US government, to defeat Armenian Genocide resolutions year after year. When their relations with Turkey soured, some elements in their government kept advocating for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and that primarily for getting back at Turkey and not necessarily for the welfare of the Armenian nation.
Add to that the fact that they have sold over a billion dollars worth of military hardware to our enemy to the east which we defeated and humiliated two decades ago. I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them. But of course this is the Israeli Zionist government we are talking about and not necessarily their public. The former is a political movement with goals regardless of who they hurt in the process and the latter is not much different from any public in any nation.
We must be careful not to fall victim to their insincere trickery.
Discussions are great but remember one very important factor – the state of Israel does not recognise the Armenian genocide be it for political reasons or not” It is this same Israel that supports Azerbaijan and supports and trains these people. Now there is a discussion? Where is this going? Shame on Israel for not recognising the Armenian genocide – do not make a mockery of this situation.
It is high time that people stop conflating Israel and Jews. The scholars who have volunteered their time to this discussion are not responsible for the policies of the Israeli Government.
In answer to Alex on those scholars that have recognized the Armenian Genocide, why haven’t they spoke out against those five Jewish Organizations under the payroll of the Turkish Government to stop backing up the Turks whom control Washington to not recognize our well documented Armenian Genocide whereby numerous nations around the world have done so.
This lecture is not being held by politicians. How can we hold the speakers accountable to the israeli government? Historical, to bring awareness to issues that are current and to shed light on two atrocious events is the point. Keep in mind just because a government does not recognize the genocide it does not mean all its people or religious fallowers agree. Nor does it mean every politician denies it either.