The National Herald 101 · Hangover, lives in Wilkesboro, NC, making him the best-known...
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The National Herald A WEEklY GREEk-AmERiCAN PUBliCATiON December 3-9, 2016 www.thenationalherald.com $1.50 c v O C V ΓΡΑΦΕΙ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ 1915 NEWS 101 anniversary st 1915-2016 VOL. 20, ISSUE 999 For subscription: 718.784.5255 [email protected] By Eleni Sakellis NEW YORK – The resurrected St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine at the World Trade Center was topped with a temporary cross lifted into place on the sun- drenched afternoon of Novem- ber 28. Executive Director of Admin- istration for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese Jerry Dimitriou opened the proceedings with thanks to all those who con- tributed to the effort to rebuild the only religious building de- stroyed on 9/11. Dimitriou wel- comed Port Authority Executive Director Pat Foye, and Port Au- thority Chief of Capital Projects Steve Plate, John Dolan from Skanska Building and his team, Frank Lorino, representing ar- chitect Santiago Calatrava and the Calatrava organization, and the “fellow laborers on this his- toric mission to rebuild Saint Nicholas.” Dimitriou thanked the mem- bers of the original St. Nicholas Church, Mr. and Mrs. Peter J. Pappas chairman of PJ Mechan- Alabama Steel Cross Set in Place atop Dome of Shrine By Theodore Kalmoukos NEW YORK – Michael Psaros is the emergent prominent leader of our Greek-American commu- nity. He is a co-Founder and co- Managing Partner of KPS Capi- tal Partners, LP, and a member of its Investment Committee. KPS is the manager of KPS Spe- cial Situations Funds, a family of private equity funds with ap- proximately $5.6 billion of as- sets under management, fo- cused on making controlling equity investments in companies across a diverse range of manu- facturing industries. Psaros is a faithful Church- man par excellence, a philan- thropist, a true Hellene, and a proud American. The Chian Fed- eration will honor him with the Homeric Award because he is also a proud son of Chios. In light of the upcoming honor, Psaros granted the fol- lowing interview to The Na- tional Herald which he reads faithfully every week. TNH: How do you feel to be honored by the Chian Associa- tion? MP: My uncle Nikos told me that there isn’t a higher honor than being recognized by your own people. When I was called by the Chian Federation and asked to participate in this cere- mony, at first I was hesitant be- cause my grandmother Eugenia from Chios always told me to avoid glory. I like to think that I am a humble person, but as it was explained to me that the funds raised will go to worthy causes, I accepted this honor with great humility and with en- thusiasm. Psaros on Family, Faith, & Greece Proud Son of Chios to Receive Homeric Award, Talks with TNH TNH Staff New York diners are an iconic symbol of the American dining experience. For the last half century at least, diners have been a staple of the Greek im- migrant experience as well. Staffing and owning diners was a natural extension of the world-famous Greek hospitality. As many diner-goers over the years noted, Greeks took over the diners and kept the “Ameri- can” menu, adding their own specialties and expanding the culinary offerings with the tastes of home. Books have been writ- ten about diners and diner cul- ture. On television, where would Seinfeld and company have lunch and discuss “noth- ing” without the classic New York diner Monk’s Café? The sit- com itself was thought up in just such a coffee shop. The rising cost of real estate in recent years has been hard on the often fam- ily-owned diners of New York City. Many have shut down per- manently due to changing neighborhood demographics and eating habits. Gentrification in many areas has been tough on diners and coffee shops. As reported in the New York Times, there are about half as many diners today as there were 20 years ago, according to records from the health depart- ment. Among the diners that closed in recent years, Cafe Edi- son shut down in 2014 after 34 years in business renting space from the Edison Hotel at 228 West 47th Street in Manhattan. In 2015, Market Diner closed its doors after 53 years in Hell’s Kitchen. The beloved Lyric Diner closed in 2016 after 31 years at Third Avenue and 22nd Street in Gramercy. Owner George Kalogerakos decided to retire, the real estate broker told DNA info. Kalogerakos had briefly closed Lyric to open the more formal Greek restaurant Tav- erna in the same location, but reopened the diner after about a year. The diner was a favorite in the neighborhood, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and offering a 10% discount to students showing their school ID. Also among the closures in 2016, was Del Rio after 40 years Greek-Americans Continue NY Diner Tradition Trump Dines with Possible Cabinet Member Romney President-elect Donald Trump, center, at dinner with Mitt Romney, right, and Greek-American Chief of Staff Reince Priebus at Jean-Georges Restaurant on Nov. 29 in New York. TNH Staff WILMINGTON, NC – Comedian and actor Zach Galifianakis, best-known for his work in The Hangover, lives in Wilkesboro, NC, making him the best-known Greek-American Tar Heel. For those unfamiliar with the term, “tar heel” is a North Carolina- native. Years before Zach and his un- conventional comic talent burst onto the scene, however, his un- cle Nick Galifianakis made a name for himself as a flamboy- Another Famous Galifianakis TNH Staff STONY BROOK, NY – Nikolaos Panou, PhD, was formally in- stalled as the inaugural Peter V. Tsantes Professor in Greek Lit- erature and Language at Stony Brook University. “It is an un- derstatement to say that I am delighted that Nikolaos Panou has been named to this distin- guished professorship,” said President Samuel L. Stanley Jr. during the ceremony. “And we are grateful to Peter V. and De- spina Tsantes for endowing this professorship. It will be a lasting tribute to the Tsantes family and enable us to continue to attract and retain prominent scholars in the field of Hellenic studies.” As Assistant Professor of Comparative Studies in Stony Brook University's College of Arts and Sciences, Panou’s cur- Panou Installed as Tsantes Prof. By Theodore Kalmoukos BOSTON – Prominent Greek- American Congressman John Sarbanes of Maryland was re- elected in the recent election for his sixth term. In an interview with The National Herald he ex- pressed his gratitude to the con- stituents of his District for their confidence to honor him one more time with their vote. He also itemized the issues he will be focusing on including stu- dent loans, veteran issues, job training, and certainly the issues of Greece, Cyprus and Ecumeni- cal Patriarchate. Mr. Sarbanes also spoke about the election of Mr. Donald Trump to the US Presidency. The interview follows: TNH: How do you feel about your reelection? Sarbanes: I am gratified that the voters in my district felt that they should send me back for an- other term in Congress. We work hard to serve our constituents well and when they have the op- tion and the choice to reelect you John Sarbanes Talks to TNH AP PHOTO/EVAN VUCCi Milestone Reached for St. Nicholas Church at WTC A construction worker looks out over the crowd gathered to witness the cross installed atop St. Nicholas National Shrine Church at the WTC marking a milestone in the project. The church is expected to be completed by the spring of 2018. TNH/COSTAS BEJ NOTE TO OUR READERS To see your events listed in our GOINGS ON section, all parishes, organizations and institutions should e- mail their information re- garding the event no later than Monday of the week be- fore the event, to english.edi- [email protected] GOINGS ON... Continued on page 4 Continued on page 3 Continued on page 6 Continued on page 6 Continued on page 5 Continued on page 4
Transcript of The National Herald 101 · Hangover, lives in Wilkesboro, NC, making him the best-known...
The National HeraldA wEEkly GrEEk-AmEriCAN PuBliCATiON
December 3-9, 2016
www.thenationalherald.com$1.50c v
O C VΓΡΑΦΕΙ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ
ΑΠΟ ΤΟ 1915NEW
S 101anniversary
st
1915-2016
VOL. 20, ISSUE 999
For subscription:
By Eleni Sakellis
NEW YORK – The resurrectedSt. Nicholas Greek OrthodoxChurch and National Shrine atthe World Trade Center wastopped with a temporary crosslifted into place on the sun-drenched afternoon of Novem-ber 28.
Executive Director of Admin-istration for the Greek OrthodoxArchdiocese Jerry Dimitriouopened the proceedings withthanks to all those who con-tributed to the effort to rebuildthe only religious building de-stroyed on 9/11. Dimitriou wel-comed Port Authority ExecutiveDirector Pat Foye, and Port Au-thority Chief of Capital ProjectsSteve Plate, John Dolan fromSkanska Building and his team,Frank Lorino, representing ar-chitect Santiago Calatrava andthe Calatrava organization, andthe “fellow laborers on this his-toric mission to rebuild SaintNicholas.”
Dimitriou thanked the mem-bers of the original St. NicholasChurch, Mr. and Mrs. Peter J.Pappas chairman of PJ Mechan-
Alabama Steel CrossSet in Place atopDome of Shrine
By Theodore Kalmoukos
NEW YORK – Michael Psaros isthe emergent prominent leaderof our Greek-American commu-nity. He is a co-Founder and co-Managing Partner of KPS Capi-tal Partners, LP, and a memberof its Investment Committee.KPS is the manager of KPS Spe-cial Situations Funds, a familyof private equity funds with ap-proximately $5.6 billion of as-sets under management, fo-cused on making controllingequity investments in companiesacross a diverse range of manu-facturing industries.
Psaros is a faithful Church-man par excellence, a philan-thropist, a true Hellene, and aproud American. The Chian Fed-eration will honor him with theHomeric Award because he isalso a proud son of Chios.
In light of the upcominghonor, Psaros granted the fol-lowing interview to The Na-tional Herald which he readsfaithfully every week.
TNH: How do you feel to behonored by the Chian Associa-tion?
MP: My uncle Nikos told methat there isn’t a higher honorthan being recognized by yourown people. When I was calledby the Chian Federation andasked to participate in this cere-mony, at first I was hesitant be-cause my grandmother Eugeniafrom Chios always told me toavoid glory. I like to think that Iam a humble person, but as itwas explained to me that thefunds raised will go to worthycauses, I accepted this honorwith great humility and with en-thusiasm.
Psaros onFamily,Faith, &GreeceProud Son of Chios toReceive HomericAward, Talks with TNH
TNH Staff
New York diners are aniconic symbol of the Americandining experience. For the lasthalf century at least, diners havebeen a staple of the Greek im-migrant experience as well.
Staffing and owning dinerswas a natural extension of theworld-famous Greek hospitality.As many diner-goers over theyears noted, Greeks took overthe diners and kept the “Ameri-can” menu, adding their ownspecialties and expanding theculinary offerings with the tastes
of home. Books have been writ-ten about diners and diner cul-ture. On television, wherewould Seinfeld and companyhave lunch and discuss “noth-ing” without the classic NewYork diner Monk’s Café? The sit-com itself was thought up in justsuch a coffee shop. The risingcost of real estate in recent yearshas been hard on the often fam-ily-owned diners of New YorkCity. Many have shut down per-manently due to changingneighborhood demographicsand eating habits. Gentrificationin many areas has been tough
on diners and coffee shops. As reported in the New York
Times, there are about half asmany diners today as there were20 years ago, according torecords from the health depart-ment. Among the diners thatclosed in recent years, Cafe Edi-son shut down in 2014 after 34years in business renting spacefrom the Edison Hotel at 228West 47th Street in Manhattan.In 2015, Market Diner closed itsdoors after 53 years in Hell’sKitchen. The beloved Lyric Dinerclosed in 2016 after 31 years atThird Avenue and 22nd Street
in Gramercy. Owner GeorgeKalogerakos decided to retire,the real estate broker told DNAinfo. Kalogerakos had brieflyclosed Lyric to open the moreformal Greek restaurant Tav-erna in the same location, butreopened the diner after abouta year. The diner was a favoritein the neighborhood, open 24hours a day, seven days a week,and offering a 10% discount tostudents showing their schoolID. Also among the closures in2016, was Del Rio after 40 years
Greek-Americans Continue NY Diner Tradition
Trump Dines with Possible Cabinet Member RomneyPresident-elect Donald Trump, center, at dinner with Mitt Romney, right, and Greek-AmericanChief of Staff Reince Priebus at Jean-Georges Restaurant on Nov. 29 in New York.
TNH Staff
WILMINGTON, NC – Comedianand actor Zach Galifianakis,best-known for his work in TheHangover, lives in Wilkesboro,NC, making him the best-knownGreek-American Tar Heel. Forthose unfamiliar with the term,“tar heel” is a North Carolina-native.
Years before Zach and his un-conventional comic talent burstonto the scene, however, his un-cle Nick Galifianakis made aname for himself as a flamboy-
AnotherFamousGalifianakis
TNH Staff
STONY BROOK, NY – NikolaosPanou, PhD, was formally in-stalled as the inaugural Peter V.Tsantes Professor in Greek Lit-erature and Language at StonyBrook University. “It is an un-derstatement to say that I amdelighted that Nikolaos Panouhas been named to this distin-guished professorship,” saidPresident Samuel L. Stanley Jr.during the ceremony. “And weare grateful to Peter V. and De-spina Tsantes for endowing thisprofessorship. It will be a lastingtribute to the Tsantes family andenable us to continue to attractand retain prominent scholarsin the field of Hellenic studies.”
As Assistant Professor ofComparative Studies in StonyBrook University's College ofArts and Sciences, Panou’s cur-
PanouInstalled asTsantes Prof.
By Theodore Kalmoukos
BOSTON – Prominent Greek-American Congressman JohnSarbanes of Maryland was re-elected in the recent election forhis sixth term. In an interviewwith The National Herald he ex-pressed his gratitude to the con-stituents of his District for theirconfidence to honor him onemore time with their vote.
He also itemized the issues hewill be focusing on including stu-dent loans, veteran issues, jobtraining, and certainly the issuesof Greece, Cyprus and Ecumeni-cal Patriarchate. Mr. Sarbanesalso spoke about the election ofMr. Donald Trump to the USPresidency.
The interview follows: TNH: How do you feel about
your reelection?Sarbanes: I am gratified that
the voters in my district felt thatthey should send me back for an-other term in Congress. We workhard to serve our constituentswell and when they have the op-tion and the choice to reelect you
JohnSarbanesTalks to TNH
AP PHOTO/EvAN vuCCi
Milestone Reached for St. Nicholas Church at WTC
A construction worker looks out over the crowd gathered to witness the cross installed atop St. Nicholas National Shrine Churchat the WTC marking a milestone in the project. The church is expected to be completed by the spring of 2018.
TNH/COSTAS BEJ
NOTE TO OUR READERS
To see your events listedin our GOINGS ON section,all parishes, organizationsand institutions should e-mail their information re-garding the event no laterthan Monday of the week be-fore the event, to [email protected]
GOINGS ON...Continued on page 4
Continued on page 3 Continued on page 6
Continued on page 6
Continued on page 5
Continued on page 4
CORAL SPRINGS, FL – Policesay Gus Kiriazis, 59, owner of amall jewelry store in CoralSprings, Florida, shot andwounded a worker before killinghimself.
The incident happened themorning of Nov. 26, police said,at the Coral Square Mall, whichwas put on lockdown for an
hour, bewildering holiday shop-pers.
Kiriazis, who operated theFast-Fix Jewelry and Watch Re-pair, shot Sabas Antonio Ferrer,52, “several times” and thenturned the gun on himself, De-tective Ernesto Bruna told TheNew York Post.
The motive wasn’t reported.
Kiriazis died at the scene fromthe self-inflicted gunshot wound.Ferrer, 52, was brought toBroward Health North hospitalin critical condition, accordingto a report.
Cops were evacuating theshopping mall when StephanieSpeno, 33, was walking out ofMacy’s and saw two women
were on their cell phones crying,according to Local 10 News.
Speno, a native of Auburn,NY, who lives in Orlando, wasvisiting family for Thanksgiving.
“We are in the middle of aterrorist event here in coralsquare! [What] has America be-come?!? To be a part of an eventlike this is so scary!” Speno
posted on Facebook.Later, the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-
Sentinel reported that there wasa conflict between the men al-though they were described asfriendly with others.
Kiriazis and Ferrer "had issuesfor a while" – Kiriazis fired Ferrerfrom his job before recently re-hiring him – and it boiled overduring the holiday rush policesaid without giving details whatthe troubles between them wereor what precipitated Kiriazis tostart shooting.
Kiriazis shot Ferrer multipletimes, wounding him in the head,Police Capt. Brad McKeone toldthe newspaper, adding that it waspart of the "ongoing dispute thatunfortunately ended in this out-come."
With terrorism fears in publicplaces running high, the gunfiresparked a panic too, especiallyon a busy Thanksgiving holidayperiod with shoppers out indroves at the mall.
One of the first officers to ar-rive said he ran toward the mallthrough JC Penney carrying hisgun, telling customers and em-
ployees to leave, a police reportsaid.
Some people were said tohave stampeded, shopping overcounters and running to the rearof stores, and some stores quicklylocked their gates, mall employ-ees told the paper.
According to a police report,when an officer reached thewatch-repair store, the officersaw Ferrer, sitting on the floor,bleeding from his mouth. Kiriazis,bleeding from a gunshot wound,also was on the floor, with a silverrevolver near his body.
Kiriazis was a longtime storefranchisee who about a year agosigned a contract for another 10-year lease at the mall, said GeraldWeber, the Chief Executive Offi-cer and President of Boca Raton-based Jewelry Repair Enterprises,Inc. which has 156 Fast-Fix loca-tions throughout the country, anda handful in Europe.
"He was a good franchisee,"Weber said of Kiriazis. "He wasdoing his job there. We're obvi-ously very saddened, very sorryfor both families involved in thissituation."
TNH Staff
NEW YORK – The LoukoumiMake A Difference Foundationis inviting theater-lovers to jointhem for a night on Broadwayon January 6 with OrchestraSeats for the play Les LiaisonsDangereuses aka "Dangerous Li-aisons" starring Janet McTeer,Liev Schreiber, and Elena Kam-pouris, star of My Big Fat GreekWedding 2 and the recipient ofThe Loukoumi Make A Differ-ence Award at last June's DanceParty, making her Broadway de-but.
Nick Katsoris, Loukoumi chil-dren’s book series author andpresident of the LoukoumiFoundation, told The NationalHerald, “the Loukoumi Make ADifference Foundation is thrilledto support Elena Kampouris inher Broadway debut. Last June,we honored Elena at our Louk-oumi Dance Party for making adifference in the world not onlythrough her creative talents, butalso through her philanthropicwork through charities like
Autism Speaks. Our LoukoumiFoundation strives to teach chil-dren to make a difference in theworld, and Elena is a perfect ex-ample for them to follow.”
A post-show private recep-tion with Kampouris will be heldat Sardi's Restaurant in Manhat-tan, just around the corner fromthe Booth Theatre. Tickets,available through the LoukoumiFoundation website, werenearly sold out at press time.With a portion of the proceeds,the Loukoumi Foundation willdonate books to the Children'sAid Society for the holidays. Awonderful night at the theatrewill also help make the holidaysmerry for kids in need.
The Donmar Warehouse Pro-duction of the play, written byAcademy Award-winnerChristopher Hampton, wowed
audiences in London during itssold-out run and is now onBroadway. With adult themes ofsex, revenge, and betrayal, theplay is decidedly not for kids.The running time is two hoursand forty-five minutes with oneintermission. Les Liaisons Dan-gereuses is based on the 1782epistolary novel of the samename by Pierre Choderlos de La-clos. It tells the story of ex-lovers, played by McTeer andSchreiber, who plot to ruin thereputation of an innocent,young aristocrat, played byKampouris. Currently runningthrough January 8, the play hasreceived rave reviews. TonyAward-winners McTeer andSchreiber are The January 6performance offers a unique op-portunity to enjoy the play,show support for Greek-Ameri-can actress Kampouris, and alsogive back through the Founda-tion.
More information about theperformance and the Founda-tion is available at loukoumi-foundation.org.
Loukoumi Foundation Night on Broadway with Elena Kampouris
By Vasilis Papoutsis
LOS ANGELES, CA – The highlyanticipated new film from theacclaimed director of PolitikiKouzina, had its North Americapremiere at the 10th Los Ange-les Greek Film Festival and re-ceived rave reviews.
Notias, or Mythopathy,comes more than 10 years sincethe groundbreaking Kouzina,and it was worth the wait as thenew film beautifully blends nos-talgia and dreams for a betterfuture and it mixes drama withhumor.
It is the story of a young manwhose unorthodox ideas aboutancient mythology makes for alot of growing up in pain, butalso leads to a highly creativeadult who has emotional andsexual experiences that are bothexhilarating and humbling. Peo-ple who grew up in that era inGreece, in the 1960s and 70swill look nostalgically back intime when we all believed wecould make Greece a betterplace and the world a morepeaceful one.
The main characterStavros(Yiannis Niarros) as a
young boy has trouble explain-ing his unconventional spin ofthe well-known Greek mythsand his mother takes him to thedoctor for a physical examina-tion. Unable to find anythingphysically wrong with him, thedoctor makes the assumptionthat perhaps Notias, the South-ern winds responsible for latesummer storms, might have hadan effect in Stavros' psyche. Hisjourney into adulthood is filledwith erotic fantasies, ideologicalvirtues, and discovering themagic of cinema in a dark roomwhile working as an assistantphotographer.
