The Armenian Mirror-Spectator
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October 2, 2010
1. ALMA Names Viktoria Kirakosyan as New Program Director
2. Legal Eagle Mark Momjian Soars in Pennsylvania
3. Kerry Kennedy Inspires, Dazzles at Inaugural Lecture on Human Rights at
Faneuil Hall
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1. ALMA Names Viktoria Kirakosyan as New Program Director
By Siranush Khachatryan
Special to the Mirror-Spectator
WATERTOWN, Mass. – This town, which is second only to Glendale, Calif. when
it comes to its population of Armenian descent, is also home to the only
museum dedicated to all things Armenian in the US, the Armenian Library and
Museum of America (ALMA).
The newest member of the staff there is Viktoria Kirakosyan, who recently
was named exhibit and program director.
Kirakosyan was born in Yerevan, but she is not unfamiliar with Massachusetts;
she studied at Simmons College in Boston, from which she graduated with
joint degrees in economic and computer science.
`The funny thing is that the only reason I studied and graduated with those
degrees was because I knew I was going to go back to Armenia where there are
the most jobs available in those fields. I wasn’t very interested in either
of them though. I’ve always considered myself more of a creative
type of person, and always imagined that the ideal fields for me to work in
were marketing and
graphic design,’ said Kirakosyan.
Prior to coming to the US, she worked in marketing, including at investment
funds as well as a wine distribution company in Armenia and an international
food and wine publication. She moved to the US two years ago with her
husband, Armen Begoyan.
`I was living in Watertown and I would always pass by the museum but never
had a chance to go inside =85 . One of the board members who has known me for
many years knew that I was looking for a job. At the time there was an
opening at ALMA so she referred my resume and I went for an interview. The
next day I received the job offer. I never thought I would work in a museum,
but every day I like it
more and more.’
The job is not just dealing with logistics, however. `Although my position
states exhibit and program coordinator, I am also involved in the creative
aspects of working in a museum. For example, I get to work with various
renowned artists in organizing events for gallery exhibits for their
collections. I get to meet a lot of new people every day, which is probably
my favorite part of the job.’
Working at ALMA has made Kirakosyan feel closer to home. `I wish I could
share my life between both places, but I know many years from now I will
permanently move back to Armenia. Whenever I go back, a part of me will stay
here with all the diversity and various activities that are offered, but
when I’m here, I keep on getting homesick. I can’t live too far for too long
away from my parents and country.’
ALMA is a non-profit, while not flush with cash, is operating smoothly
thanks to its loyal army of volunteers, Kirakosyan said.
ALMA currently has about 10 exhibits on display and Kirakosyan says her
favorite is a traveling
exhibit titled, `The Ongoing Cultural Genocide,’ which will soon embark on a
national tour. `What I like a lot about the exhibit is that instead of
concentrating solely on the facts and history of the Armenian Genocide, its
main focus is on the Turks’ denial of the Genocide. It’s an impressive
combination of images and texts that is quite engaging. It has premiered at
the University of Rhode Island and my goal is to have it displayed in mostly
non-Armenian sites.’
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2. Legal Eagle Mark Momjian Soars in Pennsylvania
*By Aram Arkun*
*Mirror-Spectator* Staff
PHILADELPHIA – An attentive follower of the national media may have
encountered Philadelphia lawyer Mark Albert Momjian’s name in connection
with the divorce of reality television show actress Kate Gosselin. He was
quoted in many national newspapers and appeared on television shows such as
`Larry King Live’ and the `Today Show.’
Momjian is a nationally-respected authority on family law who has also
managed to actively participate in Armenian community life over a period of
several decades, and to develop a variety of rich collections of books and
ephemera dealing with Armenians and other topics. Interestingly, each of
these endeavors in one form or another is connected to the idea of family
and heritage.
The choice of law as a field certainly must have been at least in part
influenced by his family background and upbringing. Quite a few Momjians are
lawyers, including Mark’s father, Albert, a nationally prominent family
lawyer regarded by many as the dean of the Pennsylvania bar. In addition,
Mark’s two siblings (Carol and Thomas), as well as a number of cousins, are
lawyers and they specialize in everything from bankruptcy to securities
litigation.
After graduating from Columbia College (where he was a classmate of
President Barack Obama) and the Columbia University School of Law, Mark
Momjian worked for more than 25 years with his father, primarily in the
large Philadelphia law firm of Schnader Harrison Segal and Lewis, before
starting a specialized family law firm named Momjian Anderer this year.
