Photo: University of Pittsburgh Greek Nationality Room - Cathedral of Learning 

 

“Remember September”

The Department of Greek Education is pleased to announce a series of virtual events titled “Agape and Hope Resurrected in Hripsime's Agony, Athena's Mourning, and Rachel's Heartbreak.”

2022 represents the 100th year of one of humanity’s darkest periods, a time point that inspired and ignited what eventually resulted in one of humankind’s bleakest moments. 1922 was the peak of the period between 1915-1923, when Christians and Jews were systematically exterminated only for their faith and culture. The Nazis would soon use the western world’s general indifference to the genocide of Christians and Jews in Anatolia, the Pontus, and Asia Minor as the basis of their plan to exterminate the Jewish people. “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” roared Hitler in his speech to his chief commanders in 1939 just one week before the Nazi invasion of Poland and the planned extermination of Jews. 

The Greek, Armenian, and Jewish Communities of Western Pennsylvania, on account of this sad moment in our histories, and on occasion of this marker in time, 100 years from 1922, are coming together in the month of September 2022 in a broad educational outreach to all of Western Pennsylvania, in art, music, literature, and history, to first commemorate those who perished brutally and inhumanely at the hands of savage murderers, but second, to use this milestone in our histories to show that in the face of despair and death, creation and inspiration for a better and tolerant world was fostered and nurtured. 

Our three communities are dedicating the month of September to a common memorial of the Genocides of our people through historic reminders, but also through the music, literature, and artwork that was created by those who either perished in, or survived the genocide of Christians and Jews in Anatolia, the Pontus, and Asia Minor between 1915-1923 and by those who perished in, or survived the brutal concentration camps of the Holocaust during World War II.

The Program of events and can be accessed here:  https://www.rememberseptemberpa.com/schedule

The Organizers and Sponsors:

Nationality Rooms and Intercultural Exchange Program at the University of Pittsburgh-

Armenian Nationality Room Committee Israel Heritage Room Committee Greek Nationality Room Committee

Classrooms Without Borders

The European Art Center of Greece (EUARCE)

The American Hellenic Foundation of Western Pennsylvania

The Department of Greek Education of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America