His character faces a lot ofrejections but he finds thepower to bounce back. Themovie was filmed at the historiccenter of Athens and especiallythe famed Stoa Pantazopoulouor “Stoa Hollywood’‘ as it wasknown to the cinema industrypeople and gave the film a senseof authenticity.
It is in there that Stavros fa-ther's store is in the movie. Thefather in the movie had a storefor leather goods as was Boul-metis’ father, and the latterspent time during summer
breaks helping his father. Mostof the film's shooting took placein the Stoa which is located onAkadimias 98 and where all themajor production companieshad offices and all the majormovie stars could be seen at BarHollywood having coffee or atthe 7th floor bar with views ofKannigos Square having a drink.
Although the glory days ofGreek cinema are long gone asare the production companiesfrom the building, the Stoa stillmaintains the aura of an era notlikely to be seen again. Themovie also illustrates the con-struction of “myths” that a lotof the middle class created inorder to survive. The father-merchant in the movie used asa marketing tool a non-existentacquaintance with the famousbillionaire Aristotle Onassis thathad everyone including his fam-ily convinced that he knewOnassis and knew Onassis' fa-vorite suitcases and accessories.
He had even created a pho-tograph of Onassis with his sup-posed favorite suitcase that wasin the center of his window dis-play. That type of marketing wasnot unique to him, “After the
civil war and for decades afterthe middle class in its effort toestablish an identity and to take
a leg up on the competition gotinvolved in the myth manufac-turing business. They created
pseudo identities based on thosemyths in order to survive,” Boul-metis said. Not much haschanged since then either. Themuch-expected change that PA-SOK promised in his campaignto power did not materialize.“Whatever meritocracy existedbefore they assumed power waspretty much set aside. Laborunions and party affiliations forthe most part dictated the chainof human command and medi-ocrity prevailed’‘ Boulmetis said.Prime Minister Alexis Tsiprashas not advanced the cause ei-ther “ as he made a lot ofpromises he could not possiblykeep and the disappointmentand dissolution will surely fol-low’‘ was his assessment of thecurrent political situation.
Politiki Kouzina was thehighest grossing Greek film butwas never shown in the Turkishtheaters despite the fact thatseveral co-producers were Turk-ish. It only showed in TurkishTV. However it created a cul-tural phenomenon in Greece“many Greeks who had neverbeen to Constantinople afterthey saw the movie, they de-cided to travel there.”
Tassos Boulmetis on his New Film Notias (or Mythopathy) and Greece
COMMUNITY2 THE NATIONAL HERALD, DECEMBER 3-9, 2016
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Filmmaker Tassos Boulmetis- his latest film Notias, or Mythopa-thy, received rave reviews in its debut at the 10th LAGFF.
Nick Katsoris presents ElenaKampouris with the 2016Loukoumi Foundation MakeA Difference Award.
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Florida Jewelry Store Owner Gus Kiriazis Shoots Worker Then Kills Self
COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, DECEMBER 3-9, 2016 3
TNH: What does Greece andspecifically Chios mean to you to-day?
MP: I will tell you a story: Thefirst time I went to Chios I wentwith my wife, Robin. We werevery young, mid-20s. When theairplane landed I had a feelingthat I had never before, I wasovercome by emotion, as if I wastouched by the Holy Spirit itselfand I felt like I was home. Theonly other time I felt like that iswas when my family and I wereon a boat going to Bodrum Har-bor of Halicarnassus. When Istepped foot there, it too felt likehome. That is God telling you thisis your home. We still have familyin the village of Olympi on Chios,and we have been back manytimes and taken my children. Oneof the greatest days of our liveswas when I took my three chil-dren and my parents and wewent into the ancient churchwhere my mother’s grandfatherwas a priest. To be able to say‘your great-great grandfather wasa priest here’ was spectacular. Wehave gone back many times andI look forward to going backagain.
TNH: What did you parentssay about going to college?
MP: I was raised by my twograndmothers and my grandfa-ther as much as by my parentsand excellence was expected anddemanded. There was no ques-tion that I was going to go to col-lege, and a good one. My fatherstarted talking to me about col-lege since the first grade. My par-ents, the embodiment of philo-timo, and my grandparents hadvery high standards; they werevery demanding and I understoodthat I had to excel.
TNH: What attracted you toeconomics?
MP: I grew up in a steel town.KPS is a private equity firm, weare not really a Wall Street firm.We are industrialists and manu-facturers. We invest in companiesthat make things. So really, be-cause where I grew up I have al-ways been interested in the man-ufacturing and industry and that
is what we do. We have billionsof dollars and we invest in com-panies that make things.
TNH: We understand you aredoing well.
MP: I say this humbly but Ithink we have created one of theworld’s truly leading franchises inthe private equity business.
TNH: How are we Greek-Americans doing as a commu-nity?
MP: First of all if you step backand look, the success is very stun-ning. If you look at statistics mea-sured by income and businessownership, Greek-Americans areright behind Jewish-Americansand Indian-Americans among allnationalities. We have been re-markably successful in this coun-
try that has welcomed us. Wherewe have not emulated the successof Jewish-American and otherethnic groups is politically. If youlook at the lobbing organizationsof various ethnic groups, they arefunded and spend hundreds ofmillions of dollars a year to ad-vocate their issues. We do nothave that infrastructure to ad-vance Orthodoxy and Hellenism.We have a group of well-inten-tioned organizations that flydown to DC every now and thenfor photo opportunities, but cer-tainly nothing like other ethnici-ties. Andy and Mike Manatos aresinglehandedly the two angels ofOrthodoxy and the Hellenic com-munity in Washington.
TNH: What would you sug-gest?
MP: I would encourage allHellenic and Orthodox organiza-tions fall under the leadership ofAndy and Mike and that all ourefforts should be collective. Allour lobbying completely coordi-nated; that is how we will becomeeffective. We should have onestrong voice.
TNH: Where do you think ourChurch is going? What should we
do advance our Church in thiscountry?
MP: I was very humbled to re-ceive the blessing of our GeronArchbishop Demetrios to join theExecutive Council of the HolyArchdiocese in the role of trea-surer about six weeks ago. I be-lieve that the single most impor-tant focus of the Church shouldbe on the youth.
TNH: How did you learnGreek so fluently?
MP: My mother was a publicschool teacher for 37 years inWest Virginia. My father was anexecutive in a steel company. Mygrandmother from Chios tookcare of me Tuesday through Fri-day and then my grandfather wasa barber so Monday was his dayoff and he took care of me onMonday. I learned to speak Eng-lish in Kindergarten and I am sec-ond generation. My grandfatherwas the giant in my life.
TNH: What do you thinkGreece should do to get out ofthis economic mess?
MP: I do love Greece; my loveof our motherland cannot bequestioned. But people are prob-ably people are not going to likewhat I have to say. Please under-stand that we own and operatemanufacturing facilities in 23countries. I do business all overthe world and I have a trulyglobal perspective. Greece needsto do the following: it needs todefault on its debt. Greece isnever going to pay that debt back.The Germans and French need toface reality: they will never gettheir money back. Reflow thedrachma. That is the alpha andthe omega. I don’t think Greecehas a future in the Eurozone. Icannot understand how a parentin Greece could ask a son ordaughter who just graduatedfrom college to stay in a countryand work hard for the rest of theirlives in order for Greece to maybebe able to make interest paymentson that debt . Number two; thereis only one economic system thathas worked; it is not perfect, butit is called capitalism. Greece hasto elect a government that under-stands the reality of the worldand the reality of the 21st century.
Capitalism has lifted over a billionpeople in India and China out ofpoverty in the last 25 years. With
the exception of Cuba and SouthKorea, I don’t know a lot of coun-tries that still purport to be com-
munist from an economic stand-point.
I disagree with Prime MinisterAlexis Tsipras on everything.Greece needs to reform its own-ership laws. I can incorporate inbusiness almost anywhere in theworld in one day; can you do thatin Greece? Greece needs to shrinkits public sector and reform its la-bor laws. Greece needs a serioussystem of taxation like the rest ofthe world. It needs to enforcelaws regarding public sector cor-ruption.
TNH: How do you feel aboutHellenic culture and identity?
MP: I have three things in mylife: the Almighty in the Church,my family, and Orthodoxy andHellenism. I cannot see Hellenismany other way than through themagnificent prism of Orthodoxy.I can’t separate the two. I don’tunderstand people who try to.
Michael Psaros Embodies Success in Work, Humanity, Faith, and Family
TNH Staff
The Greek Orthodox LadiesPhiloptochos Society presentedthe U.S. Fund for UNICEF (USF)with a check in August for$50,000 for UNICEF’s mostpressing needs. The Philopto-chos’ generous support comesat a crucial time for all childrenaround the world, enablingUNICEF (United Nations Inter-national Children’s EmergencyFund) to maintain its vital pres-ence around the world and con-tinue to implement programsthat improve children’s livesthrough lifesaving interventionsfor health, nutrition, water, san-itation and hygiene, education,social inclusion, child protec-tion, and HIV and AIDS.
Since 1989, the Greek Ortho-dox Ladies Philoptochos SocietyInc. and USF have been partner-ing closely to strengthenUNICEF’s mission to protectchildren worldwide by support-ing UNICEF’s emergency reliefefforts, education programs,USF’s End Trafficking project,and more. As noted on USF’swebsite, “thousands of childrenare trafficked right here in theUnited States. These kids are
not criminals, they are victims.Give them what they need to gofrom victims to survivors.” The
signs a child is being traffickedare that the child knows littleabout his or her whereabouts,
works excessively long hours,exhibits fear or anxious behav-ior, was hired with false
promises, and has inconsisten-cies with his or her story.
The Philoptochos Society hasbeen the philanthropic arm ofthe Greek Orthodox Archdioceseof America since 1931. The or-ganization focuses on philan-thropy through various pro-grams that make a difference inthe lives of people nationally aswell as across the globe. Philop-tochos fulfills its missionthrough its National and Me-tropolis Boards and through its26,000 members and more than400 active chapters, nationwide,enabling it to respond immedi-ately to humanitarian crises.
UNICEF and the Philopto-chos Society share a similar mis-sion to assist the world’s mostvulnerable children to surviveand thrive. A big part ofUNICEF’s mandate is to protectchildren from all forms of vio-lence, abuse, neglect, traffick-ing, and exploitation. It believesthat the best way to do so is toprevent violations of the rightsof children from occurring in thefirst place.
The critical support that thePhiloptochos Society offershelps ensure that UNICEF canreach children where the need
is greatest. For instance, the So-ciety’s gift may help UNICEF tostrengthen child protection sys-tems while working with part-ners and governments at the na-tional and local level to ensurechild victims are placed in safeenvironments and providedwith social services, health care,and psychosocial support. Lastbut not least, the Society’s con-tribution may enable UNICEF toplan, invest in innovative solu-tions, gather data to strengthenprograms, and act quickly whenemergencies strike.
Through support forUNICEF’s work from partnerslike the Philoptochos Society, theannual number of under-fivedeaths has dropped by 53%,from 13 million in 1990 to 6 mil-lion in 2015. This number con-tinues to decrease faster than atany other time during the pasttwo decades. Unfortunately,much more needs to be done.Every day, more than 16,000children under five die from pre-ventable causes. That is whyUNICEF and its partners havepledged to work tirelessly untilno children die from preventablecauses. More information isavailable at unicefusa.org.
Ladies Philoptochos Society $50,000 Donation to U.S. Fund for UNICEF
From left to right: Caryl Stern, President and CEO of U.S. Fund for UNICEF, Ourania Soumas,UNICEF Committee Co-Chair, Greek Orthodox Ladies Philoptochos Society, Inc., Rachel Stein-berg, Director, Global Cause Partnerships, U.S. Fund for UNICEF.
COurTESy Of rANiA riCHArdSON, 2016
NEW YORK – Hellenic ProfessionalWomen, Inc. (HPW) along with theHellenic Lawyers Association (HLA)hosted a lively and informative pre-sentation on November 29 at theWells Fargo Building in MidtownManhattan. The topic was Greeks inPublic Service, moderated by JohnCatsimatidis, Jr. with speakers NYState Senator Michael Gianaris, NYState Assemblywomen Nicole Mallio-takis and Aravellla Simotas, NassauCounty District Attorney MadelineSingas, and NYC Councilman CostasConstantinidis. Those in attendancefrom HPW included President MariaFrantzis and Board Members Cather-ine Pinos and Ronnie Kratsios, andfrom HLA President Peter Metis andBoard Members Kalliopi Ziangos andGeorge Zapantis.
Continued from page 1
HPW and HLA Host Presentation on Greeks
Dedicated to family and faith, Michael Psaros of KPS CapitalPartners with wife Robin.
TNH ArCHivES
I was raised by my twograndmothers and mygrandfather as much asby my parents...
(L to r) Catherine Pinos- HPW Board Member, Ronnie Krat-sios- HPW Board Member, Maria Frantzis- HPW President,John Catsimatidis Jr., Michael Gianaris- NYS Senator, Ar-avellla Simotas- NYS Assemblywoman, Madeline Singas-Nassau County District Attorney, Nicole Malliotakis- NYSAssemblywoman, Costas Constantinidis- NYC Councilman,Peter Metis- HLA President, Kalliopi Ziangos-HPW BoardMember, and George Zapantis- HLA Board member.
COurTESy Of THE HEllENiC lAwyErS ASSOCiATiON
ant Congressman from the state. Pick Nick: The Political
Odyssey of Nick Galifianakisfrom Immigrant Son to Con-gressman, a new book by JohnE. Semonche, delves into the lifeof the Democrat who was de-feated by Jesse Helms in his firstU.S. Senate run in 1972. Se-monche, a retired Chapel Hillhistory professor, recounts theremarkable life of Galifianakis,who was the first to pave theway in politics in North Carolinafor candidates of various ethnicbackgrounds, including Greek-Americans like himself. He alsohappened to be an entertainingpolitician which was rare at thetime. For those in the Raleigh-Durham area during the 1960’s,the radio jingle was ubiquitous,“N is for Nick, Nick Galifianakis,I is for his Integrity, C is for Con-gress, K, let's keep him there!”
Galifianakis’ self-deprecatinghumor helped turn his hard topronounce for non-Greeks nameinto an ice breaker. He wouldsay, “I'm the Greek guy with thelong name and the short bankaccount.” Galifianakis also usedtwo campaign buttons to spellout his name- “GALIFI” ap-peared on one button and“ANAKIS” on the other.
One lady supposedly com-mented, “I’m all for Nick, butwho's this 'Anakis' person?” asStar News reported.
Semonche’s book recountsthe Galifianakis’ immigrant suc-cess story. Nick’s father, Em-manuel, immigrated from Crete,changed his name to “Mike,”and worked in an ammunitionfactory during World War I.Then, like many Greeks, heopened a diner in Durham, NC.The diner was one of the firstdesegregated eateries in the city.
According to family legend,on a trip to Washington, DC,Mike's wife Sophia placed theinfant Nick on the floor under
the Capitol Rotunda and prayedthat God would make him agreat man. As the oldest of fivebrothers, Nick was a good stu-dent, and seemed destined forgreatness with the type of per-sonality and sense of humor thatdrew many friends.
Galifianakis worked his waythrough Duke University andthen its law school. He servedas a Marine officer and eventu-ally retired from the Reservesranked a colonel and then set-tled in Durham. He marriedlater than most at the time,since he was helping to pay forall his younger brothers' educa-tions, labored in local civicclubs, and then, began his po-litical career.
Semonche details Galifi-anakis' terms in the North Car-olina House. As chairman of theJudiciary Committee, he guidedan extensive judicial reformpackage through the legislature,helping to create the state courtsystem in use today. Galifianakisbattled the Speaker Ban Lawand helped launch the ResearchTriangle.
He strongly supported theState Ports, and backed the billthat created Cape Fear TechnicalInstitute (now Cape Fear Com-munity College). Semonchenoted that Wilmington business-man Thomas H. Wright Jr. be-came a mentor to Galifianakisduring his early days as a Con-gressman. Later in his politicalcareer, Galifianakis encouragedcolleague Alton Lennon to pro-mote a program in oceanogra-phy, years before the Universityof North Carolina Wilmingtonopened its Marine Science Cen-ter.
He was also a favorite of re-porters who could rely on himfor excellent copy. Among thegems was producing two fakeswords for a fake duel with acolleague on the House floor tobring attention to the repeal ofan out-of-date anti-dueling law.
While in Washington, Galifi-anakis was a moderate, andgained similar scores from theliberal Americans for Democra-tic Action and the AmericanConservative Union. For votersin North Carolina, however, hismoderate stance seemed too farto the left. His early support forwithdrawing troops from Viet-nam and the targeted efforts ofRepublican candidates chippedaway at his popularity. Galifi-anakis won reelection by barelymore than 5,000 votes. His runfor U.S. Senate was thwarted byJesse Helms riding PresidentNixon's coattails with a gener-ous helping of Republican me-dia money and negative cam-paigning.
Galifianakis made a come-back run, but the North Carolinapolitical establishment wasnever very supportive. The “Ko-reagate” scandal after it was dis-covered that his campaign hadaccepted a $10,000 donationfrom South Korean lobbyistTongsun Park, effectively endedhis political career even thoughthe charges were dismissed. Gal-ifianakis then returned to hislaw practice.
ical, George Tsandikos – Chair-man of the Archbishop IakovosLeadership 100 EndowmentFund and Paulette Poulos the Ex-ecutive Director of the Fund fortheir support and contribution tothe rebuilding of St. Nicholas. Healso thanked Pete Karamitsanisfrom Lighthouse Advisors andDavid Puza and Mathew Nico-letti from Merrit Construction,the Skanska Team, Santiago Ca-latrava represented by FrankLorino – Senior Architect, Kout-soumitis Architects – Nick Kout-soumitis and Alberto Pietro,Corona Concrete – Paul Mellisand John Vasilantonakis, ArcElectric – Paul Brigianos, Thorn-ton Thomasetti – Engineers, MGEngineering, and all those whocontributed, major donors aswell as those who gave whatthey could to support this impor-tant project. John Dolan ofSkansa noted that the cross es-tablishes the highest point of thechurch which is a place of re-membrance and reflection andmarks ten years of work by Skan-ska at the World Trade Centerwith the Port Authority and theCity of New York. He said, “Godbless the church and God blessAmerica.” Among those presentat the ceremony were ConsulGeneral of Greece in New YorkKonstantinos Koutras, Consul ofGreece Manos Koubarakis, andHis Eminence ArchbishopDemetrios who offered his in-spiring words and a blessing onthe cross that was lifted intoplace atop the dome of thechurch. The temporary cross willremain in place until the domeis completed and then a perma-nent cross will be installed.
The church leaders were ac-knowledged for their efforts aswere New York Governor An-drew Cuomo, former GovernorGeorge Pataki, and New JerseyGovernor Chris Christie. Theleadership and guidance of HisEminence was noted especially.Demetrios then spoke, observingwhat a “special day and specialmoment” for all those present atthe placing of the cross on thenew St. Nicholas Church. Henoted the contribution of thelate Michael Jaharis who was“heavily involved with the ef-fort” from the beginning. Thetremendous work of Fr. Alexan-der Karloutsos, who could notbe present at the ceremony, wasalso acknowledged by the arch-
bishop, who also thanked Gov-ernor Cuomo, Pataki, and formerNew York City Mayor MichaelBloomberg, and the many peo-ple who supported the project.
Demetrios pointed out that
St. Nicholas Church is a “tri-umph of the human spirit and atriumph of the human will” andhas an “additional function”providing a “window to a worldbeyond material reality, beyond
what we can see and verify.” Thearchbishop noted the fact thatthe church is dedicated to St.Nicholas, a universal saint,known and beloved throughoutthe world, offers protection anda sense of being together for all.St. Nicholas Church will soonoffer a place to pray, rememberlost relatives, with a view of the9/11 memorial, the memory ofthe pain is also what led to thetriumph of the human spirit inthe resurrection of St. NicholasChurch. He thanked all thedonors and all who contributedto the project, noting that theirdeeds are recorded by God inthe Book of Life where all is re-membered and recorded. Thenhe led the prayer, the chantingof the hymn of the Holy Cross
and the blessing of the cross thatwas lifted into place. “The pre-cious cross, the symbol of sacri-fice, love, peace, and liberation,and the church dedicated to oneof our blessed saints at thisplace of peace, prayer, perspec-tive, and memory.
A silence descended amongall those in attendance as thecross was raised and placed inposition on top of the dome. Thecity which was noisy with thesounds of traffic and construc-
tion all around seemed to pausefor a moment out of respect forthe impressive sight of the crossrising once again atop St.Nicholas Church at the WorldTrade Center. The attendees alsohad the opportunity to tourthree floors of the constructionsite and write a special remem-brance on a wall inside that willeventually be covered up whenthe interior is completed. A re-ception also followed for allthose in attendance.