Momjian has written more than 50 articles on family law topics for many
legal journals, and he also co-authored with his father the reference work
Pennsylvania Family Law Annotated (Thomson/West), now in its ninth edition.
In Pennsylvania, family law is particularly challenging because each
judicial district or county has its own rules. Momjian has argued many
important cases before the Pennsylvania appellate courts. One of his most
significant victories was in 2006. He explained recently that `I defended
the constitutionality of Pennsylvania’s Grandparents’ Visitation Act and got
it affirmed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. That case went up [the
technical term is on certiorari] to the US Supreme Court, but thankfully was
denied. A biological parent was challenging the Commonwealth’s statute
allowing grandparents the right to visit their grandchildren when the
parents of the children were separated or divorced. In this particular case,
the ex-wife of the father died of cancer. The maternal grandmother was not
allowed to see her grandchild after her daughter died, despite having seen
her grandson on an almost daily basis for the two years leading up to the
mother’s death. This case was an important victory for Pennsylvania’s
seniors.’
He handled an important case involving civil rights for the Lesbian Gay
Bisexual and Transgender (LBGT) community in 2002 before the Pennsylvania
Superior Court (an intermediate appellate). Momjian explained, `This was
the
first case in the US that imputed a child support obligation on a former
domestic partner. The biological parent successfully sued her former partner
for child support, even though the former partner had never adopted the
child.’
Momjian is particularly interested in the intersection between family law
and biotechnology – different methods of reproduction, gestational
surrogacy, DNA distribution and frozen embryos. With modern technology,
family law is a rapidly changing field. Momjian lectures nationally on these
and other issues of family law, and teaches at area law schools in
Philadelphia. He is also an adjunct faculty member at Drexel University’s
College of Medicine, teaching mental health law.
His public service work focuses on problems facing non-traditional families,
as well as victims of abuse and domestic violence. He is a member of the
board of directors of both the Homeless Advocacy Project and Philadelphia
VIP (an organization working for equal justice for the poor).
Momjian’s father and his uncle, Set Momjian, have been prominent as leaders
in various Armenian-American organizations over the years, so it was natural
for Mark too to become involved. Mark related, `I interned with the Armenian
Assembly in Washington, DC when I was 16 or 17 years old. That was in 1979.
I was one of the youngest interns. When I went to Columbia, I was very
active in the Armenian Club, and eventually served as its president. I
remained active as a club member even in law school. After graduating, I
served on the board of the Armenian Assembly for close to 17 years. I also
served on the board of the Armenian Sisters Academy [in Radnor, Penn.].’
As part of his loyalty to his alma mater, Momjian has served on the board of
the Columbia Armenian Center for over a dozen years, as well as in various
non-Armenian alumni positions. He was formerly on the board of the Armenian
Missionary Association of America, and when co-chairman of the Armenian
Church Earthquake Fund in Pennsylvania he helped raise over half a million
dollars of aid for survivors of the 1988 tragedy. He is a former president
of the Philadelphia chapter of the Armenian Students Association, and as a
lawyer, was active in the Armenian Bar Association as former cochair of its
Armenian Rights Watch committee. Momjian is a familiar figure at public
events in the Philadelphia area, often serving as master of ceremonies or as
a lecturer himself.
*The Collector*
Mark Momjian’s dedication to his family and his past reveals itself once
more in his hobbies. He collects various types of Americana, and materials
connected to his alma mater, Columbia, but perhaps the pride of his
collections are the materials connected to his heritage as an Armenian, and
Armenian-Americans in particular.
To a certain extent, his family background led him to collecting. As Momjian
explains, `I must have gotten the collector strain of DNA from my uncle,
Set
Momjian. He is the penultimate collector. He has done a brilliant job in
bringing his collections both to the public through museums and to private
groups. He has been a great resource for me and a remarkable person with
whom to talk about issues of collecting.’
A specific purchase in 1983 triggered the start of a collection of books
that now number several thousand. Momjian reminisces, `It was the summer
before I started law school and I was in a used bookstore on South Street in
South Philadelphia, in a store that sadly is no longer there. It was a small
volume by Herbert Adams Gibbons, The Blackest Page of Modern History.
Gibbons was of course referring to the genocide of the Armenians. As I was
reading the book, I was so impressed by how forceful his arguments were. I
was delighted to find out that he was trained as a lawyer because the book
had a legal brief feel to it. I was also delighted to pay only $2.50 for the
book.’ Today of course such a first edition would sell for $400, but Momjian
was motivated to obtain it not as an investment, but `because of my
ancestry, and because of the period it covers, and the trans-generational
trauma that still affects Armenian-Americans.’
