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December 2001

Hebrew University Armenian Studies Program Thriving: Rudin Family Foundation
Grant Renewed

--- JERUSALEM/NEW YORK --- The Armenian Studies Department is proud to announce the renewal of the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation grant. The award provides tuition fellowships for young Armenian priests to study at the Hebrew University.

A letter, announcing the renewal and signed by Mr. Jack Rudin of New York, was received on November 30, 2001. Mr. Rudin has a strong history of building bridges between different faiths and communities.

According to Brother J. Driscoll, who has offered much encouragement for the project,One of Jack Rudin's oft-asked questions whenever there is discord and hurt that must be healed is ‘Who is preparing for the peace which must come?’ In this moment in world history we need many more to follow the lead of Mr. Jack Rudin, to prepare for peace among peoples by supporting study and scholarship among present and future leaders.

Last year awards were granted to Father Pakard Berjekian, Father Norayr Kazazian and Father Emmanuel Atajanyan. This year, in addition to last year's awardees, a fourth priest, Father Isahak Armen will have his studies supported by the foundation grant.

The Hebrew University Armenian Studies Department strives to serve the Armenian community in Israel and abroad. The Rudin Family Foundation grant is another example of the successful cooperation between the Hebrew University and the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

December, 2001

Newest Book in Armenian Series Coming Soon: The Armenians in Jerusalem and the Holy Land

--- JERUSALEM, ISRAEL --- The Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Armenian Studies Department recently announced that The Armenians in Jerusalem and the Holy Land edited by R. Ervine, M.E. Stone, and N. Stone the next volume of the exciting new Armenian Series, will be released in January. The book, a collection of essays regarding the nature and history of Armenians in the land of Israel, is replete with thought provoking scholarly papers from worldwide leaders in this field.

The book is the fourth volume in the Armenian Series. Other books include:

1) M.E. Stone's; A Concordance of the Armenian Apocryphal Adam Books. The work, published in 2001 by Peeters in Leuven, Belgium, is a study of Adam and Eve literature. This topic has taken an increasingly central role in the study of ancient Judaism and Christianity. It is the role of Adam and Eve as paradigmatic of the human condition that gives this literature its special role. The book, the second volume of concordances of the Armenian apocryphal Adam books, makes this important collection of Armenian medieval texts available to scholars. The Armenians were particularly productive of literature relating to the primal human beings. Their literary creations reveal their theological and conceptual sensitivities. This is the second volume of a projected three-volume set.

2) C. Maranci's; Medieval Armenian Architecture: Construction of Race and Nation. The book, published in 2001 by Peeters in Leuven, Belgium, offers scholarly answers regarding the origins of the monuments of medieval Armenia. The study examines the scholarship of the subject in East and West and offers persuasive explanations for the current scholarly impasse.

3) R.W. Thomson's; The Armenian Adaptation of the Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus. The book, published in 2001 by Peeters in Leuven, Belgium, discusses the transmission of the Ecclesiastical History by Socrates Scholasticus. For the first time ever, the text offers and English translation of the classical Armenian work. The fascinating introduction assesses the possible motives for the adaptation of the work at the end of the seventh century.

Series Editor Michael E. Stone is currently soliciting and accepting manuscript submissions.

Other editorial board members include Columbia University's Professor Emeritus Nira Garsoian, Oxford University's Professor Emeritus Robert Thomson and University of Pennsylvania's Professor Robert A. Kraft.

Books in the Hebrew University Armenian Series are available from Peeters Publishers, Bondgenotenlaan 153, 3000 Leuven, Belgium

E-mail: order@www.peeters-leuven.be

Website: http://www.peeters-leuven.be/Peeters.html

December, 2001

Professor Stone Continues Lecture Series Abroad

--- CAMBRIDGE, MA --- As part of Professor Michael E. Stone's sabbatical at Harvard University, the Director of the Hebrew University Armenian Studies Program has been invited to give numerous lectures abroad. Professor Stone has a depth of knowledge in topics ranging from ancient Jewish communities in Armenia to the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Upcoming lectures include:

· Recovering the Lost Jews of Armenia -- Lecture will be held January 12 and is sponsored by the Israeli Embassy and Friends of Hebrew University in Washington DC.

· The Dead Sea Scrolls and Pseudepigrapha -- Lecture will be held January 14 and is sponsored by Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

· The Religious Experience of Apocalyptic Authors -- Lecture will be held January 17 and is sponsored by Princeton University.

· Stones from the River: The Lost Jews of Armenia -- Lecture will be held January 29 and is sponsored by the Armenian Library and Museum of America.

· The Dead Sea Scrolls -- Lecture will be held February 3 and is sponsored by Wayne State University in Detroit.

· Stones from the River: The Lost Jews of Armenia -- Lecture will be held February 4 and is sponsored by the University of Michigan, Dearborn and St. John's Armenian Church.

Professor Stone has already lectured at Yale University, Tufts University, Harvard University, the National Association of Armenian Studies and Research conference, and the Society of Biblical Literature's Annual Meeting. In this way the work of Hebrew University Armenian Studies Program is brought to the knowledge of wider audiences.

September, 2001

The Recording Project of Kaghakatsi Dialect

The project of recording and preserving a record of a unique dialect of Armenian spoken in Jerusalem for centuries took a major step this summer. This project was initiated at a meeting held in 1999 between Professor Y. Ziv, President of the Israel Academy of Sciences; Professor Georg Brutian, Vice President of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences and Professor Michael E. Stone, Professor of Armenian Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The kaghakatsi dialect, still spoken only by the few surviving senior members of the Jerusalem Armenian community, was the form of Armenian spoken by the old community of Jerusalem, whose roots were to be found in the ancient past. Its role was gradually reduced after the Genocide, when tens of thousands of refugees came to the Holy Land. An Armenian school was established, the Sourp Targmanchatz school, at which "standard" Western Armenian was talked, and this became the language of the younger generation. The ancient kaghakatsi dialect was displaced and is now almost extinct.

The project is jointly sponsored by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the National Armenian Academy of Sciences and the Armenian Studies Program of the Hebrew University. It has the welcome support of H.B. Torkom II, Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem.

The first step was an initial report prepared by the distinguished Armenian dialect expert, Dr. Bert Vaux, whose three-week survey produced a report that is being published in the volume Armenians in Jerusalem and the Holy Land, that is now in press as part of the Hebrew University Armenian Series.

This summer's work was carried out by Armenologist Dr. Th.M. van Lint. Living in the Armenian Quarter, as guest of the Patriarch, he conducted tens of interviews with the kaghakatsi speakers still alive in the Armenian Quarter. These were recorded on audio disks, and are, together with Dr. van Lint's report, being forwarded to Dr. Vaux for study and analysis.

Although the project is not complete, the material assembled by van Lint and Vaux guarantees the preservation of the basis of this Armenian dialect, part of the history of this unique community. It has never previously been studied.

For mor nformation about this project contact JerusalemArmenian@h2.hum.huji.ac.il

May 2001

Hebrew University 2001 Expedition to Study Jewish Cemetery in Armenia Reports and Pictures.

Christmas and Armenian Jerusalem Identity
(Lecture)