Milestone Reached: St. Nicholas Church at WTC Topping out with Cross
COMMUNITY4 THE NATIONAL HERALD, DECEMBER 3-9, 2016
Continued from page 1
Top left: The steel cross being raised at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and NationalShrine WTC on Nov. 28. Top Right: The six-foot tall cross being raised. Archbishop Demetriosnoted, “As we are here and we look around, we see the triumph of human mind and humanspirit and human, really, disposition of overcoming any tragedy.” Middle left: ArchbishopDemetrios and members of the original St. Nicholas Church, Jerry Dimitriou, Consul General ofGreece in NY Konstantinos Koutras, Consul of Greece Manos Koubarakis, Archdeacon Pantelei-mon Papadopoulos, and Deacon Eleftherios Constantine. Middle right: Archbishop Demetriosblessed the cross. Bottom right: Leadership 100 Chairman George Tsandikos, Executive DirectorPaulette Poulos, and Peter J. Pappas also attended the event.
Nick Galifianakis, Not Just Zach’s UncleContinued from page 1
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December 5 - 16, 2016
monday to friday4:00 p.m. -7:00 p.m.
The exhibition will take place at the «National Herald» Building
in Long Island City
37-10 30th St., Long Island City, NY 11101
TH
E NATIONAL HERA
LD
Pick Nick by John E. Se-monche
www.tidalpress.com
PHOTOS: TNH/COSTAS BEJ
or not obviously is rewardingwhen they make the judgmentand send you back for anothertwo years, and this is my sixthterm.
TNH: In what areas are yougoing to place your emphasis inyour new term?
Sarbanes: I am going to con-tinue obviously to focus on jobsand the economy. There are twothings that I think are importantas well and that is in terms ofgetting people into a career wehave to make sure that Collegeis more affordable and so I amgoing to work on student loans.I already have a piece of legisla-tion which provides loan forgive-ness for young people who gointo Public Service. The otherthing is we have to make sure ofthe other paths that people cantake to productive careers so Iam going to focus on work forcetraining and any opportunity togive people skills they need tobe successful. Another focus willbe environmental issues, climatechange, making sure we’re ad-dressing the threat of climatechange. Also veterans’ issues be-cause as you know I am a verystrong supporter of our veteransand I want to continue to dowhat I can and help the veteranscut through the red tape and bu-reaucracy so they can get thebenefits that they deserve. I willalso continue to focus on thehealth care system and in termsof domestic issues the whole is-sue of money and politics. I thinkthat one thing that we saw inlast elections and one reason thatI wasn’t completely shocked bythe outcome was that manyAmericans have become cynicaland feel that Washington is notlistening to them and special in-terests and money interests havemore influence than they shouldand so we have to begin to createnew ways of funding campaignsthat give everyday citizens moreof a voice and more ownershipof their democracy and I am thechampion on that issue and I amgoing to work in Washington onthat issue.
TNH: Are you going to con-tinue supporting the Greek is-sues, the issue of Cyprus, the Ec-umenical Patriarchate?
Sarbanes: No question, interms of foreign policy obviouslyI have been very focused on is-sues that our Community caresabout deeply for a long time. Wehave seen an increasingly sobersituation in Turkey with the
crack down that Erdogan is im-posing and his authoritarian im-pulse and reflects what seems tobe growing every day that has
obvious consequences and impli-cations on the Ecumenical Patri-archate and the treatment of re-ligious minorities within Turkeyand then on Cyprus and Greececontinuing to advocate an eco-nomic recovery in Greece thatallows the Greeks to get out ofthis very heavy burden they feelin terms of the lenders. InCyprus, we want to work to-wards a just solution.
TNH: What is your opinionof Mr. Trump to the Presidencyof the US?
Sarbanes: He tapped into thefeelings of frustration and angerthat so many Americans haveand I think the challenge for usis where you take that anger.Hopefully the new President willbe a winning partner in this andtake it in a constructive directionand try to restore people’s own-ership in their democracy, ratherthan taking in negative direction.
COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, DECEMBER 3-9, 2016 5
By Steve FrangosTNH Staff Writer
James Doumakes (1879-1956) was a Greek immigrantcandy maker who eventually es-tablished a business and a familyin Los Angeles, CA. Like all thoseof his generation and chosen pro-fession, he made candy entirelyby hand. But Doumakes wasdeeply dissatisfied with this mostbasic requirement of his dailytrade. Doumakes’ solution to hisneed to find a new way to makecandy solved a fundamentalproblem that dated back quiteliterally to Ancient Egypt.
As with so many aspects ofthe Greek-American experiencethe average American knowsmore about James Doumakesthan the average Greek-Ameri-can. Doumakes and his descen-dants are known the world overand especially by residents ofsouthern California as well as in-dividuals in the confectionarybusiness. How the accomplish-ments of this notable family be-came lost to Greek-Americagiven their level of success ismore than a little surprising.
By 1900, James Doumakes(1879-1956) arrived in theUnited States and was presum-ably soon plying his trade as aconfectioner. We do know thatby 1914, Doumakes had a part-ner, cited in the available docu-ments only as Coulures. As wehear that “In 1914, Doumakes& Coulures leased a store at 314W. Seventh Street in Los Angelesfor the purpose of candy manu-facturing. In a Los Angeles CityDirectory from that year, JamesDoumakes’ occupation was listedas candy maker. The businesssection of a 1922 city directorylisted James “Doumak” underthe heading Confectioners—Manufacturers and Wholesalersat 1739 W. 22nd Street, with hisresidence across the street at1722 W. 22nd Street. The com-pany moved sometime after1922 and by 1928 was locatedat 711 E. Jefferson Boulevard…The marshmallow company re-mained at the location on Jeffer-son Boulevard for an indetermi-nate number of years, before thecompany moved from Los Ange-les in1961(doumakeshouse.com/fam-ily-history).”
Curiously Doumakes’ life sees
episodic outline not in a historydevoted to his accomplishmentsas a confectioner but for the var-ious pieces of property that heonce owned or built. “Most of theother buildings in Los Angeles as-sociated with James Doumakesand the Doumakes MarshmallowCompany (and its predecessors)have been demolished. The com-mercial building in which thebusiness was located in the 1920son 22nd Street was demolishedby 1964, when the entire northside of the street was cleared forthe construction of Interstate 10.The building where the companywas located in its earliest yearsbefore Doumakes established hisown business specializing inmarshmallows at 711 E. Jeffer-son Boulevard was demolishedsometime between 1972 and1980.
Of the historical buildings as-sociated with the Doumakes fam-ily and its marshmallow business,only the family house on 22ndStreet and the View Park houseat 4918 Angeles Vista Blvd re-m a i n(www.doumakeshouse.com/fam-ily-history). This information isreadily available on a website de-voted exclusively to theDoumakes House which is, today,a restored building. On April 8th,2016, the Doumakes familyhome was officially declared asbecame the First Historic Home(Landmark #1) in Unincorpo-
rated Los Angeles County. TheDoumakes family occupied thisresidence from 1928 until 1958.According to the 1930 U.S. Cen-sus, where James Doumakes hadmarried a woman who is onlyidentified as Maria (in the publicdocuments I was able to locate)and the couple had four sonsJohn, Alexander, Milton, andArthur as well as one daughterFrances.
For a family that was to ac-complish so much there is littleto no agreement in public docu-ments in terms of the calendardates when key business-relatedevents took place. It is said thatthe Doumakes MarshmallowCompany, was founded in LosAngeles in 1921. At least twopatents associated with the pro-duction of marshmallows, wereissued in 1928 and another is-sued sometime in the 1950s, withdates varying from 1954 to 1958.In some accounts JamesDoumakes shares the patentcredits with his son Alexanderand in other accounts AlexanderDoumakes (b. 1912) is cited asthe sole inventor.
But let us step back a minuteto provide some background onwhat the Doumakes clan has re-ally accomplished. A confectionmade from the marshmallow (Al-thaea officinalis) plant’s root issaid to date back to ancientEgypt, where the recipe called forextracting sap from the plant and
mixing it with nuts and honey.Another pre-modern recipe usesthe pith of the marshmallowplant, rather than the sap. Thestem was peeled back to revealthe soft and spongy pith, whichwas boiled in sugar syrup anddried to produce a soft, chewyconfection.
Doumakes would cook hisversion of a marshmallow con-fection and pour the mixture intoa cast mold where it took up to24 hours to properly set. Obvi-ously with this kind of time in-tensive aspect to the manufactureof marshmallows they were avery expensive and not oftenmade confection. In 1932,Doumakes’ business was speci-fied as “marshmallow manufac-turing”, and by 1934, the listingwas “Doumakes’ MarshmallowCo.,” with James and his sonAlexander Doumakes listed asowners with Alexander furthercited as “foreman.”
As reported in The OxfordCompanion to Sugar and Sweets,“In 1954, Alex Doumakes, of theAmerican marshmallow com-pany Doumak, invented an ex-trusion process by which marsh-mallows were forced through achute and cut to their desiredsize. The innovation reduced thetime required to make a marsh-mallow from 24 hours to 1 hour(Darra Goldstein, ed., Oxford:Oxford University Press, 2015:431).” The upshot of this new
method of mass-producingmarshmallows is that the extru-sion process was the break-through mechanical pron, whichallowed the mass production ofmarshmallows in a cost-efficientmanner. Marshmallows wentfrom being an expensive confec-tion to an everyday sweet treatand favorite ingredient for manyrecipes. There is no debate aboutit the Doumakes Company iscredited with making the marsh-mallow a household treat.
In 1961, Alexander Doumakesmoved the family company to itscurrent location 1004 FairwayDrive in Bensenville, Illinois justoutside Chicago. In 2003,Doumak acquired the Campfirebrand and the Rocky Mountainbrand and opened its secondmanufacturing facility at 2201Touhy Ave, in Elk Grove, yet an-other suburb of Chicago. AsDoumak, Inc. describes itself: “itis a family-owned company thatoperates multiple manufacturingfacilities throughout the U.S. Thecompany offers its products un-der the Campfire, Fireside andRocky Mountain labels, as wellas under various other private la-bels. Doumak also produces porkskin and fish gelatin marshmal-lows for customers who are on ahalal diet. It exports Rock Moun-tain and Campfire products tomore than 30 countries through-out the world. The company’sclients include industrial food
manufacturers, schools, recre-ational centers, bars, restaurantsand other confectionery outlets(www.nca.myindustrytracker.com/en/company/11384/doumak-inc.).”
All that Doumak Inc. producestoday are marshmallow products.There are three major marshmal-low manufacturers in the UnitedSates: Favorite Brands Interna-tional (manufacturers for Kraftbrand marshmallows), Doumak,Inc., and Kidd & Company. To-gether, they produce the approx-imately 90 million pounds ofmarshmallows consumed annu-ally. According to the NationalConfectioners Association, Amer-icans consume more marshmal-lows than any other nation, buy-ing more than 90 million poundsannually (country-magazine.com). Doumak Inc.profits circle around 50 million ayear.
Each summer, more than 50%of the marshmallows are toastedover a fire. As such August 30this National Toasted MarshmallowDay, a fitting celebration for thelast official weekend of the sum-mer. The next time you sitaround the campfire with yourAmerican friends be sure to tellthem the tale of the Doumakesfamily and how they eventuallymastered the marshmallow – forall to enjoy.
The Doumakes Family: Grand Masters of the Marshmallow in Los Angeles
The Doumakes’ family home, View Park house at 4918 Angeles Vista Boulevardin the 1920’s and today is one of only two structures associated with the family
still standing in the Los Angeles area. The Doumakes family is credited withmaking marshmallows an everyday treat in American households.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY
Sarbanes Speaks to TΝΗ about New Term
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Co-sponsored by the Federation of Hellenic Societies of greater New york
American Thymele Theatre
presents
a Staged Reading of two, late 19th century Athenian one-act comedies,
part of ATT’s 2016 Nineteenth Century Greek One-Act Comedy Series
NOT QUALIFIED (1885) by georgios Soures
and
A SERVANT IS SOUgHT (1891) by Charalambos Anninos
BOTH COMEDIES ARE PRESENTED
FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER IN AMERICA
IN THEIR ORIgINAL 19TH CENTURy gREEK
STEPHEN DIACRUSSI* ANTHOULA KATSIMATIDES*
ALEXANDROS MALAOS
ELENA PALOUMBIS KRISTINA SIAPKARA
Friday, December 9 at 7:00 p.m.
at the Stathakeion Cultural Center
22-51 29th Street, Queens, N.Y. 11105
Free of charge to the general public. Coffee and delicacies served.
PRESENTED IN ONE SINGLE PERFORMANCE ONLY
*Appearing through the courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association
followed by a Q&A segment
with
Continued from page 1
Congressman John Sarbanes of Maryland
TNH ArCHivES
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GREEK ORTHODOX SHINE CHURCHOF ST. NICHOLAS
196-10 Νorthern Blvd., Flushing, NY 11358 - Tel.: (718) 357-4200
Our Parish will joyfully
celebrate the Feast Day
of our Patron Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker
on Tuesday 6th of Decemberwith the following
schedule of services:
Eve of the Feast of Saint NicholasGreat Vespers 7:00 p.m.
Pocession, viewing and veneration of the Holy Relics of Saint Nicholas.
The responses of the Vespers will be chanted by our own Chantors
Eleftherios Eleftheriadis and Theofilos Papaelias.
Following the service a reception will be sponsored
by the PTA’s of the Saint Nicholas William Spyropoulos
and Stephen and Areti Cherpelis schools.
Feastday of Saint NicholasOrthros: 8:00 a.m. and Hierarchical
Divine Litury 9:30 a.m.
officiated by His Eminence
Archbishop Demetrios of America.
Responses of the Lityrgy will be chanted
by our Saint Nicholas Children’s Choir.
The Ladies Philoptochos Society
of our Parish will sponsor
a luncheon following
the services for all the faithful
Tuesday , December 6
Monday , December 5
in Bensonhurst. As costs continue to rise in
Queens as well, Astoria maysoon say goodbye to the neigh-borhood fixtures like the iconicNeptune and Bel Aire. Whatwould it mean for New York tolose its diner culture? As theTimes noted, “losing New Yorkdiner culture would probably bea watershed in the city’s history.How will New Yorkers get alongwithout these antidotes to urbanloneliness?” Blogger JeremiahMoss of Jeremiah’s VanishingNew York told the Times that“the coffee shop orients us here,in this city and not another. Ifwe are regulars, we becomeknown, connected, to a networkof people who remain over thespan of years, even decades. Inthe anonymous city, these tiescan be lifesavers, especially forthe elderly, the poor, the mar-ginal, but also for all of us. With-out them, the city becomes evermore fragmented, disorientingand unrecognizable.”
For those of us with relativesand friends in the diner busi-ness, we know that the dinerprovides a great service to thecommunity that chains like Star-bucks can never provide. Thediner is a microcosm with sev-eral languages spoken by thepeople that work and frequentit. The immigrants passingthrough on their way to theAmerican dream have left theirmark on the institution. A veri-table United Nations makes upthe staff of a diner with peoplefrom Costa Rica, Ecuador,Greece, Mexico, Poland, and Ro-mania working together andmaking tourists from around theworld who stop in and the reg-ulars feel at home in the Big Ap-
ple. Many Greek-Americans stillown the diners their familiesopened years ago.
Fanis Tsiamtsiouris, knownas Frank, and Fotios Hilas ownthe Metro located at Broadwayand 100th Street, along withthree other diners. Tsiamtsiourisconsolidated five stores, includ-ing a kosher butcher, a copystore, and a Cuban-Chineserestaurant to open the MetroDiner in 1989. Since then, theowners calculated that the dinerhas poured about 700 cups ofcoffee, made 150 hamburgers,and used over 1,200 eggs everyday, as the Times reported.
Historians offer differing ac-counts of how and when Greekimmigrants first got into thediner business, but they agreethat the post-World War II yearssaw a marked increase in thenumber of Greek-owned diners.The classic immigrant story ofworking long hours with thehelp of families and associationsformed the basis of success formany in the business. Tsiamt-siouris told the Times, “Whenmy family came over in 1967,we had an $8,000 debt to pay,so we all went to work.” Henoted, “So first I was a cleanupguy, then busboy, then a waiter,
then a manager.” He had oneuncle in the business when hestarted out, he observed, and hemet many other owners throughPan Gregorian, a food industrycooperative. The Metro is also arepository of New York history.One of the few wood-framebuildings left in Manhattan, itwas built by grocer HenryGrimm in 1871. Brewer PeterDoelger bought the building in1894 and opened a restaurantand saloon. The building alsohoused a milliner’s shop, a tea-room and, in the 1950s, the re-hearsal studio and offices of theavant-garde Living Theater.
Greek-Americans Continue NY Diner Tradition
COMMUNITY6 THE NATIONAL HERALD, DECEMBER 3-9, 2016
rent research focuses on theways in which power and au-thority were conceptualized andrepresented in pre-modernphilosophical discourse, withparticular emphasis on moraland political works written fromthe 16th to the 18th century.
Panou earned a PhD in com-parative literature from HarvardUniversity and has been a post-doctoral fellow at the SeegerCenter for Hellenic Studies atPrinceton University. Beforejoining Stony Brook in 2014, hewas a visiting assistant professorof comparative literature atBrown University.
President Stanley explainedthat it is a Hellenic tradition ofrigorous investigation of thehard sciences, social sciences,and humanities that StonyBrook seeks to emulate, promul-gate, and celebrate. “It is notonly fitting, it is important thatat Stony Brook — one of the top62 research Universities in thecountry known for our emphasison the study of science, technol-ogy, engineering, mathematicsand medicine — we also edu-cate and nurture students withthe values of Hellenic civiliza-tion,” he said.
Recognized for his long his-tory of visionary generosity inproviding valuable resourcesand leadership among the Greekcommunity, Long Islander PeterV. Tsantes’ passion and enthusi-asm was encouraged by StonyBrook’s own educational repu-tation and commitment towardadvancing the study of Hellenicculture. He also noted that heand his family have dedicatedthe professorship to the memoryof his adoptive mother, Aika-terini Spanou HaralambouBatuyios, who sponsored his tripto the United States in 1951.“How can you forever showyour love and remembrance?”Tsantes’ said of Batuyios.
Throughout Tsantes’ life,Batuyios encouraged him togive back, which led to his in-volvement in the American
Foundation for Greek Languageand Culture (AFGLC). Beforelong, he turned his philan-thropic focus closer to home,where he formed the New YorkChapter of AFGLC. He currentlyserves as treasurer for its exec-utive board.
To Tsantes, the professorshipwas a fitting tribute to not onlyhis adopted mother and home-land, he hopes it will spur others“toward an increased energy inphilanthropy and education.”The professorship, he believes,will be the base for a plethoraof Hellenic activities on campus,supported not only by his family,but also by the generosity ofother members of the Long Is-land Hellenic community.
In his professorship, Panouwill promote scholarship, teach-ing, and research in all aspectsof Hellenic civilization, from an-tiquity to the present. One ofPanou’s principal goals at Stony
Brook is to build a stronger Cen-ter for Hellenic Studies that willserve as a forum for the studyof Greek society, history, andculture, and which will cultivatea comprehensive understandingof classical, post-classical, andmodern Greece.
“The vision is here, and so isthe will, the determination andthe expertise,” Panou said. “Wenow have to direct all of our ef-fort – and with a great sense ofurgency, I might add – to thecreation of a robust, radiant,magnetic Center for HellenicStudies that will serve as a hubfor the study of Greek society,history, politics, and culture thatwill become an indispensablepoint of reference within StonyBrook and beyond.”
This new professorship is yetanother example of how en-dowed faculty build on the Uni-versity’s dedication to excellenceacross campus. That’s why one
goal of the $600 million Cam-paign for Stony Brook is to cre-ate a total of 100 endowed fac-ulty positions by 2018, aimingto attract more eminent scholarsand researchers and retain out-standing faculty across a widerange of disciplines.
In the past six years, thenumber of endowed chairs andprofessorships at Stony Brookhas increased more than seven-fold, to a total of 42 endowedchairs and professorships.
“At a time when the human-ities are being increasingly mar-ginalized, to say the least, theestablishment of an endowedchair in Hellenic studies is anevent and an opportunity of sin-gular importance,” Panou said.“The truth is, what’s happenedhere at Stony Brook is the resultof extraordinary actions that re-quire inspiration, zeal, commit-ment, generosity, and a lot ofhard work.”
