O C V ΓΡΑΦΕΙ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ Bringing the news ΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ to generations of ΑΠΟ ΤΟ 1915 The National Herald Greek Americans c v A wEEKly gREEK AmERIcAN PUblIcAtION www.thenationalherald.com VOL. 13, ISSUE 677 October 2-8 , 2010 $1.50 Columbia Med School Neither Jew Nor Greek, A Memorial For All Gets a $50 Million Gift Athens Remembers The Holocaust – At from the Vagelos’ Long Last By Constantine S. Sirigos He is now Chairman of the Board By Sylvia Klimaki TNH Staff Writer of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, TNH Staff Writer Inc. as well as a member of the NEW YORK – Among the most Board of Directors of the Pruden - ATHENS - On a sunny Monday noted philanthropists in Greek tial Insurance Company. A 1955 morning a few months ago, American Society, Roy and Diana graduate of Barnard College, Di - Athens unveiled its first Holo - Vagelos have given their largesse ana Vagelos serves on the Board caust memorial, the last Euro - again, this time a $50 million do - of Trustees of Barnard as vice pean Union capital to commem - nation to Columbia University’s chair of the board and chair of orate its Jewish population that Medical School – his alma mater the Trustee Committee on Cam - was imprisoned and tortured, – to help the noted facility to pus Life. She and Dr. Vagelos and the 65,000 Greek Jews ex - keep producing highly schooled have made generous donations ecuted by the Third Reich. physicians and medical re - to Barnard College and Colum - Greece stood nearly alone in searchers for generations. The bia University Medical Center. condemning the actions of the gift will help the school as well They met at a party held by a Nazis, and trying to save its Jew - meet its own ambitions of fusing mutual friend while Vagelos was ish community during the dark leadership, vision and innova - attending P&S, and she was a times of World War II, but it tion. first-year student at Barnard. took 65 years before that defi - The contribution, among the THEIR COMMITMENT ance marked in the simple largest ever for a university, will The donation is aimed memorial, a shattered Star of support construction of a new squarely at the future. Dr. Dean David, split into seven large medical and graduate education Lee Goldman, said, “This new pieces of white marble pointing building, which will be built on education building will ensure in all directions, the names of the medical center campus and that Columbia continues to pro - regions of Greece where Jews named in their honor, according duce superior doctors and re - once lived inscribed there. The to a release by the university, searchers, trained in the latest country’s once vast and thriving which adds, “This project is part techniques, as medicine contin - Jewish community, a lingering of an overall medical center cam - ues to evolve rapidly throughout legacy of 2,000 years of living pus revitalization plan that will the 21st Century. The building A peaceful tree-lined herb garden in the Kerameikos neighborhood of Athens, not far from in Greece, is down to about add green space, create a new also will allow us to centralize where Greek Jews were lured into being captured in World War II, now hosts a Holocaust 6,000, according to Benjamin front door to the medical school, key activities in a state-of-the-art Memorial to those victims. The land was donated by the city, the memorial the design of Greek Albalas, President of the Athen - consolidate student services, and facility that reflects our commit - American artist DeAnna Maganias. ian Jewish Association, and only renovate several existing build - ment to world class education nine of 29 Jewish communities ings. The projected total cost for and the quality of student life.” that existed in Greece in 1942 the entire project is $185 mil - The Columbia release quoted Dr. were re-established after the lion,” a university statement Vagelos regarding his motivation war. added. Columbia’s President Lee for making this particular gift: Greek Heroes: at the Onassis Center The dead are at rest, but now C. Bollinger said, “It is clear that “When I first came to P&S 60 their memory lives in the memo - whatever the benefits Roy and years ago, the facilities were first- rial, located in a quiet, tree-sur - Diana Vagelos may have gained rate, as many of them had just By Stavros Marmarinos portunity to meet them, the including Greek Culture Minister rounded herb garden, beside a from attending Columbia and been recently built. Naturally, and Christopher Tripoulas chance of a lifetime, is now here. Pavlos Geroulanos - set to attend. cemetery, in the archaeologi - Barnard, (a college within Co - over time some of them have TNH Staff Writers On Oct. 5, the Onassis Cul - More than 200 ancient