Most of his books are in the English language, and often are inscribed by
the author, giving it a more intimate dimension. Momjian gives some
examples: `I have William Saroyan’s inscribed copy of the Blue Book [one of
the earliest works on the Armenian Genocide, published by the British
parliament]. It is extremely rare, but this is a copy he acquired in London
in the 1940s. I treasure it. I also have a wonderfully-inscribed copy by
Franz Werfel’s The Forty Days of Musa Dagh. It was inscribed to Edith Snow,
his poet-translator. Werfel’s signature is a sight to be seen – a flourish
of flourishes, a stunning and bold signature at a time when authors did not
market their wares as they do today. The book also has critical and other
remarks by Snow in pencil. She did not translate this, but his other works
of poetry, but it is interesting to see her remarks. When she looks at the
English version she is comparing it to the German and writing notes about
the translation in her copy in the margins.’
After the first 10 or 15 years, Momjian began to focus on what he likes to
call `Armenian Americana,’ focusing on the immigrant experience in the
United States – `this is the experience that our ancestors endured, whether
they came here during the Civil War, up to and including the aftermath of
the genocide. It really fascinated me as a second-generation
Armenian-American to delve into this area which I felt was largely ignored.’
Momjian has salesmen’s copies of many of the books published on the
Armenians and the Hamidian massacres around the turn of the 20th century:
`These books were used in some ways to titillate readers. There were great
marketing opportunities – publishers would tell their salesmen that these
books would practically sell themselves. This is why you see on the title
page to Reverend Greene’s book that it is a thrilling account – it is almost
unseemly.’
Momjian also has some draft articles: `I have an interesting 19th century
manuscripts on the Armenian people – it is a 4,000-word essay, handwritten
by James Bryce on the Armenian question and published in *Century Magazine*.
It had a substantive impact on American foreign policy after it was
published. For one thing, the American Ambassador to Constantinople at the
time was pressured into interviewing Sultan Abdul Hamid II to make up for
the damage done by Bryce’s article.’ When he holds such historical pieces,
he is greatly affected, and explains this through the German expression
`fingerspitzengefühl.’ This literally means `fingertip feeling,’
but also
refers to a military commander’s innate sense of what is happening on the
battlefield though he is unable to directly see everything. Momjian, like
many collectors, `feels an electric charge when touching something with so
much history and importance behind it.’
Momjian did not stop with books: `I have collected pulpit notices – little
slips of paper handed to parishioners to come to lectures on the Armenian
massacres. I have a range of ephemera not meant to survive – from postcards
and pin backs, to sheet music and badges. It really reflects the social
history of what interested Americans in learning about the Armenian people
and what was happening to them.’
Momjian owns approximately 1,000 postcards, some of which are extremely
rare, like from Cilician Armenia during the period of French occupation and
coveted philatelic covers with Armenian associations, many from Armenian
merchants in the Ottoman Empire. He has many postcards with photographs, as
well as Near East Relief postcards. By and large the collection has been
more focused on the US and its connection with the Ottoman Empire and the
Armenians. In particular, Momjian has always been interested in materials
relating to how Armenians came to America, and, working hard, established
small businesses. He confided, `I have a 19th-century business card of an
Armenian who sold dry goods and clothing from Boston. I have bill heads,
specially engraved stationery, to sell products in the US.’ He also has
handwritten letters on Armenian issues by notables like Henry Morgenthau
Sr., James Bryce, Oscar Strauss, General Harbord, Vice President Eisenhower
and various congressmen, as well as a copy of William Saroyan’s first letter
ever to his artistic collaborator, Don Freeman.
Momjian expanded into collecting original 19th-century photographs. For
example, there are the products of a tour of an Armenian doctor named
Megerdich Attarian, who had graduated from Colgate University and then
medical school in New York. He went from city to city, mainly in the East
Coast, dressing up in costumes and selling photos, talking about what life
was like in the Ottoman Empire. Momjian feels collecting such material `is a
fascinating way to understand how Armenian culture was disseminated in the
US. This is a form of cultural history. These photographs are quite charming
when you look at them, but they are highly stylized. They did not accurately
depict the average Armenian living in the Ottoman Empire, but this was
common at the time, similar to the Orientalist approach to art.’