Panou Installed as Tsantes Endowed Professor
(L to r): Sacha Kopp – Stony Brook University Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, PeterV. Tsantes, Nikolaos Panou, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature, Stony Brook Univer-sity President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., and Stony Brook University Provost Michael Bernstein.
n THRU DECEMBER 17RANDOLPH, NJ – St. AndrewGreek Orthodox Church willagain receive new, unwrappedtoys in support of the Toys forTots drive beginning on Sunday,Nov. 20. Toys may be droppedoff at 1447 Sussex Turnpike inRandolph. Drop-off hours are10AM-4PM Monday through Fri-day, and on Sundays while thechurch is open for services. Alldonations must be made beforeDec 17. Started in 1947 by theU.S. Marines, the Toys for Totscampaign is an annual endeavorthat seeks to deliver toys to chil-dren throughout 50 states, Wash-ington, DC, and Puerto Rico. Mil-lions of toys have beendistributed through the years.For more information on thisyear’s Toys for Tots (www.toys-fortots.org) campaign, or aboutmaking donations, call the officeat 973-584-0388 or [email protected].
n DECEMBER 3PORTSMOUTH, NH – Greek Mu-sic & Dancing with Enosis on Sat-urday, Dec. 3, from 8-11PM atCafé Nostimo, 72 Mirona Roadin Portsmouth. This is a FreeEvent, but reservations are rec-ommended.
n DECEMBER 4ANDOVER, MA – The 63rd An-nual Benefit Tea for Transfigura-tion Greek Orthodox Church inLowell, MA will be held on Sun-day, Dec. 4 at 2PM at IndianRidge Country Club 73 LovejoyRd in Andover. For more infor-mation call the Ladies Philopto-chos Society: 978-458-4321
n DECEMBER 10BILOXI, MS – Holy Trinity GreekOrthodox Church, 255 BeauvoirRd. in Biloxi, hosts the Missis-sippi Gulf Coast InternationalChristmas Festival & Pastry Salefrom 10AM to 7PM. Order pas-tries online now through Dec. 8or call George Yurchak 228-831-5820 and pick up on Saturday,Dec. 10 during the church bazaarwhich has been expanded intoan international festival. TheAgora will also be open, offeringGreek items for sale, now includ-ing items from Russia, Ukraine,Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, andmany other countries as well.Unique Christmas gift ideas andjewelry by Elizabeth Nicole willalso be on sale at the festival.Enjoy ethnic lunch specialties,live music and dancing, and NickTrivelas on the bouzouki. Kidsactivities and tours of the churchduring the festival. More infor-mation is available at holytrini-tybiloxi.org or (228) 388-6138.
CHICAGO, IL – The National Hel-lenic Museum’s family Christmasparty on Saturday, Dec. 10, 1-5PM, is a great way to start offyour exploration of the food, mu-sic, and traditions of Greece. Theevent is free with Museum ad-mission. Featuring a perfor-mance by the Dionysus DanceTroupe, the event includes mak-ing traditional Koulourakia cook-ies, photos with Santa Clause,painting, and crafts that includedesigning a Karavaki (Christmasboat), wreath, and model Acrop-olis. Students in the Museum’sGreek Language and Cultureclasses will sing and dance anddocents will be offering tours ofthe second floor exhibitionAegean: Creation of an Archipel-ago and the third floor exhibitionReaching for the AmericanDream: The Greek Story inAmerica. After the Christmasparty, view the GreektownChristmas tree lighting celebra-tion, hosted by the GreektownSpecial Services Area #16, onthe corner of Halsted and VanBuren Streets at 5PM. Even moregreat family events this holidayseason at NHM: Sunday Tourand Craft Every Sunday at 2 PMjoin us for a bilingual story timewhere children act out a Greekmyth and participate in a craft.$5 per adult, children are free(Ages 2-12) No RSVP is required.
n DECEMBER 12MANHATTAN – The AmericanHellenic Institute (AHI) inviteseveryone to its Christmas Party
on Monday Dec. 12 6-9PM atKellari Taverna, 19 West 44thStreet in Manhattan. Featuring:Kellari’s signature passed horsd'oeuvres; Buffet style entrées in-cluding vegetable moussaka,lavraki and other signature Kel-lari dishes, and desserts. Com-plimentary wine, beer and softdrinks (cash bar for mixeddrinks). Guests must RSVP toDean Sirigos [email protected] by Decem-ber 9. $60 tax and tip included.(Pay by cash or check payable toKellari Taverna at door.)
n DECEMBER 13-DECEMBER 2017
CHICAGO, IL – The National Hel-lenic Museum, 333 S Halsted St.in Chicago, is expanding its ef-forts to preserve and share thestories of the Greek-Americancommunity through a partner-ship with StoryCorps, a nonprofitorganization committed to pro-viding people of all backgroundsand beliefs with the opportunityto record, share, and preservethe stories of their lives. Since2003, StoryCorps has collectedand archived more than 45,000interviews from nearly 90,000participants. It is one of thelargest oral history projects of itskind and millions listen to theweekly broadcasts on NPR’sMorning Edition and on sto-rycorps.org. “The voices of ouraunts and uncles, parents andgrandparents are precious,” saidLaura Calamos Nasir, PhD, In-terim President. “And their sto-ries, their struggles, their hopesand their dreams are a pricelesslegacy that we must preserve.Everyone has a story to tell andwe want to hear them all.” In ad-dition to the National HellenicMuseum’s Oral History Centerappointments, interview timeslots will be available on amonthly schedule throughout2017 to record your own audiooral history at the Museum.“Through our Oral History Cen-ter we’ve preserved hundreds ofstories that could have been lostto the ages, but there is so muchmore wisdom and experiencethat we are at risk of losing for-ever; what it means to be Greek,what it means to be American,the importance of family, thepain of struggle and the joy oflife’s success,” said Dr. Calamos.The heart of the StoryCorps pro-ject is simple; it’s a conversationbetween two people who aremeaningful to each other,whether it's a friend or a familymember. For approximately 40minutes, participants ask eachother questions. When the inter-view is over, a trained facilitatorwill provide participants an au-dio copy of the interview. The in-terview will also be archived inthe American Folklife Center atthe Library of Congress. On Dec.13, the National Hellenic Mu-seum and StoryCorps will holdan interactive workshop aboutthe tools and resources neededto highlight and celebrate thevoices of the community throughinterviewing, recording and pre-serving conversations. Atten-dance is very limited. Call 312-655-1234, ext. 11 for more info.
n DECEMBER 27 AND 29CHICAGO, IL – Winter FamilyDays at the National HellenicMuseum, 333 S Halsted St. inChicago, on Tuesday, Dec. 27and Thursday, Dec 29, join us 1-5PM for winter family fun, in-cluding crafts, Greek dancelessons, exhibit tours, a hands-on cookie (Koulourakia) demon-stration and refreshments. Freewith museum admission for ages4-15. Pre-registration is required,online www.nationalhellenicmu-seum.org/winter-family-day-reg-istration-form.
n NOTE TO OUR READERSThis calendar of events sectionis a complimentary service to theGreek American community. Allparishes, organizations and in-stitutions are encouraged to e-mail their information regardingthe event 3-4 weeks ahead oftime, and no later than Mondayof the week before the event, [email protected]
GOINGS ON...
NEW YORK – For the tenth con-secutive year, FAITH: An Endow-ment for Orthodoxy and Hel-lenism will award full and partialfinancial aid travel grants to qual-ifying campers participating inthe 2017 Ionian Village summercamp program. These are primar-ily need-based financial aidawards, but each applicant’s aca-demic performance will also befactored into the review process.
Each year, Ionian Village par-ticipants travel across Greece andvisit significant sites of Greek his-tory, culture, and the Greek Or-thodox faith. At the end of eachprogram, the campers returnhome with strengthened faith,lifelong friendships, and an ex-panded appreciation for theGreek Orthodox Church and Hel-lenic culture.
Elaine Jaharis, a Founder of
the FAITH Endowment, IonianVillage alumna, and Chair of theCommittee spoke on behalf of the
Founders of FAITH: “we are sin-cerely pleased to offer this trans-formative and spiritually enrich-
ing experience to young peoplewho may not otherwise have theopportunity to connect to their
Hellenic roots and Orthodoxfaith.”
The application is available atthefaithendowment.org/travel-grant for participants of SessionOne and Session Two, ages 15-18. Completed applications mustbe received in the mail by Febru-ary 3. Priority is given to highschool seniors.
Applicants are encouraged tofollow FAITH on Facebook (face-book.com/faithendowment) forprogram updates and award no-tification timelines. In 2016,FAITH awarded 45 FAITH TravelGrants to Ionian Village to youngpeople from all metropolisesacross the United States who maynot otherwise have had the op-portunity to travel to Greece.
“FAITH supplied me with thegrant that made the dream ofIonian Village attainable for me.
I am so thankful to have receivedsuch a blessing. Because ofFAITH’s generosity, I was able toexperience miracles, touch saintsand make the best connectionswith my Greek Orthodox peers,”said Anna from Illinois, a 2016grant recipient.
In addition to underwriting fi-nancial aid travel grants, FAITHsponsors the “FAITH Scholarshipsfor Academic Excellence” pro-gram each year. This competitivemerit-based scholarship seriesawards college scholarships tohigh school seniors ranked withinthe top of their graduating class.For more information about thisand other programs, visit the-faithendowment.org.
General information aboutFAITH is available at (212) 644-6960 and [email protected].
FAITH Endowment Announces 2017 Travel Grants to Ionian Village
Entrance to the Ionian Village in Bartholomio TNH ArCHivES
Continued from page 1
Continued from page 1
The Metro Diner at Broadway and 100th Street, owned by Frank Tsiamtsiouris and FotiosHilas, continues a tradition of service and hospitality at Greek-owned diners in New York.
TNH/COSTAS BEJ
By Eleni Sakellis
Appetizers should be funduring the holidays. Keeping itsimple is often the best way togo when making appetizers fora crowd this time of year. Hereare two tasty options to try.
Saganaki Bites withSun-Dried TomatoTopping
• 1�2 cup sun-dried tomatoes,dry, not oil-packed, sliced
• 2 tablespoons Greek extravirgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup Kalamata olives, pitsremoved, coarsely chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano• 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest• 1 tablespoon lemon juice• 1 clove garlic, crushedGreek sea salt and freshly
ground pepper, to taste• 1 pound kasseri cheese, cut
into 1½" cubes• 1�4 cup flour• 1 tablespoon thinly sliced
mint leaves• Olive oil, for frying
For the topping, place thesun-dried tomatoes in a bowland cover with 1 cup boilingwater. Soak until soft for 15minutes, then drain. Add thetomatoes to the bowl of a foodprocessor with 2 tablespoons ofolive oil, the olives, oregano,lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic,salt, and pepper. Pulse untilsmooth, then set aside.
Heat the oil for frying in adeep skillet to 375 degrees F.Dip cheese cubes in cold waterand dredge in flour. Working inbatches, fry the cheese cubes,turning them over once, untilall sides are golden brown,about 1 to 2 minutes. Transferto paper towels to drain and topeach saganaki bite with some ofthe sun-dried tomato toppinggarnish with the chopped mint.
Fennel Hortopitakia
• 4 tablespoons Greek extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 bunch Swiss chard,chopped
• 1 small white onion, finely
chopped• 1 small fennel bulb with
stalks and fronds, finelychopped
• 1 cup feta, crumbled• 1 tablespoon mint, finely
chopped• 3 scallions, thinly sliced• Greek sea salt and freshly
ground pepper, to taste• 1 (16-oz.) package frozen
phyllo dough, thawed• 6 tablespoons unsalted
butter, melted
Heat 2 tablespoons of oliveoil in a large skillet over highheat. Add the Swiss chard andcook, stirring frequently, untilwilted, about 4 minutes. Trans-fer the cooked chard to a largestrainer and press with awooden spoon to remove anyexcess water. Then set aside.Heat the skillet to medium-high
and add the remaining olive oil.Add the onions and fennel andcook, stirring occasionally, forabout 15 minutes. Transfer fen-nel/onion mixture to a mixingbowl. Add the cooked chard,feta, mint, and scallions and stirtogether. Season the filling withsalt and pepper to taste and setaside to cool.
Preheat oven to 375 degreesF. Cut the stacked phyllo doughlengthwise into 2 inch widestrips.
Cover with a damp kitchentowel and set aside. Place onestrip of phyllo on your work sur-face and brush with some of themelted butter. Top with anotherstrip, brush with butter, and re-peat once more. Place a table-spoon of filling on one end ofstrip one inch from the end. Foldin the corner of the end to forma triangle. Then, fold in the tri-angle edge to form another tri-angle.
Continue folding like a flag,until a triangle pastry is com-plete. Transfer to a baking sheet.Repeat with the remainingphyllo strips and filling. Brushthe triangle pastries with the re-maining butter. You may needto melt additional butter forbrushing.
Bake in the preheated 375-degree oven for 18–20 minutesor until golden brown. Servewarm.
Tasty Appetizers- SaganakiBites & Fennel Hortopitakia
GREEK GASTRONOMYOUR EVERYDAY GREEK
By Dr. Dimitra Kamarinou
To work is δουλεύω (dooLEvo). From this verb derives η δουλειά= job, work. Surprisingly enough, if you move the accent to theprevious syllable, you get the Greek word for slavery: η δουλεία.
The verb to work is conjugated like this:Εγώ δουλεύ-ω, εσύ δουλεύ-εις, η Μαρία δουλεύ-ειΕμείς δουλεύ-ουμε, εσείς δουλεύ-ετε, η Μαρία και ο Πέτρος
δουλεύ-ουνΠού δουλεύεις; Πού πηγαίνεις; Πότε; Πού μένεις; To answer
the questions you will need the prepositions: σε, με, για, από,μέχρι and the vocabulary below.
VOCABULARYGreek word Pronunciation MeaningΗ εκκλησία EE eklisEEa churchΤο σχολείο ΤO shoLEEo schoolΤο γραφείο TO yreFEEo officeΗ τράπεζα EE TRApeza bankΤο νοσοκομείο TO nosokoMEEo hospitalΤο μουσείο TO mooSEEo museumΟ φούρνος O FOOrnos bakeryΤο μανάβικο TO maNAviko groceryΤο σούπερ μάρκετ TO supermarket super marketΤο καφενείο TO kafeNEEo café Ο κινηματογράφος O kinimatoGRAfos cinemaΗ δουλειά EE dooliA jobΗ θάλασσα EE THAlasa seaΤο χωριό TO horio villageΤο νησί TO niSEE island
The nouns that follow the prepositions σε, με, για, από are al-ways put in the accusative case.
Σε (=in, on, at): σε ένα(ν) χρόνο, σε πέντε μέρες, σε δύο καλο-καίρια.
Με (=with): Η Ελένη με τον Πέτρο, ο Πέτρος με την Ελένη.Για (=for): για τον παππού, για τη(ν) μαμά, για το σχολείο.Από =(from): από τον Ιανουάριο, από την Ελένη, από το πρωί.Μέχρι = (till): μέχρι τις πέντε το απόγευμα, μέχρι τον Αύγου-
στο.
Note that the accusative articles together with the prepositionσε become:
σε+τον= στον, σε+τους =στουςσε+την= στην, σε+τις =στιςσε+το= στο, σε+τα= στα
Εxamples: Δουλεύω στο(ν) φούρνο, στην τράπεζα, στο σχολείο,στους 30 δρόμους.
We don’t use prepositions with expressions of time, except withhours and dates. Examples: την Κυριακή, το πρωί, τον Ιανουάριο,το καλοκαίρι, but
στις δέκα Ιανουαρίου, στις οκτώ το πρωί. There is only one ex-ception to this rule, the expression on the first of the month, τηνπρώτη του μήνα. Example: την πρώτη Ιανουαρίου = on Januaryfirst.
EXERCISES1. DIALOGUE
Answer the following questions.-Πότε πηγαίνεις στη δουλειά; (in the morning)-……………………………….-Γιώργο, πότε δεν δουλεύεις; (ιn August)-………………………………-Μαρία, πότε μαγειρεύεις φασόλια; (on Friday)-…………………………………..-Τι ώρα πηγαίνεις στην εκκλησία την Κυριακή; (at eight thirty)-……………………………………-Πότε έχεις τα γενέθλιά σου; (on December first)-……………………………………2. Translate the following sentences.2.1. Ο μπαμπάς με τη μαμά πηγαίνουν στη δουλειά το πρωί.2.2. Ο Πέτρος με τη Μαρία πηγαίνουν στο σχολείο από τις οκτώτο πρωί μέχρι τη μία το μεσημέρι.2.3. Η μαμά πηγαίνει στον κινηματογράφο το βράδυ.2.4. Μένω στην Αστόρια στους 30 δρόμους.2.5. Μένω στην Αθήνα στην Ελλάδα.2.6. Δουλεύω στην τράπεζα από τις εννέα το πρωί μέχρι τις πέντετο απόγευμα.2.7. Το πρωί δουλεύω στο γραφείο και το απόγευμα στομανάβικο.2.8. Πηγαίνουμε στην Ελλάδα το καλοκαίρι από τον Ιούλιο μέχριτο(ν) Σεπτέμβριο. 2.9. Δεν δουλεύουμε τα Χριστούγεννα και πηγαίνουμε στη ΝέαΥόρκη.2.10. Τα γενέθλιά μου είναι στις 5 Δεκεμβρίου.3. Complete the sentences and put the nouns in the parenthesis inthe correct form. 3.1. Η γιαγιά πηγαίνει (church, Sunday).3.2. Ο μπαμπάς με τη μαμά δουλεύουν (bank, morning, 9.00 to5.00).3.3. Ο θείος Γιάννης και η θεία Παναγιώτα μένουν (Greece,village, island).3.4. Ο παππούς πηγαίνει (café, 5.00, evening).3.5. Η Μαρία και η Ελένη πηγαίνουν (cinema, 9.00 to 10.30,evening).3.6. Ο Κώστας δουλεύει (supermarket, afternoon).3.7. Πηγαίνουμε (museum, Sunday, 10.00).3.8. Η θεία Ελένη είναι (hospital).3.9. Ο Γιάννης πηγαίνει (grocer’s, for tomatoes).3.10. Μένουμε (23th street, New York).
PRONUNCIATION KEYi (i-diom), ee (n-ee-dle), e (e-nergy), o (o-rganism), oo (b-oo-
t), y (y-es), h (h-elium), th (th-eory), d (th-e), gh (w-olf). The cap-italized syllables are accented.
Dimitra Kamarinou, PhD, has studied philology and archaeology atthe University of Ioannina,Würzburg and Bochum in Germany. Shehas been honored with the Academy of Athens Award inArchaeology and Homeric Philology.
Change the accent: Δουλειά or δουλεία; Work or Slavery?
By Phyllis (Kiki) SembosSpecial to The National Herald
When Barbara, Yiannis’daughter, married and had twinboys, it was George who helpedwith the naming of them. Yian-nis had insisted that his namebe given to the right twin.George, using a scientific ap-proach, placed a five dollar billin the one twin’s tiny hand andwhen nothing happened heplaced the bill in the other in-fant’s hand. That one clutchedthe bill tightly and George an-nounced, ‘Here is Yiannis’ heir.’But with grand parentingbabysitting is, sometimes, re-quired. Yiannis found that a bitboring. So, Areti always happyto volunteer, went happily toher daughter’s home andbabysat.
But babysitting had begun tobe requested more often; theyoung couple wanting time outfor a movie or visiting friends.Always happy to oblige, Aretiwent off and stayed until late,
sometimes sleeping over. On oneparticular evening, Yiannis, hav-ing searched the fridge for some-thing edible; found nothing tohis liking and his stomach beganrebelling. He started thinking.Time to find a house that cooksgood food and will accept himas a guest on short notice. Di-mos’ diner was out of the ques-tion – he’d been there, alreadyfour times. There’s a limit evento his free loading. John and hiswife were out of town thatweekend. Next in line wasKipreos, who worked at a luxu-rious hotel. But the food was ex-pensive even with Kipreos’ re-duction privileges. That leftGeorge. Yeah! That’s it! After all,since he named his grandchil-dren he was like a Godfather,wasn’t he? So, he decided totelephone him. “What Yiannis?”was George’s greeting. Yiannisbegan, “How are you? How’s thefamily?” George informed himthat everyone’s well. “What’s onyour mind?” George asked as ifhe didn’t know. “I just wondered
what Helen, is cooking tonight.”“The usual! food!” answeredGeorge, growing suspicious.Yiannis went on. “Well, as yourknow Dixon’s serves only break-fast and lunches.” “I know! So?”Thinking hard, Yiannis re-minded him that it’s almost din-ner time and...
“So?” responded George al-most out of patience. Yiannis de-cided to be direct - confess hisreal reason for his call. “Well,Areti isn’t going to be home.
She’s babysitting, you know, andI...well, there’s nothing to eat inmy house.” George said, “So?All supermarkets sell food.”With a stutter and a slightchoke, he added, “But, I’m nota good cook and I might set thekitchen on fire. Besides - well,the truth is.. I’m lonely. It’s
Sunday – the Sabbath.” Hop-ing to appeal to his Christianlysentiments his last words wereuttered with a sob. Hearing it,George’s conscience started to
gnaw at him. After some hardthinking, and coming up empty,he gave up and told him hecould come over to eat. Rubbinghis hands, gleefully, Yiannis shutthe phone and headed for thebus stop.
