ARMENIAN STUDIES, A FASINATNG FIELD

from Arthur Hagopian
Jerusalem, Aug 18 - The language of the Armenian people and their culture, literature and history have always provided a fascinating field of study among "odar" (foreigner) scholars.
Chief among the center of such scholarship in this part of the world stands the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with its Armenian Studies department.
Besides the ongoing course of lectures and seminars it pursues, the department also supports the publication of a wide range of books on Armeniana.
The studies program, which had been suspended for a year in the wake of the departure of Dr. Sergio La Porta, is now resuming with Prof Jasmine Dum-Tragut of Salzburg, in place.
The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem is one of the program's chief supporters and beneficiaries: it has seen several members of its priestly Brotherhood of St James, achieve distinction at the university, the latest Father Pakrad Bourjekian, who has been awarded a Masters Degree.
Father Pakrad is in charge of the Patriarchate's real estate department, but his thesis was on "An Unpublished Homily of St. Gregory the Martyrophile." And he is now gearing up for his doctoral degree, under the guidance of Professors Reuven Amitai and Michael Stone. His studies are being supported by a grant from the Sam and May Rudin Foundation which aims to foster University studies of priests of the Patriarchate.
Sergio had been with the program for over ten years, and will now be taking up a chair of Armenian Studies in the California State University in Fresno, California.
Dum-Tragut is a highly qualified Armenologist, with her second doctorate under Prof. Dr. J.J.S. Weitenberg of Leiden University, and will teach an intensive course on the History and culture of the Armenian People in November and December.
Emeritus Professor Michael E. Stone, a world-famous Armenologist, will teach Elementary Ancient Armenian in the first term.
University sources say the Armenian studies program has attracted a great deal of interest from both local and external students.
Among the crop of illustrious academics to have lectured at the Hebrew University is Prof Theo M. van Lint, Gulbenkian Professor of Armenian Studies in Oxford University, a man renowned for his studies in the field of Medieval Armenian Literature, and especially poetry.
His lectures have highlighted not only the unique character and creativity of Armenian literature, but the interrelations between Armenian Studies and other branches of studies of the middle east.
Other visiting professors have included James Russell, Mashtotz Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University.
Dum-Tragut was in Jerusalem earlier this year to conduct a study of the old Armenian community (the Kaghakatzi) of the Old City, its dialect and cultural traditions, a program initiated by Stone a decade ago under the auspices of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the National Armenian Academy of Sciences.
As the older generation of Kaghakatzis passes away, very few full speakers remain to transmit their unique culture and traditions, scholars fear that unless something is done to record these for posterity, the world will lose another valuable treasure.
Some ten years ago, an attempt was made by the Armenian Studies program to capture the Kaghakatzi story on discs, with the backing of both the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia. That project is being revived and talks will be initiated to renew the Academies' interest in it, according to university sources.
Another major initiative aimed at preserving the history of the Armenians of the Old City, launched a few years ago, is the online Kaghakatzi Family Tree Project (www.kaghakatzi.org).
"Without the Armenian presence, Jerusalem would have been an uninspiring backwater," one scholar goes so far as to claim.
They will be there. Until the end of time. Along with all the others.
Stone puts it succinctly in his poem, "Sinai Scenes":
“They are all still there—
Romans, Greeks, Nabateans,
Armenians, Jews, Arabs,
Bedouin, Sabeans, Egyptians.
Layered human traffic of the wasteland.”
ENDS

G.C