Momjian also has rare old photographs from the pioneers of photography, like
Garabed Krikorian of Jerusalem: `He took photos as souvenirs when travelers
from the West (mainly from North America) came to Jerusalem. They would
dress up as a Bedouin or a tradesman in exotic garb and he would create a
cabinet card which travelers would bring back as a keepsake from the Holy
Land. I just bought one from a seller living in Utah.’
More unusually, he has a collection of milk bottles from various
Armenian-American dairy farmers, and, `I have what I think is the largest
collection of fruit labels depicting Armenian growers and merchants. For
instance, I have a fruit label from an Armenian grocery store in Watertown
in the 1920s, with the kind of engraving that is quite beautiful in its
simplicity. These fragile ephemera somehow survived. I think that collectors
now look at these things and understand their importance in trying to tell
the story of Armenian immigration to this country.’
Among Armenian materials related to presidents of the United States, Momjian
feels that one of the most interesting items in his collection is an
appointment from the White House on engraved sheepskin with the Executive
seal, appointing Milton Seropian as the vice-consul to Persia. He adds,
`This is a marvelous document signed in the early part of the 20th century.
Milton was the son of Christopher Seropian, the Yale graduate who created
the dye for the American currency. The reason why this appointment is
wonderful is that it is signed by both Theodore Roosevelt and John Hay,
previously Lincoln’s personal secretary, but secretary of state at the
time.’
Having accomplished much in his career and fields of service, as well as his
hobbies, Momjian and his wife, Melineh (also a Columbia graduate), have
strived to provide their two sons with the same background and opportunities
that they themselves have enjoyed. They have taken their children to Armenia
and provided them with an Armenian cultural background. Momjian explains,
`The most important thing for us as parents is to see our children excited
to be in their ancestral homeland. You want them to love your homeland
instantly, the way that we do. We try to keep the language, music and
culture alive in our home. We go to see Armenian soloists. We’ve really
tried to raise our children with the deep appreciation that Armenia has a
remarkable culture and it is the duty of every Armenian to spread those
values.’
Momjian hopes that the new generations of Momjians – and Armenians in
general – will work together to overcome the difficulties faced by the new
Republic of Armenia and the inherited traumas of the Genocide: `I’ve tried
to lead by example, but my inspiration will always be my parents, Albert and
Esther, who have been very active and engaged in the Armenian community from
as long as I can remember. They have been wonderful role models, as are my
inlaws, Dr. Edward Vartany and his wife, Anik. It is a model that I hope our
children will follow as well. It is one that’s, above all, respectful of
the
major sacrifices made by preceding generations of Armenians, both in the US
and our homeland.’
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3. Kerry Kennedy Inspires, Dazzles at Inaugural Lecture on Human Rights at
Faneuil Hall
By Alin K. Gregorian
Mirror-Spectator Staff
BOSTON – Kerry Kennedy lived up to her family name at the inaugural lecture
in the human rights series sponsored by the K. George and Dr. Carolann
Najarian Fund on Thursday, September 23. The annual lecture series is an
endowed public program of the Armenian Heritage Foundation, which is funding
the construction of the Armenian Heritage Park.
Kennedy spoke for less than 20 minutes, but during that short time, she
recited several anecdotes and inspirational stories, which in turn charmed,
inspired and touched the audience.
A surprise to the organizers was the presence of her mother, Ethel Kennedy,
the widow of the late senator and attorney general, Robert F. Kennedy. She
received tremendous applause and after the program, patiently accommodated
the many fans that wanted to have their pictures taken with them.
Kerry Kennedy is a veteran campaigner for human rights. She established the
Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights in 1988 and has worked on
diverse human rights issues such as children’s rights, child labor,
disappearances, indigenous land rights, judicial independence, freedom of
expression, ethnic violence, impunity and the environment. She is the author
of Speak Truth to Power:
Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing Our World, which features interviews
with human rights activists including Marian Wright Edelman, the Dalai Lama,
Archbishop Desmond Tutu and more.
Kennedy started her talk by expressing her happiness at being a part of the
program, since serving on the board of the lecture series were a host of
people who were old friends and colleagues, including
Margot Stern Strom and Adam Strom of the Brookline-based Facing History and
Ourselves.
She praised Facing History’s teaching tools on the Armenian Genocide and
suggested that all those present should try to get local schools to teach it
using that program. From that point, she launched into the importance of
freedom of expression, which should not be taken for granted, and which does
not exist everywhere, including Turkey, where speaking about the Genocide
could get one arrested or worse – killed.