He arrived earlier than ex-pected – emptyhanded. Helenand their daughter, Kiki, werebusy setting the table whileGeorge sliced the meat, placingit in a wide platter. Then, hescooped up the roasted potatoes
and ladled them around themeat. Meanwhile, Yiannis, al-ready at the table, napkintucked under his neck, fork andknife at the ready, waited anx-iously, seated next to their four-teen year old daughter, Kiki. Theplates were set on the table. Thesteaming dishes arrived. ButYiannis’ hunger was ravenous,the scent of the food irresistiblydivine, he couldn’t wait for theothers to be seated. Eyeing theplatters, grabbing the fork, heheaped onto his plate lots ofpotatoes, forking huge slabs ofmeat onto his plate, then, scoop-ing up gravy, covering the meat.Sniffing, Yiannis bent close toKiki and asked, “What kind ofmeat is it?” Kiki, eyeing the plat-ter tried to recall what it was.Then, she shrugged and said, “Ithink its jackass!” Yiannis lookedup surprised. “What?”
Shrugging again, Kiki ex-plained, “Well, I heard my fathertelling my mother after youcalled that we’re going to havethe jackass for dinner tonight.”
GREEK AMERICAN STORIES
Hospitality
FEATURETHE NATIONAL HERALD, DECEMBER 3-9, 2016 7
By Eleni Sakellis
The history of the Greek inAmerica goes back to the earli-est exploration of the NewWorld by Europeans in the1500s. Since that time, the con-tributions have been extraordi-nary.
Hellenic Tour USA by CleoAdeline Rumpakis is a charmingand unique travel guide thatbrings together all the Hellenicsites across the country, in all50 states and the District of Co-lumbia, in one volume. Thewell-researched book openswith a brief history of the Greeksin America and provides detailsabout the number of Greeks ineach state, the names of citiesand towns inspired by Greekplaces and people, and then listssites to see in each state.
The section on New Yorkalone offers over 30 pages of in-formation, famous people, andplaces. The fact that there issomething related to and cele-brating Hellenism in every U.S.state is a testament to thetremendous positive impact onAmerican society made by
Greeks over the years. It wouldtake more than a lifetime oftraveling from state to state tovisit all the landmarks and siteslisted in this fascinating volume,but it does offer some wonderfultravel ideas that are educationaland celebrate the Greek-Ameri-can experience. A great refer-ence book, it includes the con-tact information, address, phone
numbers and websites of thesites to see.
Rumpakis writes with clarityabout the history of the Greeksin America and her referencebook compiled with the assis-tance of her sister Katherina“Kathy” Adeline is an essentialvolume for those interested inthe impact of the Greek immi-grant on American society. Thebook also includes a detailedbibliography, lists of contactwebsites for archives and muse-ums, a list of Greek and Ameri-can sister-cities, Ellis IslandMedals of Honor recipients, andphotographs from some of thesites to see across the country.The poignant poem Ithaka byConstantine Cavafy is also in-cluded in the book.
Hellenic Heritage, a previousbook by Rumpakis and her eldersiblings, Antonio “Tony” RobertAdeline and Kathy, chronicledthe Greek immigrant experiencein the Yakima Valley of Wash-ington State.
Their father Charalambos(Robert) Adeline, originallyfrom Kefallonia, arrived in thearea early in the twentieth cen-
tury to work in the lumber in-dustry but eventually switchedto the restaurant business, andthen established his own dairyfarm on acreage west of Yakima.He returned to Kefallonia,where he married and then re-turned with his wife to theUnited States. Their three chil-dren were born and raised inYakima and their book was writ-ten to record the experience ofthe many Greeks who lived andworked there.
The two sisters both becameeducators, with Cleo followingher sister’s educational pathgraduating from Central Wash-ington College and teaching inYakima at Terrace Heights Ele-mentary School. Both sisterstaught in California and inGreece for a time, then returnedto the Yakima area. Cleo mar-ried E. John Rumpakis andmoved to Portland, working inreal estate with her husband.The family was, and continuesto be, very involved with AHEPAand the Daughters of Penelope.
More information aboutRumpakis’ books is available [email protected].
LITERARY REVIEW
Hellenic Tour USA: A Charming & Unique Travel Guide
OBITUARIES CLASSIFIEDS8 THE NATIONAL HERALD, DECEMBER 3-9, 2016
DEATH NOTICES
n ADAMS, JAMESBROCKTON, MA (from TheBridgewater Independent, pub-lished on Nov. 17) – James(Adamopoulos) Adams, 92, ofBrockton, passed away Monday,November 14, 2016 at the Sig-nature Healthcare BrocktonHospital. He was the husbandof the late Dafni (Roussopoulos)Adams. Born February 18, 1924in Louvre, Greece, he was theson of the late Athanasios andParaskevi Adamopoulos. Jamescame to Brockton in 1959 andhad worked for A&B Tanningand Columbia Tanning Com-pany in Brockton. He was amember of the AnnunciationGreek Orthodox Church inBrockton and enjoyed garden-ing. He is survived by his chil-dren, Arthur Adamopoulos andhis wife Melissa of West Bridge-water, Paul Adamopoulos andhis wife Melissa of Texas andChristina Efremidis and her hus-band Chuck of North Easton; hisgrandchildren, Michael, Stacey,Teli, Dimitra, Alex, Alexis andDylan; he is also survived byseveral nieces and nephews. Fu-neral from the Russell & PicaFuneral Home, 165 Belmont St.,(Rt123) Brockton was held onMonday at 11:00 a.m. followedby a funeral service in the An-nunciation Greek OrthodoxChurch, 457 Oak St., Brocktonat 12:00PM. Interment followedin Melrose Cemetery, Brockton.Calling hours were Sunday1:00-4:00 p.m. In lieu of flow-ers, donations would be appre-ciated to the AnnunciationGreek Orthodox Church. Forguestbook and directions, visitwww.Russellpicafuneralhome.com.
n ATHANASIOU, STEVE T.FOND DU LAC, WI (from theFond du Lac Reporter, publishedon Nov. 20) – Steve T. Athana-siou, 87, of Fond du Lac, diedThursday, November 17, 2016at the St. Francis Home. He wasborn in Samos, Greece on Sep-tember 3, 1929 to Thalasinosand Maria (Pitas) Athanasiou.He emigrated to this countrywith his family in 1947. On Oc-tober 10, 1953, Steve marriedJoyce Graf in Oshkosh. He wasa veteran of the U.S. Army, hav-ing served during the KoreanWar. Steve's life was varied; ashepherd as a boy, he wouldeventually become a machinistand retire from Giddings &Lewis after 30 years of employ-ment. Following retirement,Steve lived to garden. His flow-ers and entire garden were abeauty to behold. Of all his ac-complishments, his marriage of63 years to Joyce was his great-est achievement. Survivors in-clude his wife, Joyce; three sons,Al, Thal (Nancy) and Michael(Mary); four grandchildren,Steven (Amber), Matthew, Nico-lette and Alexander; three great-grandchildren, Carson, Macyand Bryce; two brothers, Costa"Gus" and George (Sophia); aspecial niece, Maria Athanasiouas well as other nieces andnephews. He was preceded indeath by his parents and a sister,Daphne (Milton) Tembelis. Vis-itation for Steve will be heldMonday, November 21, 2016from 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM atHoly Trinity Greek OrthodoxChurch, 198 N. Macy St., inFond du Lac. Funeral servicewill begin at 11:00 AM with Fr.Ted Trifon officiating. Entomb-ment in Chapel of the RisenChrist Mausoleum, CalvaryCemetery will follow the ser-vices. Military honors will bepresented by the American Le-gion, Trier-Puddy Post #75.Guestbook and tribute wall maybe found by visitingueckerwitt.com.
n BILLIS, NIOVESOUTHBRIDGE, MA (from theWorcester Telegram & Gazette,published on Nov. 18) – Niove(Stavropoulos) Billis, 85, passedaway peacefully on Thursday,Nov. 17th, surrounded by herfamily at Harrington MemorialHospital after a short battle withcancer. Her husband of 39years, Sotirios "Sam" Billis, diedin 1992. Niove is survived byher three children, Alexandra"Sandy" Austin of Southbridge,Marina McNamara and her hus-band Brian of Annapolis, MD,and Christopher Billis and hiswife Maria of Chester, NJ. Hergreatest joy were the six grand-children, Julianne and Kather-ine McNamara, Zachary andNicholas Austin, and Nevie andLukas Billis. She is also survivedby her sister, Fotine Magoulasof Belle Mead, New Jersey; herbrother, Napoleon Stavropoulosof Fort Lee, NJ; her brother inlaw, Spiro Billis of Southbridge.;and many nieces and nephews.She was predeceased by her sis-ter, Vasiliki Basileiou and herbrother-in-law, Ernest Billis. Shewas born in Giannitsati ofNorthern Epirus the daughter ofConstantinos and Alexandra
(Trihas) Stavropoulos andmoved to Patras, Greece in1936. She came to New YorkCity with her family in 1948.From there, she met her hus-band Sam in New Hampshire ata Greek Picnic. Niove and herhusband Sam owned and oper-ated The Sturbridge PizzaHouse for over 15 years. Shemade her famous baklava along-side Sam's favorite recipes.There, they raised their chil-dren, along with the young em-ployees who also became partof their family. Following herhusband's passing, Niove re-turned to work as a hairdresser.She was able to follow her pas-sion for hairdressing at MarshalsHair Salon in Stubridge untilshe was 83. Her work as a hair-dresser was one of her passions.She was blessed along the wayto make lifelong friendshipswith her wonderful customers.Niove enjoyed taking care of herflowers and plants, cooking herGreek dishes and desserts,spending time in her summerliving room with family andfriends, and watching her GreekSatellite Television programs.Niove was a member of St.George Greek Orthodox Churchin Southbridge for many years.There, she was a member of thePhiloptochos society and pastpresident, ans also served asChoir Director. Niove taughtSunday School, and organizedthe youth dance troupe and theChristmas youth carolers at St.George. Her church and her de-votion to her Greek Orthodoxfaith led her to a life of servingand worship. Her funeral willbe held on Monday, Nov.21st,from the Daniel T. Morrill Fu-neral Home, 130 Hamilton St.,Southbridge, with a service at12:00pm in St. George GreekOrthodox Church, 55 North St.,Southbridge. Burial will be inOak Ridge Cemetery, South-bridge. Calling hours in the fu-neral home will be held on Sun-day, Nov. 20th, from 3:00 to5:00pm. In lieu of flowers do-nations may be made in Niove'smemory to the St. George GreekOrthodox Church, P.O. Box 25,Southbridge, MA 01550 or tothe Tri-Valley Elder ServicesMeals on Wheels Program, 10Mill St., Dudley, MA 01571.
n HARAMARAS, GEORGE E.CHICAGO, IL (from the ChicagoTribune Media Group, publishedon Nov. 14) – George E. Hara-maras. Beloved husband of Dinanee Kolokathi. Loving father ofSteve (Kristin) and Gus (Susan)Haramaras. Proud Papou ofGeorge, Eleni, Calli, Elle andBebe. Devoted son of the lateEfstathios and Elefteria Harama-ras. Dear brother of Rena (thelate Nick) Koutrouvidies, JamesE. (Susan Hermez) Harris andLeo (Renata) Harris. Fond uncleof many nieces and nephews.Our beloved Papou was born ina rural farming community inPidasos, Greece. A child ofWorld War II and a veteran ofthe Democratic Army of Greecein the Greek Civil War. A farmerand business owner, he immi-grated to Skokie, IL along withhis wife and children in 1971.Along with his brothers, he wasa proud partner of Harris Sys-tems, Inc. for 27 years. Papoualways looked forward to sum-mers spent in Greece with hischildren, grandchildren and ex-tended family. He will be deeplymissed by many. Visitation Tues-day from 4:00 pm to 9:00 pmat Smith-Corcoran FuneralHome, 6150 N. Cicero Ave.Chicago. Funeral Service and In-terment in Greece. Kindly omitflowers. Memorial donations toSt. Haralambos Greek OrthodoxChurch 7373 N. Caldwell Ave.Niles, IL 60714 would be appre-ciated. Arrangements by Adi-namis & Corliss Funeral Direc-tors, Ltd. 773-736-3833.
n KELEPOURIS, MARIA M.KANSAS CITY, MO (from theKansas City Star, published onNov. 16) – Maria M. Kelepouris,85, passed away November 14,2016. Maria was born June 8,1931, in Agios Polykarpos,Ikaria, Greece, to Ioannis andAsimina Tsaha. In April of 1952,she married Mihail E. Kelepourisin Athens, Greece. Together,they raised two daughters,Venetsiana and Asimina. In1967, the family immigrated toKansas City, MO. Maria learnedto sew at a very young age andthis became her lifelong career.She was an avid seamstress andtailor. Her passion was alwaysher family, her grandchildrenand her great grandchildren.Our Yiayia always enjoyed cook-ing, entertaining and anythingGreek. Mrs. Kelepouris was pre-ceded in death by husband, Mi-hail E. Kelepouris, daughter,Asimina, her parents, her sister,Roula and brother, Theoharis.She is survived by her daughter,Venetsiana "Vetta" KelepourisBailey; grandchildren, John D.Agnos and wife Janelle, Asimina"Mina" Agnos Chalvantzis andhusband Panos, and Michael D.Agnos and his wife Beth; theirfather, Dino J. Agnos; greatgrandchildren, Alexandra,Alyssa, Yianna, Costa, Dino andAthan; sisters, Isidora and
Chryssi; as well as many familymembers in Greece, Hartford,CT and Tarpon Springs, FL. Yi-ayia, we will always treasure thememories you left with us. ATrisagion service will begin at10 a.m. followed by visitationand service at 11 a.m. Friday,Nov. 18, at Annunciation GreekOrthodox Church, 12001 Wor-nall Rd., Kansas City, MO64145. Burial in Mt. MoriahCemetery. A Makaria luncheonwill follow the burial at RC's inMartin City. The family requestsno flowers, but suggests contri-butions to Annunciation GreekOrthodox Church. Arr.: ParkLawn Funeral Home, (816) 523-1234.
n KOTZIAS, TELESIA NORTH BELLMORE, NY (fromthe Daily Freeman, published onNov. 23) – Telesia Kotzias ofNorth Bellmore, formerly ofKingston, died Saturday, Nov.19, 2016, at Holy Cross Hospitalin Fort Lauderdale, Fla., withfamily by her side. She was 98.Telesia, along with her husbandGeorge A. Kotzias, were theowners and operators of theGold Star Restaurant in uptownKingston. She was a foundingparishioner of St. George GreekOrthodox Church in Kingstonand she enjoyed traveling toGreece and Florida. Most of all,she enjoyed spending time withher family. She was born inNewark, N.J., and was a daugh-ter of the late Evangelos andKonstantina Vozikas Matthews.Telesia is survived by her twochildren, Athanasios “Tom”Kotzias and his wife Adamantia“Diane” of Kingston, ConstanceFountas and her husband Dinoof North Bellmore; two grand-children, George A. Kotzias andChrysanthe T. Cholakis and herhusband Christopher; one great-grandson, Thano Cholakis; andseveral nieces and nephews. Inaddition to her parents, Telesiawas predeceased by her hus-band of 59 years, George, andby her three siblings, Sarantos“Sam” Matthews, Eleni Sourlisand Dr. Zachary Matthews. Tele-sia will be reposing at the Simp-son-Gaus Funeral Home, 411Albany Avenue, on Friday from4 to 8 p.m. A Trisagion Servicewill take place at 7:30 p.m. Fr.Michael Kouremetis of St.George Greek Orthodox Churchwill be officiating. The funeralprocession will form from thefuneral home on Saturday at 10a.m. The Funeral Service will beheld at 11 a.m. at St. GeorgeGreek Orthodox Church,Kingston. Burial will be in Mon-trepose Cemetery, Kingston. Thefamily requests that memorialdonations be made to St.George Greek Orthodox Church,294 Greenkill Avenue, Kingston,N.Y., 12401. Online condolencesmay be left for the family ofTelesia by visiting www.Simp-sonGaus.com
n MALTEZOS, HELENWATERFORD, CT (from TheDay, published on Nov. 13) –Helen Kosmas Maltezos, 92,born in Washington, Pa., on Feb.1, 1924, to Spero and HarrietKosmas - both ethnically Greekimmigrants from Asia Minor,present day Turkey, passed onMonday, Oct. 17, 2016, after abrief illness at Greentree Manorin Waterford. Helen was thetwin of Aglaia (Agnes Cynthia)Kosmas Matthews. The twins at-tended Washington Seminary onthe campus of Washington andJefferson College, through ju-nior college. Helen then wentto Lake Erie College where shemajored in sociology and ob-tained a bachelor's degree in1946. Helen later earned hermaster's of library science atSimmons College in Boston.Mass. She became a librarian atthe University of Connecticutwith a specialty in cataloguing.Meanwhile, Helen's publicationof a short story, "The Hair Cut"in a literary journal, landed hera coveted invitation to partici-pate in the Bread Loaf Writer'sConference outside of Middle-bury, Vt., "the oldest and mostprestigious writers' conferencein the country." In 1957, Helenvacationed in Europe and vis-ited Athens, Greece. On thattrip, Helen met talented AsiaMinor Greek artist, Yannis Mal-tezos. After two years of writtencorrespondence they decided tomarry. They moved to Paris andlived there for most of their 28years of marriage. In 1987 whenher husband passed away, Helenreturned to Connecticut andlived with her twin sister inWethersfield and then Water-ford. Helen and Cynthia werefounding members of theWethersfield Book Club and par-ticipated for 29 years. She is sur-vived by nephews, Aleckos Mal-tezos of Athens, Greece, StelioKitrilakis of Sante Fe, N.M. andSpero Matthews of Richmond,Calif.; and nieces, Thiana Kitri-lakis of Durham, Pa. and DeniseMatthews of Willimantic, andtheir families. She was prede-ceased by her sister, Thalia Kitri-lakis. We loved her very muchand she will be greatly missed.Memorial services for Helen andher twin sister, Agnes Cynthia,will be held at noon Saturday,
Nov. 26, at St. Sophia's HellenicOrthodox Church, 200 Hemp-stead Ave., New London. In lieuof flowers, donations may bemade to the Matthews-MaltezosMemorial Fund in care of SaintSophia Hellenic OrthodoxChurch. The memorial guestbook may be signed under obit-uaries at www.neilanfuneral-home.com.
n PROTOGERE, ANNAPPLETON, WI (from the Fonddu Lac Reporter, published onNov. 25) – Ann Protogere, age81, of Appleton, was called toeternal life with her loving fam-ily by her side on Monday, No-vember 21, 2016. Ann was bornin Fond du Lac on July 1, 1935,to the late Nicholas and Grace(Gramatika) Carmanidis. OnJune 22, 1958, she was unitedin marriage to George Protogereat Holy Trinity Greek OrthodoxChurch in Fond du Lac. The cou-ple enjoyed 40 years togetherbefore George's passing in 1999.Ann was a very faith-filledwoman - born, baptized, andraised Greek Orthodox and veryproud of her heritage. Her fam-ily will tell you that she was thebest Greek cook in the world.She loved traveling - especiallyher trips to Greece, Mexico, LasVegas, Florida and up north,taking walks, doing crosswords,and attending car shows withher husband George - but mostof all, Ann enjoyed spendingtime spoiling her grandchildren.Ann will be missed by her threedaughters: Francesca (Michael)Diedrick, Appleton, and theirchildren Jennifer (Ryan) Morri-son and their daughter Olivia;Stephanie (Adam) Tornow; An-gela (Fiance Cody Hoffman);and Benjamin; Barbara (Dan)Sprangers, Kaukauna; andChristine (Bruce) Wyngaard,Appleton, and their childrenJustin, Lindsey, and Courtney(special friend LisandroHumphrey); son George(Pamela) Protogere, Appleton,and their son Nicholas; broth-ers: Alex (Winifred) Caramani-dis, Rosendale; and Gus Cara-manidis, Oshkosh. Ann isfurther survived by many niecesand nephews. Ann was pre-ceded in death by her parents,husband George Protogere,grandson Brandon Protogere,sisters: Helen Klein and MaryHendricks, and brothers:Michael and Anist Carmanidis.Private services were held.Thefamily would like to extend aspecial thank you to CompassusHospice and the staff at Kim-berly Assisted Living for thecompassionate care shown toAnn. Mom and Yaya, thanks forgiving us life and love andlaughter. Thank you also for allthe beautiful times together. Youwere a wonderful mother andan amazing grandmother, al-ways taking the time to makeeach of us feel so very loved andspecial. You will never be for-gotten. We love you…now andforever.
n SERAFIMIDIS, EFROSINIVLAHOS
FRESCO, CA (from the FresnoBee, published on Nov.15) –Effie Serafimidis passed awayon November 8, 2016, at theage of 97. Born in Arbouna,Greece in 1919, the fifth of sixchildren. She survived a harshchildhood of labor and depriva-tion, then World War II, and theGreek civil war. This experiencefostered in her a strong will and"get it done" spirit. Arriving inFresno, CA in 1960, she soonmet Paul Serafimidis, got mar-ried, and had a child. Effie wasa homemaker, renowned for herGreek pastries and hospitality,who made many friends work-ing as a seamstress out of herhome. She was a loving and af-fectionate mother, aunt, andgrandmother. Effie is survivedby her son, Neocles Serafimidis;daughter-in-law, Sarah Ser-afimidis, grandson, Theo Ser-afimidis of Albany, CA; niece,Aglaia Panos; and nephew,George Panos of Oakland, CA.Remembrances may made bemade to St. George Greek Or-thodox Church, 2219 N. Or-chard Ave., Fresno, CA 93703.
