ARS & Hamazkayin celebrate Sona Zeitlian’s trailblazing 70 years of service jubilee

GLENDALE, Calif.—Sona Zeitlian (nee Simonian), educator, ethnographer, historian, award-winning author of Armenian women’s history, ARS member, Armenian women’s studies trailblazer and distinguished author of the history of the Armenians in Egypt, was honored for her 70 years of service jubilee by both Central Executive Boards (CEB) of the Armenian Relief Society (ARS) and the Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society during a program organized by the ARS of Western USA on April 7, 2024, at the Krikor and Mariam Karamanoukian Glendale Youth Center hall. 

Hundreds of attendees came to celebrate Zeitlian’s lifelong achievements, flocking from Egypt, Lebanon, Canada, the Eastern USA and from closer locations across California including Davis, San Diego and the Los Angeles/Orange County basin. The event not only brought the ARS and Hamazkayin families together, but also honoree’s family members, who provided their perspectives and recollections of being associated with an extraordinarily bright thinker who single-handedly preserved oral Armenian women’s history, pioneered the contributions of Armenian women and became herself a role-model heroine.