She said we in the US owe the right to free expression `thanks in large part
to the people who have spoken in this very hall’ during the time of the
American Revolution, she said.
`If we were in Istanbul, we could be arrested, tortured or if freed,
targeted for death,’ as was
Hrant Dink, Kennedy said.
She noted that last year she spent a day in Istanbul with Delal Dink, the
late Agos founder’s daughter.
`He dared to speak truth to power,’ she said of Dink.
Kennedy was able to go back and forth between serious and humorous topics in
her brief talk, holding the crowd’s attention.
Kennedy said that she got interested as a child in human rights because `I
had seven brothers,’ much to the delight of the audience.
She stressed that in her household growing up, little separation was made
between work life and home life. Her mother, she recalled, would pile all
the children, two dogs and a football in the family car and head to her
husband’s office at the Justice Department. She recalled that she and her
siblings took particular pleasure pretending to be spies in the tunnels
linking the Justice Department with the offices of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI). One day, her spunky mother noted an incongruous
suggestion box in the FBI building and quickly dashed off a note in `her
distinctive handwriting.’ By the time the children and their mother were
at
Robert Kennedy’s office, he was holding the note, which had been forwarded
to him by his nemesis, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Roaring with laughter,
he shared Ethel Kennedy’s note, in which she had suggested that the FBI
`get
a new director.’
In another incident, she recalled, on June 11, 1963, her father sent her a
note, sharing the good news
that two African-American students had registered at the University of
Alabama.
Other incidents early in her life, she said, helped shape her dedication to
the issue of civil rights. She had a close friend who was gay, and in fact,
became one of the first people in the US to have died of AIDS early on in
the wake of the epidemic. Other friends were victims of date rape, or the
parents
of other friends were engaged in a violent relationship.
`I didn’t put these things together until I worked at Amnesty
International,’ she said.
Kennedy, who has worked to combat abuses by the Salvadoran government
against workers and
opposition activists, praised the change in the region. `All of Latin
America was under a right-wing military dictatorship,’ she said. Thanks to
grassroots activists, she said, not only is Latin America free of military
dictatorships, but so is the former Eastern Bloc in Europe as well as South
Africa, where apartheid ended.
Also, thanks to similar grassroots actions, she said, women’s rights issues
have entered the international arena. Kennedy highlighted some people whose
dedication to the cause of human rights in their respective fields have made
global changes, including Eli Wiesel, Margaret Mead and Digna Ochoa.
She quoted Wiesel: `It’s up to you now, and we shall help you – that
my past
does not become your future.’
Also speaking at the program was James Kalustian, the president of the
Heritage Park Foundation. In his opening remarks, Kalustian said that it was
a proud moment for the Armenian community, a group that `has experienced
and
triumphed over injustice’ and now is responsible for erecting a monument
that aims to pay tribute to its own and others’ suffering through this
lecture series.
Author, poet and professor Peter Balakian congratulated the
Massachusetts-Armenian community for the success of Heritage Park as well as
the lecture series.
`It is a great honor to be on this stage,’ sharing it with Kerry Kennedy, he
said.
He added that in particular, it was a delight to be at that particular
venue, where the first international outreach – toward Armenian victims of
the Ottoman massacres and then outright Genocide – by the US was born, as
well as the suffragette and abolitionist movements.
`It is a forum of humanistic thought,’ he said. Balakian paid tribute to
people like Alice Stone Blackwell, who worked hard to draw attention to the
Armenian situation.
In her comments, Dr. Carolann Najarian, who along with her husband, K.
George Najarian, has endowed the lecture series, paid tribute to her late
father, Avedis Abrahamian, a Genocide survivor who fled to the US at age 15.
`Injustice affects us all. In order to be effective in the struggle for the
abrogation of human rights for one, you have to fight all of them,’ she
said. She praised the speaker, Kerry Kennedy, as someone who has `for 30
years been a tireless advocate for human rights.’
Final speaker state Rep. Peter Koutoujian (DNewton/ Waltham), visibly moved,
praised Kennedy as someone who does `not rest on the laurels of a great
legacy [but has gone on] to create a new legacy every day.’
Kennedy, after the program, said she was `very deeply moved’ with the event.
`It was inspiring to see what the Armenian community has given to the
community and the effort the community is making to bring together all the
immigrant groups.’
A reception followed at the Old State House.
From: A. Papazian