n SIDERIS, PLUTARCH MILTON
SAN ANSELMO, CA (from theMarin Independent Journal,published on Nov. 16) –Plutarch Milton Sideris Knownto his family and friends as "Mil-ton", born in Honolulu, Hawaii.Resident for many years in SanRafael, California. He graduatedfrom California Poly Universitywith a Bachelor of Science inOrnamental Horticulture. Mil-ton worked for the Fellowshipfor five years as an agriculturalassistant. Moved to San Fran-cisco and worked for the GoldenGate Park for many years fromwhich he retired. He was aworld traveler, avid reader, birdwatcher, collector of bird booksand old movies. He is survivedby his wife Stassie "Anastasia"Sideris; his sister-in-laws, HelenParas, Maria Kapiniaris; andcousin Mary Bimhall. He is alsosurvived by many nieces andnephews in the Bay Area,Canada and Greece. In lieu of
flowers, donations may be madeto the Nativity of Christ GreekOrthodox Church, 1110 High-land Drive, Novato, CA.
n VASILAKOS, NICHOLAS G. GLENMONT, NY (from the Al-bany Times Union, published onNov. 16) – Nicholas G. Vasilakos,82, passed away peacefully inGlen-mont, on Monday, Novem-ber 14, 2016, surrounded by hisloving family. Born in Skoura,Sparta, Greece, he immigrated toAlbany, in 1951 at the age of 17.Nicholas was called to service in1955 and proudly served in theU.S. Army. He was honorably dis-charged in 1957. Upon returninghome, Nicholas took employmentas a chef at the MayflowerRestaurant in Albany and subse-quently with the Menands Diner.From where he retired in 2002and relocated to New Port Richey,Fla. Nicholas was a long timecommunicant of St. Sophia GreekOrthodox Church in Albany andSt. Nicholas Greek Orthodox
Church in Tarpon Springs, Fla.and was a long standing memberof the Order of A.H.E.P.A. He wasa talented bowler, having com-peted in the King of the HillBowling Tournament on televi-sion and winning numerous tro-phies. He was passionate aboutcooking and enjoyed volunteer-ing in the kitchen during the St.Sophia Greek Festival, and en-joyed his many trips to Greecewhere he would visit relativesand friends. Above all else,Nicholas was a man committedto hard work and family. Nicholaswas predeceased by his parents,the late George and AnastasiaVasilakos; and his brother, Dim-itri Vasilakos. He is survived byhis loving wife, DimitraKoutoulas Vasilakos; daughters,Anastasia Vasilakos Garrow andMaria Vasilakos Pattamana(Kevin); siblings, John Vasilakos(the late Marybeth), SophiaPanagopoulos (the late Dimitri),Themistoklis Vasilakos (Vasiliki),Kleomeni Vasilakos and Anasta-sios Vasilakos (Dimitra). He isalso survived by many cousins,nieces, nephews and godchil-dren. Funeral services will beheld Friday, November 18, 11a.m. at St. Sophia Greek Ortho-dox Church, 440 Whitehall Road,Albany. Interment with militaryhonors will follow at GracelandCemetery. In lieu of flowers,please consider a memorial do-nation in Nicholas's name to St.Sophia Greek Orthodox Church.
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Announcements of deaths may be telephoned to the Classified department of The National Herald at
(718) 784-5255, monday through friday,
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST or e-mailed to:
days and dates of funerals,memorials, and other events di-rectly correspond to the originalpublication date, which appearsat the beginning of each notice.
1827 WEST 9TH REALTY LLC. Art. of Org.filed with the SSNY on 08/08/16. Office:Kings County. SSNY designated as agent ofthe LLC upon whom process against it maybe served. SSNY shall mail copy of processto the LLC, 2120 65th Street, Brooklyn, NY11204. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.
275534/17973
3101 HH PARKWAY LLC. Art. of Org. filed withthe SSNY on 08/22/16. Office: Kings County.SSNY designated as agent of the LLC uponwhom process against it may be served. SSNYshall mail copy of process to the LLC, 1524Ocean Avenue, Apt 2I, Brooklyn, NY 11230.Purpose: Any lawful purpose.
275527/17973
Notice of Formation of FEARORFAIRPROMO-TIONS, LLC a (DOM. LLC). Articles of Orga-nization filed with the Secretary of State ofNew York, (SSNY) on 04/26/2016. Office lo-cation: Kings County. SSNY is designated asagent upon whom process against the LLCmay be served. SSNY shall mail process to:c/o United States Corporation Agents, Inc.,7014 13th Avenue, Suite 202, Brooklyn, NY11228. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.
275535/20199
Notice of Formation of RUBATEK LABS LLC.(DOM. LLC) Articles of Organization filed withthe Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on09/22/16. Office location: Kings County.SSNY is designated as agent of the LLC uponwhom process against it may be served. SSNYshall mail copy of process to: Hasan M. Mir,385 Grant Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11208.Purpose: Any lawful purpose.
275517/20190
Notice of Formation of GK CROP INSURANCEAGENCY LLC. (DOM. LLC) Articles of Organi-zation filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 10/26/16. Office location: Nassau County. SSNY is designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to:Mr. Gerald Klein, 3875 Sally Lane, OceansideNY 11572. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.
275516/20189
Tian Realty LLC Arts of Org filed with NY Sec of State (SSNY) on 3/28/16. Office: KingsCounty. SSNY designated as agent of LLC uponwhom process may be served. SSNY shall mailprocess to: 1807 E 14th St, Brooklyn, NY11229. General Purposes.
275513/20188
Notice of Formation of F1 GROUP LLC. (DOM.LLC) Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on10/19/16. Office location: Nassau County.SSNY is designated as agent of the LLC uponwhom process against it may be served. SSNYshall mail copy of process to: F1 Group LLC.,710 Mulberry Place, Valley Stream, NY 11581. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.
275520/20193
Notice of Formation of WEALTH DEVELOPMENT, LLC. (DOM. LLC) Articles ofOrganization filed with the Secretary of Stateof New York (SSNY) on 08/10/16. Office loca-tion: Kings County. SSNY is designated asagent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy ofprocess to: Wealth Development Subscription,56 Monument Walk, Apt. 4D, Brooklyn, NY11205. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.
275518/20191
Notice of Formation of SOUTH STREET TWINTOWERS, LLC. (DOM. LLC) Articles of Organi-zation filed with the Secretary of State of NewYork (SSNY) on 08/24/2016. Office location:Nassau County. SSNY is designated as agent ofthe LLC upon whom process against it may beserved. SSNY shall mail copy of process to:United States Corporation Agents, Inc. 701413th Avenue, Suite 202., Brooklyn, NY 11228. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.
275498/20182
ADIV REAL ESTATE HOLDINGS LLC. Art. ofOrg. filed with the SSNY on 08/12/15. Office:Kings County. SSNY designated as agent of theLLC upon whom process against it may beserved. SSNY shall mail copy of process to theLLC, c/o Avi Adiv, 52 Clark Street, #7L, Brook-lyn, NY 11201. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.
275497/17973
Notice of formation of ANDEE MANAGEMENT INC., Certificate of Incorporation filed with the Secretary of State of New York on June 29, 2016. Officelocation: Nassau County. The Secretary of State isdesignated as agent of the corporation upon whomprocess against it may be served. The address withinor without this state to which the Secretary of Stateshall mail a copy of any process against thecorporation served upon him or her is: Anand Parikh, 530 RXR Plaza, 5th Floor - West Tower,Uniondale, NY 11556. Purpose: Any lawful pur-pose.
275492/20174
Notice of Formation of ERH MANAGEMENT LLC. (DOM. LLC) Articles of Organization filedwith the Secretary of State of New York(SSNY) on 10/28/2016. Office location:Nassau County. SSNY is designated as agent ofthe LLC upon whom process against it may beserved. SSNY shall mail copy of process to:Registered Agents Inc., 90 State Street, Suite700, Office 40, Albany, NY 12207. Purpose:Any lawful purpose.
275491/20171
Notice of Formation of GLOBAL ALTERNATIVE MARKET / GAMA LLC.(DOM LLC). Articles of Organization filedwith the Secretary of State of New York,(SSNY) on 10/03/2016. Office located inKings County. SSNY has been designated forservice of process. SSNY shall mail copy ofany process served against the LLC to:GLOBAL ALTERNATIVE MARKET /GAMALLC, 1928 Schenectady Ave., Brooklyn, NY11234. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.
275481/20164
Notice of foreign LLC: CIRKERS, LLC.Authority filed with the Secretary of State,SSNY, on 09/01/2016. Office location: KingsCounty. LLC formed in DE: 5/13/2013. SSNYhas been designated for service of process.SSNY shall mail copy of any process servedagainst the LLC to: c/o Corporation ServiceCompany, 80 State Street, Albany, NY 12207-2543. Purpose: any lawful activity.
275476/20154
Notice of Formation of URBAN WAG, LLC.(DOM. LLC) Articles of Organization filed withthe Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on05/17/2016. Office location: Kings County.SSNY is designated as agent of the LLC uponwhom process against it may be served. SSNYshall mail copy of process to: Minchul An, 205North 9th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211. Purpose:Any lawful activity.
275475/20153
Notice of Formation of WINDOWS OF PERCEPTION LLC. (DOM. LLC) Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State ofNew York (SSNY) on 07/04/2016. Officelocation: New York County. SSNY is designated asagent of the LLC upon whom process against itmay be served. SSNY shall mail copy of processto: Corporate Filings of New York, 90 StateStreet, STE 700, Office 40, Albany, NY 12207.Purpose: Any lawful activity.
275477/20155
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By Theodore Kalmoukos
His Beatitude Chrysostomos,Archbishop of Cyprus, in an ex-clusive interview with The Na-tional Herald discussed the re-cent failure of the discussions inSwitzerland between the Presi-dent of the Republic of CyprusNicos Anastasiades with thehead of Turkish-OccupiedCyprus Mustafa Akinci. Arch-bishop Chrysostomos said that“I wasn’t surprised at all becausemy position has been the sameall the time that they will neverreach an agreement because itis Ankara that has the upperhand, not Akinci. I was tellingthe president that if you agreewith the propositions of Ankara,the Cypriot People will rejectthem.”
Chrysostomos also told Anas-tasiades “since as a Church wegive you strong support on highlevels, we want to establish anoperating state. I told him thatthe Turks wanted to divideCyprus since 1954.
Sure enough, 20 years laterin 1974 the Turks through theinvasion accomplished the divi-sion. They even brought morethan 300,000 Turks and nowthey are trying to achieve nationrecognition. You cannot grantthem nation recognition, youhave to put your foot down andrefuse. We want to establish anew, modern, European statewith values that are present inthe rest of the European na-tions.”
The Archbishop said that “Ibelieve that we will not reachthe end of the negotiations everbecause of the maximalist posi-tions of Turkey” and remindedthis has been his positionthroughout the years.
He said at this point, “nego-tiations should start from zero,specifically from the invasion.”
He doesn’t believe that Turk-ish President Erdogan is workingtoward the annexation of Occu-pied Cyprus to Turkey, as Turkeyhasn’t done that for 42 years. Inany case, he said, if that were tohappen, it would be a pseu-dostate.
Regarding the Cypriot-Amer-ican community, Chrysostomossaid they are too quick to agreewith whoever runs the Cyprusgovernment, and instead theyneed to speak up and tellCyprus’ president “what you aregoing to do is not right.” Headded: “disagreement is not abad thing, it is a sign of democ-racy.”
ON TRUMPThe Archbishop has high
hopes for President-elect Trump.“Actually, I wanted him to win,not Hillary Clinton,” he said. Hedoesn’t know her personally,“but I had heard enough. Likeher husband, she was not goingto do anything for Cyprus. Ithink that Mr. Trump will helpAmerica and also the rest of theworld. I don’t think Mr. Trumpwill do what the others did indestroying whole countries inthe Middle East and filling themwith dead bodies. I don’t thinkhe’ll continue that same policy.”
ON HGCChrysostomos recently visited
Patriarch Cyril of Moscow for thelatter’s 70th birthday. As theHoly and Great Council (HGC)was set to convene in Crete inJune, Cyril backed out of attend-ing and influenced three otherprelates to do the same.
Though critical of the pullout,Chrysostomos told Cyril duringthe recent visit “you are mis-taken if you think that I havesomething against you. I wantedthe HGC to convene but you did-n’t.
I am glad it was convenedand the texts that were pro-duced were of high spiritual cal-iber. We were encouraged so ina few years we can have anotherSynod in which I hope every-
body will participate because thethird millennium belongs to Or-thodoxy.”
Chrysostomos told Cyril “letus go visit all the prelates of theworld and tell them that we
should unite because the thirdmillennium belongs to Ortho-doxy, which should raise itsvoice. We should speak clearlyto our people and to the entireWorld.”
GREECE CYPRUSTHE NATIONAL HERALD, DECEMBER 3-9, 2016 9
TNH Staff
NICOSIA – The United Nationswill use shuttle diplomacy tohelp the rival leaders of ethni-cally divided Cyprus to come upwith ways of getting back to thenegotiating table after reunifi-cation talks broke down lastweek, a UN envoy said.
Envoy Espen Barth Eide, theUN Secretary-General’s specialadviser on Cyprus, said afterspeaking with Greek CypriotPresident Nicos Anastasiadesand breakaway Turkish Cypriotleader Mustafa Akinci that re-suming negotiations won’t beeasy.
But both leaders are willingto get things moving again, Eidesaid.
“The last mile is always themost difficult one in peaceprocesses,” he said.
“If there’s any consolation inthat, I can say that in almostevery success…peace talks arepreceded by a crisis.”
A 1974 coup aimed at unit-ing Cyprus with Greece trig-gered a Turkish invasion thatsplit the island into an interna-tionally recognized, GreekCypriot south and a breakaway,Turkish Cypriot north.
Two days of intensive talksat the Swiss resort of MontPelerin ground to a halt a weekago after Anastasiades and Ak-inci clashed on how many peo-ple would be eligible to reclaimhomes and property in zoneseach side will control in an en-visioned federation.
Anastasiades sought as manyas 90,000 Greek Cypriots get-ting back property in an aug-mented Greek Cypriot zone.
Akinci offered a maximum
65,000.The two leaders blamed each
other for the impasse that re-newed doubts about whether 18months of negotiations could re-solve the intractable dispute.Even with the U.N. serving asmediator, it ultimately is up tothem to figure out how to moveforward, Eide said.
“We can never want it morethan they,” he said. “They haveto make up their mind at theend.”
LAST CHANCE SALOON?Eide is trying a last-gasp
strategy to restart the Cyprusunity talks by meeting with rivalleaders on both sides of the di-vided island.
Eide talked to Anastasiadesand Akinci trying to find somecommon ground to come backto the table after the two leaderswalked away from negotiations
at a Swiss resort without a deal.They couldn’t agreed on
what percentage of stolen landand property seized on the un-lawfully-occupied northernthird of the island after Turkeyinvaded in 1974 should be re-turned to Cypriots.
Eide’s constant upbeat pre-dictions of imminent break-throughs were dashed when thetalks collapsed but he kept upthe mantra that all was goingto end well despite warningsigns that it wasn’t.
“What we are working on isto see how we can re-establishthe momentum we had, but thishas to be a decision made bythe leaders,” Eide told reporters,according to the Turkish siteWorld Bulletin.
“I am trying to facilitate that,but I cannot decide it over theirheads,” he said.
UN Envoy Tries Shuttle Diplomacy for Cyprus
Tsipras Praises Late Dictator CastroGreek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras delivers a speech during a rally honoring Fidel Castro atthe Revolution Plaza in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016. Regional leaders and tens ofthousands of Cubans filled Havana's Plaza of the Revolution Tuesday night for a service honoringFidel Castro on the wide plaza where the Cuban leader delivered fiery speeches to mammothcrowds in the years after he seized power.
TNH Staff
Officials on Greek island nearTurkey, bulging with some14,000 refugees and migrants,want them taken to the main-land.
Migration Minister YiannisMouzalas has said repeatedly hewon’t allow that fearing itwould jeopardize a suspendedEuropean Union swap deal withTurkey.
But after a fatal fire on Les-bos, which killed two people,and Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan warning he willunleash a new flood of refugeeson Greece and the EU unless hegets more money, visa-freetravel for Turkish citizens, andfast-track entry into the bloc,pressure is building on the Rad-ical Left SYRIZA to bringrefugees to the mainland, wherethere are already another48,000 stuck in detention cen-ters and camps.
Many are seeking asylumand fearful of being returned toTurkey and perhaps forced backto their own countries, espe-cially Syria, which is still caughtin a long-running civil war.
Government officials toldKathimerini that the best solu-tion would be to speed up theasylum process and create newreception facilities on the main-land as well as the islands.
“Both of these must happenwith the initiative of the Greekgovernment, despite the prob-lems, the reactions and the ad-versities,” a source told thenewspaper.
Plans to create a new so-called hot spot on the site of aformer landfill on Chios havesplit the island’s municipalcouncil, while many locals arecalling for the removal of mi-grants from the islands.
“There is no way to compen-sate locals whose cars weretorched or whose shops weredamaged in the recent riots,”Athens Deputy Mayor GiorgosKaramanis, who is responsiblefor migration issues, toldKathimerini. “We do not knowwhat to tell locals when they askfor help,” he said.
SHOCK AND ANGERGreece’s Prime Minister was
upset at the deaths of a womanand child in a fire that ragedthrough the Lesbos refugeecamp used for migrants facingdeportation back to Turkey,while rights groups condemnedthe loss of life.
Alexis Tsipras said he was“shocked, as is the entire Greeknation, by the tragic event” inthe Moria camp on Lesbos.
The aid agency InternationalRescue Committee described thedeaths as “a damning indict-ment of the ineptitude of Euro-pean leaders’ response to therefugee crisis.”
Police said a cooking gas can-ister sparked the fire, and thatthe victims were a young boyand an older woman.
Another woman and a sec-ond child were severely injuredand flown to Athens, where theywere hospitalized in seriouscondition, while several otherswere less seriously hurt.
Migrants at the camp clashed
with police as they were evacu-ated from the camp during theblaze, which was extinguishedby firefighters.
“The Greek government isfighting a determined battle indifficult circumstances for thehumanitarian management ofthe refugee issue, and will fur-ther intensify its efforts for se-curity and quality of life in theshelters,” Tsipras said in a state-ment.
Panos Navrozidis, the IRC’sCountry Director for Greece,said in a statement that thegroup had already warned ofthe dangers of overcrowdedconditions in Greek camps, andabout conditions in Moria.
“As a humanitarian, it is soul-crushing to see events like thishappen within the EuropeanUnion,” he said.
“It is an abdication of our re-sponsibility as global leadersthat we, in Europe, refuse to dobetter for some of the world’smost vulnerable.”
Protests have repeatedly oc-curred at overcrowded deporta-tion camps. Under a dealreached in March between
Turkey and the European Union,migrants arriving on Greek is-lands from Turkey face depor-tation back to Turkey unlessthey successfully apply for asy-lum in Greece.
The deal was designed tostanch the flow of hundreds ofthousands of refugees and mi-grants into the European Unionvia the Aegean Sea route.
While the number of peoplearriving on Greek islands hasdropped significantly as a result,it has not stopped altogether.Thousands of people arestranded in severely over-crowded camps on the islands,leading to tension within thecamps as well as with locals.
In total, more than 62,000people are stranded in Greece,while an EU agreement to relo-cate tens of thousands of themto other European countries issuffering severe delays.
Turkey’s President accusedthe European Union of dishon-esty and betrayal, and threat-ened to remove controls fromhis country’s borders, floodingEurope with hundreds of thou-sands of asylum-seekers andother migrants.
In his first speech since aNov. 24th approval in the Euro-pean Parliament of a non-bind-ing resolution calling on the EUto freeze Turkey’s membershiptalks, Recep Tayyip Erdogan toldthe EU:
“We are the ones who feed3-3.5 million refugees in thiscountry. You have betrayed yourpromises.” Most have gone tooverrun Greece.
(Material from the AssociatedPress was used in this report)
Compiled byEraklis Diamataris
DECEMBER 1: On this day in 1913,Crete, after having unilaterally declaring ithad united with the Kingdom of Greece in1908, was officially recognized by the in-ternational community as being apart ofGreece. The autonomous state of Cretelasted from 1898 until 1908 when the Cre-tan people led by Eleftherios Venizelos de-clared a de facto enosis with Greece. Cretewould go onto to play a pivotal role in Greeknational politics, culture and economics asa member of the country. It is important tonote that despite the Greek Orthodox Chris-tian population being the overwhelmingmajority, Sunni Islam practitioners and Jew-ish Cretans remained on the island until thepopulation exchanges that occurred follow-ing the Greek defeat in the Greco-TurkishWar (1919-1922).