artifacts cally rich Kerameikos neighbor - lumbia) they have given even aged, and new technologies and tural Center in New York will from museums all over the hood of Athens, not far from more back to our university teaching resources are now re - NEW YORK - Ever admire the open its newest exhibition to the world, including Berlin, Boston, where Pericles gave his famous through decades of service and quired to provide the best mod - bravery of Achilles, the craftiness public, entitled Heroes: Mortals the Metropolitan Museum of funeral oration in 430 B.C., still support, and we are enormously ern education opportunities ... of Odysseus, or the incomparable and Myths in Ancient Greece. New York, Los Angeles, Ontario, perhaps the greatest speech ever grateful.” we are training the doctors who strength of Hercules? For more The official opening of the new Baltimore’s Walters Art Museum, delivered. Albalas said it’s where Vagelos, former chairman and will deliver medical care, the sci - than 2,500 years, generation exhibition, which will be on dis - and of course Greece’s National his people wanted it to be. “The CEO of Pharmaceutical giant entists who will perform ground - upon generation of children have play at the Onassis Center’s mu - Museum of Archaeology will be location the Jewish community Merck & Co. Inc. was graduated breaking scientific research, and been reared on these myths by seum area located inside mid - on display. The exhibition has insisted the memorial to be built from the College of Physicians the teachers who will help train parents, grandparents, and town Manhattan’s Olympic been organized by the Walters upon was of high archeological and Surgeons (P&S) in 1954. He the future generation of physi - teachers who passed on their fa - Tower will be held on Oct. 12, Art Museum, Baltimore in coop - interest and therefore the now serves as chair of the cians and scientists. It is impor - vorite heroes’ glorious stories. with many officials and promi - eration with the Frist Center for protests of the archeologists school’s Board of Visitors and is tant that their educational facil - For those who ever wondered nent figures from the world of Visual Arts, Nashville, the San were intense,” he said. The site chair of the medical center’s which hero they fantasized about arts and academia from all across Defining the Future campaign. Continued on page 3 they resembled the most, an op - the United States and Greece - Continued on page 4 Continued on page 9 Hub’s Cathedral of the British Library Will Digitize Ancient Greek Texts Annunciation Receives LONDON - Aided by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foun - dation, the British Library said $500,000 Donation it is going to make more than 280 items out of its world- renowned 1,000 volume collec - By Theodore Kalmoukos require that the Annunciation tion of ancient handwritten TNH Staff Writer Community match the donation Greek texts available online free by raising an additional of charge, a treasure trove to BOSTON - The Annunciation $500,000, resulting in total cam - scholars, historians, students of Cathedral of New England in paign fund of one million dollars. classical Greece and Philhel - Boston received a contribution The funds from this donation lenes around the world. The of $500,000 from an anonymous will be used exclusively for fi - manuscripts - highlights of donor. The terms of this grant nancing the renovation of the which include a famous collec - Cathedral’s upper hall and front tion of Aesopic fables discovered entry foyer, including the re - on Mount Athos in 1844 - have placement of the heating and long been available to scholars cooling systems. The donor will who made the trip to the British Kotsonaros, make the contribution payable Library’s reading rooms. Curator in three equal installments of Scot McKendrick said their post - $166,000 commencing in De - ing to the web was opening an - A Brute Who cember 2010. “Upon successful tiquity to the entire world, the matching the donor’s challenge Associated Press reported. grant, we will proceed with the McKendrick said that London Could Act renovation work. All work will could be an expensive place to be assigned to contractors fol - spend time poring over the lowing successful bidding,” the Greek texts’ tiny, faded script or By Steve Frangos Annunciation Cathedral notes in picking through hundreds of TNH Staff Writer a letter to its members. pages of parchment. “Not every This is the second major do - scholar can afford to come here AP PhOtO/SANg tAN PART II nation totaling $500,000 that the weeks and months on end,” he A late 12th Century illuminated gospels manuscript in Greek, which has been digitized, is seen CHICAGO - George Kotsonaros Annunciation Cathedral has re - at the British Library in London, Sept. 24, 2010.