DECEMBER 2: on this day in 1923 MariaCallas (1923-1977) was born in New YorkCity. Maria Callas was born to two Greek
parents who changed the family last nameKalogeropoulos to “Kalos” and then later to
“Callas” in a bid to assimilate easier toAmerican society. Following a complete de-terioration of the relationship between hermother and father, Callas and her sisterwere uprooted and brought to Athens byher mother. In Athens Callas first immersedherself in the musical world by enrolling inthe Greek National Conservatory and wastutored by Maria Trivella. Following herlearning in Athens, Callas would go ontosuperstardom in Italy, the United States ofAmerica and indeed the world over. Notedfor her three octave vocal range and phe-nomenal use of her slender figure after herdramatic weight loss in the early 1950sCallas captivated audiences with her voiceand acting abilities alike. In her later yearshaving separated from her husband Gio-vanni Battista Meneghini in 1959 Callas hada much publicized clandestine relationshipwith Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onas-sis. Despite the last years of her life beingspent largely in isolation in Paris, Francerenowned American composer LeonardBernstein hailed Callas as “the Bible ofOpera”.
This Week in Greek History
After Fatal Fire, OverrunGreek Islands WantRefugees Moved Now
More than 62,000 peopleare stranded in Greece,48,000 already on themainland in detentioncenters and camps.
AP PHOTO/riCArdO mAzAlAN
Archbishop Chrysostomos on the Cyprus Issue, HGC, and Orthodoxy
His Beatitude ArchbishopChrysostomos.
EurOkiNiSSi
TNH Staff
Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan is being urgedto seize Greek islands even ashe said Cyprus is flying thewrong flag.
Just a few days before he wasdue to meet Greek Prime Minis-ter Alexis Tsipras in Abu Dhabi,Erdogan on Nov. 29 stepped uphis imperialist chants while theleader of a nationalist party inTurkey said a number of Greekislands should be taken.
Erdogan, who has disputedthe 1923 Treaty of Lausannethat set borders with Greece,used the 7th Annual BosporusSummit to also question the le-gitimacy of Cyprus – whichTurkey refuses to recognize andbars its ships and planes – cut-ting into the hopes of reunifyingthe island as last-gasp negotia-tions had already collapsed.
Meanwhile, the leader of theTurkish Republican People’sParty (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu,said Erdogan hasn’t gone farenough and called for Greek is-lands off Turkey to be seized.
Erdogan slammed Cyprus forusing its flag as representativeof the whole island and ignoringthe northern part of the island,the newspaper Kathimerini re-
ported.“You can’t have a flag like
that when the TRNC is there,”he said, referring to the unlaw-ful state on the occupied north-ern third of the island that onlyTurkey recognizes. He said thatGreek Cypriots use their flag atEuropean Union summits “with-out shame.”
“You are the Greek-Cypriotadministration of southernCyprus. In the north, there is aTurkish Republic, you see – oneway or another they will learnand understand,” he said, de-scribing the Greek Cypriots as“rude.”
Erdogan said that he urgedTsipras for a bilateral or multi-lateral summit on Cyprus, insist-ing that “this issue cannot dragon,” even as talks betweenCypriot President Nicos Anas-tasiades and Turkish-Cypriotleader Mustafa Akinci brokedown over the question of howmuch territory stolen by Turksduring an unlawful 1974 inva-sion should be returned toCypriot owners.
“We should reach some-where by the end of the year,but if we start saying that thisland is ours, and that only wewill govern, we will getnowhere,” Erdogan said.
Akinci, who, along withAnastasiades had confidentlypredicted a unity deal by year’send, instead now warned thatif there is no solution, then “wewill continue on our path” andurged investors to come to theoccupied territory to open busi-nesses and shun the other side.
Tsipras has remained notice-ably quiet during Erdogan’sscreeches with Greece fearingthe Turkish strongman willagain let human traffickers un-leash more refugees and immi-grants on Europe and Greek is-lands.
WHAT’D HE SAY?Instead, it was left to the gov-
ernment spokesman DimitrisTzanakopoulos to wanly replysaid that the “main priority nowshould be restarting talks onCyprus,” adding that a bilateralsummit had not been desig-nated.
“It will take place at the righttime, when the talks restart andlead to a just and viable solu-tion,” he said without explainingwhat that meant.
The Greek Foreign Ministrysaid Turkey was making histor-ically inaccurate and arbitraryclaims “that seek to exempt itfrom its responsibilities as an oc-cupying force,” on the island.
The CHP leader, Kilicdaroglu,said Erdogan was compromisingtoo much with the Greeks andGreek Cypriots, and urged himto take over 18 Greeks islets inthe eastern Aegean that heclaimed belong to Turkey.
“The islets are ours. There isa Greek flag. They are in a stateof occupation. (The Turkish gov-ernment talk) about Lausanneand that we lost lands. But theyhave lost 18 islets under ournose. And now I ask (TurkishPrime Minister) Binali Yildirim:Will you take back the 18 isletsor not?” he said, accusing Erdo-gan of “selling out” Cyprus byagreeing to reduce the Turkish-held territory from 37 percentto 29.2 percent.
“We ask [the Turkish govern-ment]: Are these islands ours?Yes, they say. Should our flag beflying on the islets? Yes, theysay. But there is a Greek flagthere. Why don’t you inter-vene?”
Erdogan had previously saidhe too was eying Greek islandsso close to Turkish shores that“They are within shouting dis-tance,” but some analysts saidthey believe he’s reactingstrongly in the wake of a failedcoup against him and trying toappease a domestic audience.
Erdogan Rants Over Greece, Cyprus: Turkey Eyes Greek
EDITORIALS LETTERS10 THE NATIONAL HERALD, DECEMBER 3-9, 2016
Tsoucalas and Kourides areQuite Worthy of HLA’s Honor
To the Editor:It was nice to read about the
Hellenic Lawyers Associationhonoring Judge Nicholas Tsou-calas and Nicholas Kourides atthe annual dinner dance gala onNovember 18. Judge Tsoucalashas done so much for the com-munity and for young lawyersthrough mentoring so many ofthem.
In the mid-1960s, before hebecame a judge, Mr. Tsoucalashelped my grandmother withsome legal issues and for thatthe family will always be grate-ful. What comes through mostin the article is the dedicationto doing good work followingthe example set by exemplaryfathers.
Thank you for covering thestory and helping to inspire oth-ers to achieve such great thingsas Judge Tsoucalas and Mr.Kourides have achieved in theircareers and in their lives, andespecially in promoting Hel-lenism.
Matthew R. GeorgiadesBoston, MA
Socrates’ Wisdom and Post-Election Pragmatism
To the Editor:Following perhaps the most
all-around divisive election inAmerican history, one can ap-preciate the wisdom of Socratesin propounding the reign oftruly philosophical leaders;“only then would people behappy,” the Athenian argues via
Plato’s Republic.This Socratic ideal, however,
relates more closely to a hypo-thetical polity (indeed, theGreek title of Plato’s magnumopus is Politeia) than a repre-sentative democracy – the con-cept that a modern understand-ing of “republic” would suggest.In established governments, areasonable starting point wouldbe to expect efficacy in repre-senting public interests.
The cautiously hopeful sen-timents that Drs. Lomis andPoulakidas express in their re-cent letters to the editor (Nov.19) are valuable to this end.Notwithstanding the wisdom ofthe great classical philosophers,pragmatic post-election expec-tations offer the most promisingpath toward advancing as a na-tion.
B. Daniel HallAstoria, NY
A Historic Moment for OurCommunity and Beyond
The placing of the holy cross atop the St. Nicholas GreekOrthodox Church currently under construction at Ground Zerois big news.
The New York Times ran a lengthy piece about this, alongwith numerous photos. The story was also broadcast over anumber of radio stations in New York and was even printed insome newspapers in Athens.
From a journalistic perspective, it was objectively newswor-thy. But to our community, it means much, much more.
It is a historic moment; tangible proof of what this commu-nity is capable of achieving, given the right representation anda vison in which it can believe.
We all know the prelude: on September 11, 2001, a day ofimmeasurable destruction, terrorist attacks brought down notonly the Twin Towers but also the historic, humble St. NicholasChurch right next to them.
After a prolonged and at times difficult process that castdoubt on even rebuilding the church – the only one destroyedby the 9/11 attacks – and after personal intervention by Gov-ernor Andrew Cuomo, the right location was found.
But that was only the beginning.Next was the difficult task of raising the money – and a
whole lot of it. At least $40 million.Michael Jaharis – blessed be his memory – aimed high. The
right architect had to be found. The new St. Nicholas had tobecome a point of reference for the Greek Orthodox Church,our community, and even the entire country.
Fr. Alex Karloutsos – who else – was put in charge of raisingthe funds. He believed passionately in this project and his con-viction and faith were transferred to the community’s “powers”across America.
Under his leadership, rebuilding St. Nicholas became a vi-sion; a common cause.
Yes, it would satisfy our religious needs, but it would bemuch more than that.
Our fellow Greek-Americans responded with generosity.Some gave a million dollars, others two and more.
With the coordination by our communities, AHEPA, andsome other organizations, the funds were raised.
We are not talking about peanuts. This is an enormous sumof money. Just a few decades ago, raising it would have beenalmost unimaginable.
Yet even now, we have not reached our limits. We can domore.
Our community has the need and the means to executegrand plans. Such as the new St. Nicholas and the new St.Basil’s home for the aged. And much more.
It needs the right leadership, and it needs to believe in itself.To trust. To come together. To draw in our youth.
Let this historic moment function as a point of reference ofwhere we came from, who we are, and what we can accomplish.Let it be the inspiration that will lead to the formation of apowerful leadership team that will lead us to even higherachievements.
Wouldn’t that be something?
Greek Premier Among theStrongest Admirers of Castro
Fidel Castro’s death – as was the case during his life – hasattracted the interest of the world.
His fame was built on defying the United States, Cuba’senormous neighbor 90 miles to the north, and the efforts ofmost of the 11 presidents during his tenure as that small is-land-nation’s leader to overthrow him from power, includingby assassination.
Unquestionably, Castro was one the significant personalitiesof the 20th century, not least of which was being the instrumentin the phenomenon that almost brought the world to an end –the Cuban Missile crisis.
But Castro does not represent the ideal leader whom oneought to emulate, no matter how much certain politicians –for various reasons – try to present him as such.
Ultimately, Castro failed in the ultimate test of whether hewas good for himself or for his people. The resounding answerto this question is: for himself.
Castro inspired the youth of the world in the age of thestruggle against colonialism, with his promises for sovereignty,democracy, justice, and economic progress.
But no promise was fulfilled. On the contrary, he imposed adictatorial regime that brought about such misery to his peoplethat it forced thousands to risk their lives in order to flee toMiami to freedom.
The Cubans under Castro developed the model of using anymeans to escape that the people of Syria – and others – havesubsequently used.
He based the development of his country on the mass pro-duction of sugar, pushing Cuba to bankruptcy which, in turn,made it dependent first on the Soviet Union and later on…Venezuela.
In effect, all he managed to accomplish was trading in oneprotector – the United States – for others, minus the freedomsenjoyed by the people, until the spigots of help were shut downand his brother was forced to start a dialogue with the UnitedStates – which, among other things led to commercial flightsbetween the two countries, commencing, ironically, on the dayof his death – so that he could save his regime.
Many world leaders issued statements marking his passing.We seriously doubt, however, if any statement reached thepoint of absurdity of the one tweeted by Greece’s prime minis-ter: “Adios la commandant. Until the final victory of the peopleof the world.”
This is indeed enough to leave one speechless. But what ismost worrisome and leaves one to wonder, is: what percentageof the Greek people does this kind of nonsense represent?
Not a big one, we think. Yet there still is a small, well-organized, and determined
minority that refuses to grow up and come to terms with real-ity.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
COMMENTARY
By Dr. Leonidas Petrakis
Fossil fuels – the remnants ofplant and animal life trans-formed during geologic timeinto natural gas, petroleum andcoal – have powered the Indus-trial Revolution and are sustain-ing our modern society fromagriculture to transportation tohealth care to technology. Butthese fuels (commonly but in-accurately referred to as “hydro-carbons”) have become thenexus of international disputes,and additionally they pose anexistential threat to our planetas byproducts of their extrac-tion, transportation, conversionand use enter the atmosphereand effect climate changes (the“greenhouse” phenomenon).
Compelling scientific evi-dence has been accumulating insupport of the causal connectionbetween fossil fuels use and cli-mate change. Their deleteriouseffects are already evident -ris-ing global temperatures, melt-ing ice caps and glaciers, in-creased intensity and frequencyof extreme weather events, ac-celerating sea level rise, acidifi-cation of the seas, loss of biodi-versity, expanding range ofpathogens once confined totropical and subtropical areas,loss of arable land.
The overwhelming majorityof the international scientificcommunity accepts the scientificevidence that human activity isresponsible for the climatechange. But there is a vociferousminority of dissenters (“climatechange deniers”), almost auniquely American phenome-non featuring powerful politi-cians, President-elect Trump be-ing its pre-eminent member andpotentially the most disruptive.According to him, climatechange is a “hoax.”
Here is a sample of his tweetson the subject:
“I’m in Los Angeles and it’sfreezing. Global warming is atotal, and very expensive,hoax!”
“It’s really cold outside, theyare calling it a major freeze,weeks ahead of normal. Man,we could use a big fat dose ofglobal warming!”
“Snowing in Texas andLouisiana, record-setting freez-ing temperatures throughoutthe country and beyond. Globalwarming is an expensive hoax!”
“The concept of global warm-ing was created by and for theChinese.”
Interestingly, even oil com-panies now acknowledge thatthe burning of fossil fuels causesglobal warming, and they en-courage limiting carbon emis-sions.
Under both Republican andDemocratic administrations, en-ergy policies often have beenput forth that are rich in rhetoricbut driven by geopolitical cal-culations rather than based onsound economic and environ-mental considerations. Duringthe 2012 presidential campaign,
“climate change” was almost to-tally ignored, and instead Pres-ident Obama touted his fossilenergy agenda. "We have beendrilling more. Under my admin-istration, America is producingmore oil than at any time in thelast eight years. We've addedenough new oil and gas pipelineto circle the earth and thensome." Of course, much of thedrilling uses hydraulic fracturing(fracking), an energy-intensiveand expensive technology withsevere environmental conse-quences (evidence the NorthDakota devastation and Okla-homa earthquakes whichstrongly correlate with thedrilling activity). Likewise,much of the laid pipeline withits attendant environmentalconsequences (aquifer contam-ination, methane (a greenhousegas) releases into the atmos-phere) is for transporting theshale oil and gas from frackingoperations.
At the same time HillaryClinton as Secretary of State re-fused to block the Keystonepipeline that was to carry oilfrom Canada’s tar sands to U.S.refineries (the State Departmenthad final authority on the pro-ject since it crossed internationalboundaries). She also usedsome of her many miles in for-eign travel to promote frackingespecially in Eastern Europeancountries through her “GlobalShale Oil Initiative.”
Secretary of State John Kerrywhile visiting Greece in Novem-ber 2015 sought to advance theproject whereby LNG (liquifiednatural gas) from Americanfracking operations is to beshipped (Cheniere Energy, Inc.)to the terminal being built inNorthern Greece off Alexan-droupolis (Gastrade, aCopelouzos company), and incooperation with the Public GasCorporation of Greece (DEPA)to supply gas to southeasternEurope with the possibility ofexpansion to Ukraine and Ro-mania via the InterconnectorGreece-Bulgaria (IGB) naturalgas pipeline. This is viewed, asan official has stated, as “furtherprogress of a US strategy,backed by the EU, to signifi-cantly reduce southeast Eu-rope’s dependence on Russiangas.” Greece (which already hasa long-term contract with Rus-sia’s Gazprom) and other coun-tries in the region currently relyon Russia as the sole natural gassupplier.
But in 2015 we received con-crete evidence that the UnitedStates was finally willing to notjust offer moral support but alsoto take even difficult actionsthat are necessary to save theplanet from the potential cli-mate change catastrophe. Sec-retary of State John Kerry andPresident Obama embraced andworked hard for the 2015 ParisAgreement (arrived at by 190nations including China andother major polluters) that isaiming to reduce fossil fuels
emissions. And PresidentObama in support of this his-toric agreement has used his ex-ecutive powers to implementAmerican obligations. The mostprominent and most controver-sial action is his Clean PowerPlan released through the Envi-ronment Protection Agency(EPA). The Plan is meant to re-duce greenhouse gas emissionsfrom coal-fired and natural gaspower plants in the UnitedStates and replace them by windand solar farms. PresidentObama considers making theUnited States the global leaderin climate policy as his proudestlegacy.
Mr. Trump is fiercely op-posed to all such actions and in-ternational agreements, and hasvowed to undo all Obama ini-tiatives and Executive Ordersonce he moves to the Oval Of-fice. Mr. Trump has singled outPresident Obama’s signaturepolicy of Clean Power Plan as ahigh priority item for reversing,and has also promised to dis-mantle the EPA “in almost everyform”. The Clean Power Plan iscurrently on hold for it is in liti-gation in the federal courts. Itwill surely not survive if it goesto the Supreme Court especiallywith any new Trump ap-pointees. Killing this Plan wouldbe a devastating blow not onlydomestically but also interna-tionally for it would provide ex-cuses to reluctant signatories tothe Paris Agreement (Indialikely) not to follow through ontheir obligations.
Mr. Trump remains stronglycommitted to the fossil fuelseconomy and to American “en-ergy independence,” which ofcourse features fracking. Hisearly post-election actions un-fortunately are not reassuringthat he may finally deal with cli-mate change seriously and onthe basis of scientific facts ratherthan ideology and ridicule; andhe is appointing people who arecommitted to undoing the sig-nificant progress underway.
As Secretary of Energy, Mr.
Trump is said that he will ap-point one of two individuals,both prominent in the fossil en-ergy sector, indifferent to renew-able forms of energy, and inim-ical to the climate change issues.One is Harold Hamm, who hasbeen heavily involved withdrilling within the United States,and especially in Oklahoma,which has seen a large increasein earthquakes that strongly cor-relate with the number of frack-ing wells being put in place. Theother is James Connaughton,who, as President George W.Bush’s Chairman of the WhiteHouse Council on Environmen-tal Quality, led the opposition tothe ratification of the Kyoto Pro-tocol.
For EPA Director, Mr. Trumpis likely to choose Myron Ebell,a non-scientist, who previouslyrepresented the tobacco indus-try and has taken a leading rolein climate change denial. Mr.Ebell has stated that globalwarming is a hoax perpetratedby the European Union (contra-dicting Mr. Trump, who consid-ers climate change a Chinesehoax).
President Trump will be ableto rescind President Obama’sExecutive Orders simply by is-suing his own. For reversingpolicies that require Congres-sional approval, he will find inthe Republican-controlled Con-gress many like-minded legisla-tors, such as Senator James In-hofe of Oklahoma, Chair of theSenate Committee on the Envi-ronment, author of a book onclimate change entitled TheGreatest Hoax, and fond of in-voking Genesis 8:22 as the basisfor his climate change denial.
Unless Mr. Trump has anepiphany and decides to make a“deal” (proud as he is of making“deals”) and accommodate theoverwhelming majority of Amer-icans who believe that climatechange is caused by human ac-tivity, the prospects are for re-versing the progress made. Andif Sarah Palin, as rumored, be-comes Secretary of the Interior,we will regress even further andthe shrill slogan that she inspiredin the 2008 campaign, “Drillbaby, Drill!”, will become reality.
Climate change policies faceserious challenges as we moveinto the Trump presidency withpotentially calamitous conse-quences for the future of ourplanet.
Leonidas Petrakis holds a PhDin physical chemistry from theUniversity of California,Berkeley, was Chairman and Se-nior Scientist of the Departmentof Applied Sciences atBrookhaven NationalLaboratory, has taught atvarious universities in the US,France, and Greece, didresearch in the private sector,and is the author of severalbooks and of more than 150peer-reviewed scientific publi-cations. He now resides in Oak-land, CA.
Energy & the Environment: What to Expect from Trump
The National HeraldA weekly publication of the NATIONAL HERALD, INC.
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Observations By Antonis H. Diamataris
Michael Psaros: Prescription fora Greek Recovery
Michael Psaros, one of the leading mem-bers of our community, in an interview withthis newspaper (see front page) said thefollowing: Greece “needs to default on itsdebt. Greece is never going to pay that debtback. The Germans and French need to facereality: they will never get their moneyback. Reflow the drachma. That is the alpha
and the omega. I don’t think Greece has afuture in the Eurozone.”
Mr. Psaros is not your everyday man. Heis a very talented, well-educated, very suc-cessful entrepreneur, a man of faith and in-tegrity. Therefore, his view carries extraweight.
And as he apparently does in his busi-ness, he is capable of looking into the futureand equally importantly, does not shy awayfrom expressing bold opinions.
In addition, there many individuals – ex-
perts and others – who espouse his viewthat Greece needs to exit from the Euro-zone. There are many who avoid saying soin public.
However, the more things stay as theyare in the country, the more people willcome out saying: enough!
Unless it the people of Europe them-selves, perhaps the Italians on December 4,or the French at a later date, who will makethe decision to dissolve the euro.
AP PHOTO/ EvAN vuCCi, filE
Trump reversing climatechange policy- bad for planetearth.
By Theodore Kalmoukos
His Eminence ArchbishopGeron Demetrios of Americaspent two days – November 16and 17 – at the Holy CrossGreek Orthodox School in The-ology in Brookline, MA.
He met with students andfaculties of both Holy Cross andHellenic College. He observedlessons, interacted with stu-dents, and generally made hispresence known on campus inhis dual position as Archbishopand Chairman of the Board ofTrustees. His responsibilities to-ward the institutions are huge,not only spiritual and Ecclesial,but also legal and fiduciary.
His Eminence certainly didthe right thing in spending twowhole days at the School andhe should do so more often. TheSchool is in need of his physicalpresence because as TNH haslearned, several serious prob-
lems have begun to accumulatethere.
To clarify, I am not referringto the ongoing “civil war” be-tween the School and the Mali-otis Cultural Center – though itis a shame that the two couldn’tsit down and resolve their issuesas civilized persons, let alone asfellow Greek Orthodox Chris-tians.
I am fully aware of the ever-increasing dysphoria by a largenumber of students, faculty, andeven trustees toward the newSchool President, Fr. Christo-pher Metropoulos, as such is cir-culated on campus and sent tothe members of the HolyEparchial Synod. The impres-sion is that the School is like avolcano ready to erupt at anymoment, with unpredictabledamage.
Surely Archbishop Demetriosis aware of the climate at theSchool, and that partially ex-
plains partially his visit. Regarding the search process
for a new president two yearsago, it was never explained howand why Fr. Metropoulos waschosen out of 41 candidates.TNH had asked the archbishopabout the “koumbari” spiritualrelationship between Metropou-los and the Trustees Board’s ViceChairman, but Demetrios disre-garded the issue and praised theintegrity of the search process.
The fact remains that therewere many qualified candidatesin terms of academic and ad-ministrative credentials,whereas Metropoulos was onlya parish priest, as was his pre-decessor, Nicholas Triantafillou.
It is clear that mediocritycontinues, and that is difficultto explain because Demetrios isa prestigious academician, hiscredentials including a PhDfrom Harvard University.
I strongly believe the Theo-
logical School is in great needof a general overhaul and reor-ganization, because its $12 mil-lion-plus annual expendituresyield so few results. Here aresome suggestions: there is noneed for so many faculty mem-bers at Hellenic College andHoly Cross when the combinedstudent body is only 180. Thosewho teach at the School of The-ology should also teach the fewstudents of the College, with noextra salary.
After all, they are not ex-hausted from working. On thecontrary, they have it easy. Theyenjoy one month vacation forChristmas, two weeks duringEaster, holidays in between, andalso four entire months in thesummertime, from the middleof May to the middle of Septem-ber, and with full compensation.Unfortunately, the majority ofthem do not make scholarlycontributions in terms of books
or journal articles. School personnel, including
administrators and office assis-tants, should be drastically re-duced. What do they do with allthose people on staff, anyway?
The Board of Trustees shouldbe reorganized. A well-edu-cated, well-credentialed, bilin-gual Greek-American with lovefor the School and the Church,one who is respected by theGreek-American community,should be appointed Vice Chair.
Emphasis should be placedon the proper and essential ed-ucation and training of students,especially those who will enterthe holy priesthood. The Arch-diocese is in need of bilingualpriests. It is unacceptable thatthe majority of graduates areunable to read the Gospel in itsoriginal language.
The obsession with erectingnew physical buildings shouldgive way to building the body
of the School and of the Church.The Student Union Center cur-rently in the works to be builtwith contributions by a Texasdonor with whom Fr. Triantafil-lou fished years ago will simplyadd another structure on theSchool grounds. Who is goingto sustain it? Our Church andcommunity become smaller andsmaller. And the School doesn’tneed any more buildings andbricks; it needs people with soul,identity, and vision. And theseelements are not evident on thehorizon.
The School faces seriousproblems, and our beloved andrespected Archbishop Demetriosshould take the lead to resolvethem before some parachutejumper comes from the Phanarto give us lessons, as Metropol-itan Elpidophoros of Proussa dida few years ago.
Analysis: What’s Going on at the School of Theology in Brookline, MA?
VIEWPOINTSTHE NATIONAL HERALD, DECEMBER 3-9, 2016 11
When journalists jump ca-reers to public relations, it is saidthat they’ve crossed over to thedark side. When they decide tobecome politicians and run forpublic office – even if they win –they’ve entered Hell.
Just as there’s a big differencebetween campaigning and gov-erning, the gap between com-menting on politics and playingthe loser’s game – politics, asShakespeare said, is thieve’sgames, those who stay in it longenough are bound to be robbed– is too much.
Journalists believe they cangovern better than the peoplethey take apart in columns.That’s what comes of sitting intoo many press boxes coveringlegislatures and Parliaments andCongresses, watching long-winded speeches and people cut-ting deals instead of having anyideals and principles.
Alas, journalists who makethe switch into politics find thereare no principles or ideals in thebusiness of mutual compromisefor the benefit not of the com-mon good, but for the peopleholding office and their friends.
In Greece, for example, rulingis just an excuse to use the statecoffers as a kind of personal ATMto dole out money to your polit-ical party and friends through ei-ther disguised or barely-dis-guised methods.
Such as Prime Minister andLooney Left SYRIZA leaderAlexis Tsipras hiring unqualified
friends to be “Spe-cial Advisers” at2,000 euros($2,117) a month –if they even show up– while he’s cuttingpensions to as low as380 euros ($402) amonth and taxingthe poor into obliv-ion while his vow to“crush the oligarchy”saw him crushed in-stead.
As the lateLeonard Cohen, asometimes residentof the Greek islandof Hydra sang, everybody knows,“the poor stay poor, the rich getrich, that’s how it goes.”
But high-minded journalistsdon’t like that and sometimes theurge to jump out of the press boxonto the playing field is toomuch.
They usually find out it’s thesame as covering sports andthinking you can hit an AroldisChapman fast ball. They alsodon’t catch on to the rules, whichis to say there aren’t any beyondenriching yourself and staying inpower at all cost.
Stavros Theodorakis foundthat out when he left his job as apopular Greek TV journalist tostart up, with much fanfare andsome hope of great promise, thecentrist To Potami (The River)party in 2014, filled with acade-mics and intellectuals and thosewho thought they knew better
than mainstreampoliticians how torun a government.
RULES OF THEGAME
To Potami gotinto Parliamentbut, alas, he be-came just likethose he wantedousted but thenmarginalized whenhe found out hedidn’t have thechops to play dirtyand tough, floun-dered trying to es-tablish a purpose
and identity and offered no al-ternatives.
Hovering at the 3 percentthreshold needed to enter Par-liament in the next elections, hefinds himself trying to make amerger deal with the former PA-SOK Socialists, who fell from 44percent of the vote in winningthe 2009 elections to 4 percentafter backing austerity measuresagainst their party’s principles.
Theodorakis thought he’dride the wave of TV stardom butturned out to be so bland if hefell asleep on a beach no onewould know where the sandended and he began.
“They are paying the price ofnot saying anything to the pointand of the colorless personalityof their leader,” Antonis KlapsisAcademic Coordinator, Centre ofInternational & European Politi-cal Economy & Governance, Uni-
versity of Peloponnese told TheNational Herald.
“It is a pity that they are doingso bad in the polls, but I thinkthis is the natural outcome of theindecisiveness and their inactive-ness. If they don't merge withPASOK, they have essentially nopolitical future,” said Klapsis,who formerly was with the Kon-stantinos Karamanlis Institute forDemocracy, aligned with the pre-viously ruling New Democracy.
Theodorakis turned out to bea waffler and his selling point ofoffering to be a broker betweenparties fell flat with the elec-torate, desperate to find a dy-namic, charismatic and decentleader, who so far hasn’t beenfound in Greece and few othercountries either.
He thought he could be abridge with the far-left SYRIZAand center-right ideological rivalNew Democracy but found outhe couldn’t stretch that far.
He never presented any kindof message that would galvanizeor excite anyone and was, as thecharacter Gus Portokalos said ofthe expressionless parents of hisdaughter’s fiancé in My Big FatGreek Wedding: “dry – liketoast.”
Now it’s To Potami which hasdried up, left on a baked-overriverbed without so much as adead fish to remind anyone therewas anything fluid, any suste-nance, any source of life.
The renowned shipping mag-nate Stavros Niarchos is fa-mously quoted as saying that thefinancial strength of a nation de-pends on its own production andtrade activities and not on its po-litical and diplomatic relations.
Niarchos, who was also agreat philanthropist and whoselegacy continues to remain alivethrough one of the world’s lead-ing charitable organizations –perhaps Hellenism’s most semi-nal public benefit foundation –the Stavros Niarchos Foundation(SNF), would probably cite thecurrent state of affairs in Greeceas the latest piece of evidencesupporting his opinion. How-ever, the direct relationship be-tween education and economicdevelopment cannot be over-looked either.
There is a widespread feelingthat a crisis in values, ethos,identity, and worldview (somuch of which is conveyed bythe people’s relationship withtheir language and how it istaught) preceded the financialcrisis in Greece by at least a gen-eration. The unconscionable per-secution of excellence (officiallyascribed to by at least one for-mer Greek education minister),criminalization of national prideand belief in the uniqueness ofone’s history and culture, andmany other sociopolitical/acad-emic transgressions ended up af-fecting the psyche of the mostproductive members of the pop-ulation and manifested them-selves in the form of an eco-nomic crisis.
It is worth considering howthis quotation applies to Hel-lenism outside of Greece’s bor-ders as well – in our case, theGreeks of the United States.There has been much ballyhooabout the financial prominenceof Greek-Americans, some ofwho have even reached billion-aire status. However, a commu-nity is only as strong as its insti-tutions, and there is cause tobelieve that there is doubt in theminds of Greek-Americans –wealthy or not – about the Com-munity’s institutional ethos.
The National Herald recentlypublished a story regarding a$10 million donation by real es-
t a t einvestor/banker Ef-stathios Valiotis tothe St. Michael’sHome for the Agedin which he re-counted a conver-sation with anotherprominent Greek-American magnatewho explained hishesitancy in donat-ing to the commu-nity and its variousorganizations be-cause of a sore lackof “infrastructure.”Mr. Valiotis cited this glaring de-ficiency as a major hurdle in se-curing major donations to sup-port the community’s future.
This problem is probablymost evident in the all-importantsector of Greek-American edu-cation. When compared to someof the major endowments beinggifted to museums, universities,or other organizations, Greek-American schools have been
largely overlooked. This lack offunding has kept teacher salarieswoefully low, school facilitiesless than stellar, innovative pro-grams and electives severely lim-ited, and generally hamperedour schools’ competitive ability.This has also partially con-tributed to the closure of severalGreek-American day schools inareas with a large Greek demo-graphic, like New York.
Despite other donors’ appar-ent preference for glitzier grantsthat could (ephemerally) winthem wider media exposure andsolidify their “legacy,” SNF hasalways been one of HellenicPaideia’s staunchest supportershere in the United States. Theyhave made numerous major do-nations or matching grants toseveral different Greek schoolson repeated occasions, proving
beyond a shred ofdoubt that theyplace educationquite high on thecommunity’s “hier-archy of needs.”The ability to pre-serve a commu-nity’s identity andcultivate its legacyis directly linked toits ability to attainself-actualization –to reach the fullnessof its potential.
It is no irony thatthis is inextricably
linked to Stavros Niarchos’ ref-erences to production and trade.In an era when branding andproduct identity play such a cru-cial role in the economy – whichis not independent of life’s otheractivities – the Greek communitymust rely heavily on its abilityto produce culture and marketthis item as a prized commodityin order to not only thrive, butsimply survive as a collective en-tity.
Nonetheless, despite SNF’ssteadfast support, developmentsin the Greek-American educa-tion scene affirm the “infrastruc-tural problems,” which Mr. Vali-otis accurately referenced.Schools are a central showcaseof any society, a fundamentalbuilding block in the groomingof the next generation of leaders.
And yet, the Greek-Americancommunity, which has been la-beled affluent and prosperousad nauseum, is experiencing amajor educational crisis. Withsome notable exceptions,schools are closing, registrationsare dropping, teacher turnoveris high, morale is low, and eventhe clergy – traditional torch-bearers of Hellenic Paideia –have become its own worst ene-mies, infamous standing out fortheir limited to non-existentknowledge of elementary Greekand their purely materialisticdrive to shut down schools andrent them out to the highest bid-der – regardless of that bidder’sideology or purposes – all in thename of ill-gotten gains.
President Obama’s recentvisit to Greece, where he spokeat the Stavros Niarchos Cultural
Centre, is further proof of thisFoundation’s foresight. In orderto build this gem that adorns thecoast of Faliro in SouthernAthens and promises to serve asa national – and even global –landmark, SNF had to publiclypressure (misguided?) (self-serv-ing?) (uninformed?) Greekpoliticians and the ankyloticGreek state to allow the projectto proceed for the benefit of thenation. Just months after itsgrand opening, this site alreadygained international kudos byhosting the world’s most promi-nent leader. This investment willsurely go down in history as anational beneficence to Greece,reshaping the city of Athens andglobal image of Greece.
It would appear that SNF isdestined to play a similar role inthe Greek-American communityin the vital area of Greek Edu-cation. With its unblemishedtrack record and proven vision-ariness, it appears to be the onlyinstitution willing and able tomake Paideia a priority oncemore.
The community is in direneed of vibrant Greek Schoolsthat will appeal to not just ethnicGreeks, but Americans as well.New York City and the UnitedStates need schools that will fo-cus on the classics and displaythe connection between Ancientand Modern Greek. They needdual language education, wherestudents can attend classes andbe taught all their subjects (notjust 1 period of foreign languageinstruction per day) in both lan-guages (like the most successfulbilingual schools do, consistentlyhelping students earn stellargrades in content areas whilepromoting true academic com-prehension of the target lan-guage). They need hotbeds ofHellenism and philhellenism.
These are uncharted watersfor the Greek-American commu-nity, fit to be led by those whobear the legacy of a true captainof both shipping and philan-thropy; those who know that theonly journey the Greeks ever re-gretted was the one not taken.
Follow me on Twitter@CTripoulas
The SNF: An Ark for Hellenic Paideia in Stormy Times
LETTER FROM ATHENS
Stavros Theodorakis Finds Politics Not TV, River Dries Up
by ANDYDABILIS
Special to The National Herald
Less than amonth after DonaldTrump was electedthe 45th presidentof the UnitedStates, many Amer-icans continue toexclaim: “pinch me,am I dreaming?”Some say it in thesense of “this is justtoo good to be true,I hope it’s not just adream,” whereasothers implore:“please, oh please,wake me up fromthis nightmare!”
As I’ve written all along, thegeneral election could have goneeither way and so it should havebeen no surprise that Trumpwon (in my estimation, he wasthe slight favorite the wholetime).
What remains absolutely re-markable – downright stunning– is not that as a major partypresidential nominee Trump wasunable to dethrone Hillary Clin-ton, the de facto incumbent, therepresentative and endorsee ofsitting President Barack Obama,his personal popularity largelyaccounting for his very re-spectable approval ratings butwhich should not obfuscate thereality that the majority of Amer-icans think the country is headedin the wrong direction. It is alsonot surprising, let alone stun-ning, that in losing on November8, Hillary reinforced a trend thathas been prevalent for decades:how difficult it is for one partyto win three elections in a row,particularly when the third winis not achieved by the incumbentpresident.
What is completely earth-shattering, though, is that Don-ald Trump was able to ride downthe escalator at Trump Tower onJune 16, 2015, declare his can-didacy, and proceed to prevailover sixteen other Republicanhopefuls – one of the most tal-ented and capable group of peo-ple to run in a single election inour lifetime – which includedfive senators and nine governors.
What made the triumph evenmore amazing was Trump’sfending off rivals on multiplefronts. This was not a typical Re-publican battle against the lib-eral media, academia, and Hol-lywood. There was no WallStreet Journal op-ed piece to bal-ance that of the New York Times.No Republican stars to counterBarack and Michelle Obama, BillClinton,
Madonna, and Bruce Spring-steen. This was one man againstthe establishment: DonaldTrump versus all of the Democ-rats, and most of the establish-ment Republicans.
None of the living former Re-publican presidents and only oneof the living party nominees at-tended the GOP convention.Many of the 2016 GOP candi-dates openly broke the pledgethey signed to support the party’snominee, once it became evidentit would be Trump.
With almost no exceptionwhatsoever, all the newspapersthat in 2012 backed Mitt Rom-ney for president and typicallysupport the Republican candi-date, either withheld an endorse-ment this year or actually en-dorsed Hillary Clinton outright.
In early October, a recordingmade twelve years earlier was re-leased, of Donald Trump crudelydescribing (without knowing hewas being recorded) how be-cause of his celebrity status hecould make sexual advancesupon women in a manner thatthe average person could not. Asa result, many called for his step-ping down as the Republicannominee, and all but the mosthopeful and/or perceptive gavehim absolutely no chance of win-ning. In fact, there was talk thatHillary would win by such asweeping landslide that it wouldresult in both houses of Congress
returning to Demo-cratic control, andthe damage to theGOP being so severethat it would takedecades from whichto recover.
The last time acandidate overcamesuch catastrophicobstacles to win thepresidency was…never.
Really, neverever. This is not acase of hastily say-ing “9/11 was theworst attack ever in
our nation’s history” and thenmodifying it with: “oh, yeah,there was Pearl Harbor. Oh, andduring the War of 1812 whenJames and Dolly Madison had toflee the White House for theirlives. Forgot about that…” No,this time it’s really never ever.
Ever since our Constitutionwas ratified and George Wash-ington was chosen presidentunanimously (others ran too, butthey were running for vice pres-ident; in those days, candidatesdidn’t run as a team), the estab-lishment has always had its way.
Sure, it wasn’t the entire es-tablishment, just a portion of it.The Democratic establishmentwas no happier that Ronald Rea-gan beat Jimmy Carter in 1980than its Republican counterpartwas in 2008 when BarackObama defeated John McCain.But never has a person won thepresidency without having someform of establishment backing.
Take, for instance, the twopresidents in our nation’s historywho were impeached: AndrewJohnson in 1868 and Bill Clintonin 1998. Granted, Johnson wasunpopular, but had enough sup-port to withstand conviction byboth his fellow Democrats andsome Republicans. Clinton, de-spite his impeachment, easilycould have won if he were con-stitutionally eligible to run for athird term in 2000 and had beeninclined to do so.
The two sitting presidentsmost out of favor with the es-tablishment were John Tyler,who served from 1841 whenWilliam Harrison died in officeto the end of Harrison’s term inearly 1845, and Richard Nixon,who resigned in 1974 amid near-certain impeachment and con-viction looming for obstructionof justice charges resulting fromthe Watergate scandal.
Only they were truly aban-doned by their own party’s es-tablishment. But unlike Trump,in their nadir of popularity, theywould not have been (re)elected.
To be clear, Trump’s victoryis by no means the first time thewill of the people prevailed. (Infact, some argue the people’s willdid not prevail, consideringHillary won the popular vote.)In 1984, for instance, when Rea-gan soundly defeated WalterMondale, capturing 49 of 50states, the people’s will did infact prevail, but their wish wasalso the wish of a significant por-tion of the establishment.
From 1788 to 2012, the peo-ple’s “choice” was limited to oneof two (occasionally three) can-didates featured by the establish-ment, with smaller parties neverable to gain enough traction topester the big ones. The “choice”question of: “which would youlike – the beef, the chicken, orthe fish?” has for the first timebeen answered with: “I will behaving the broiled kangaroo.”That entrée may be healthy, orpoisonous; delicious, or repul-sive. But whatever it is, it was abona fide choice, clearly in op-position to the preference of anypowers-that-be.
Constantinos E. Scaros' latestbook, Grumpy Old Party (aboutthe 2016 presidential election),is available for purchase onamazon.com and in bookstoresnationwide.
Trump’s Victory is the OnlyEstablishment Loss Ever
by CONSTANTINOS E.SCAROS
Special to The National Herald
by ChristopherTRIPOULAS
Special to The National Herald
The lack of funding haskept teacher salarieswoefully low, schoolfacilities less than stellar,innovative programs andelectives severely limited.
12 THE NATIONAL HERALD, DECEMBER 3-9, 2016
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