S O C V th ΓΡΑΦΕΙ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ W ΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ E 10 0 ΑΠΟ ΤΟ 1915 The National Herald anniversa ry N www.thenationalherald.com A wEEKlY grEEK-AmEriCAN PuBliCATiON 1915-2015 VOL. 19, ISSUE 949 December 19-25, 2015 c v $1.50 Behrakis is Awarded Dean Skelos: Rise and Fall of NY Pow1er Broker Honorary Doctorate by The Sen. Majority Leader’s Mercurial University in Greece Ascent, and Crash By Yiannis Sofianos Those accolades alone would ALBANY, NY – For years Dean Athens Correspondent be enough for which to honor Skelos was one of the most pow - Behrakis, Maravegias said. erful men in New York, a small- ATHENS – In a ceremony re - “But he didn’t stop there. Fol - town lawyer who became the plete with academics and other lowing his very successful career Senate Leader in the New York dignitaries at the University of and having created a remark - State Legislature, a man whose Athens on December 11, ac - able fortune, he decided to give position and sway was sought claimed businessman and phil - back to society for the accep - by power brokers and governors anthropist George D. Behrakis tance and the trust it showed alike. received an honorary doctorate him. He is one of the most im - It didn't take him long to get from the Medical Faculty of the portant Greek-American bene - that far in New York politics, National and Kapodistrian Uni - factors and humanitarians, con - what prosecutors say has been versity of Athens for his contri - stantly promoting Greek a cauldron of corruption for butions to science, pharmaceu - civilization, culture, and his - years, not surprisingly for a sys - ticals, and medicine, and for his tory.” Behrakis, who has funded tem that 150 years ago pro - extensive humanitarian endeav - training in the United States for duced the notorious political ors. many Greek doctors, is also a machine of William “Boss” University Chancellor key sponsor of antismoking pro - Tweed, a Democrat who also Napoleon Maravegias intro - grams in Greece, Maravegias served in the Senate. duced Behrakis and spoke about said. “It is a particularly signifi - As Skelos found, and as his contribution to people’s cant moment for all of us to wel - Shakespeare said, “Politics is a health and quality of daily life, come a top scientist, with a mul - thieves game. Those who stay and noted his membership on tifaceted personality who in it long enough are bound to numerous academic boards and honors Greece and the United be robbed.” And he was, just as various awards by leading sci - States. A complete human being prosecutors said he robbed his entific organizations in the who lives within society and lis - constituency of the trust they United States and around the tens to its needs,” Marvegias AP PHOTO/YOrgOS KArAHAliS gave him when he was first world. said of Behrakis, to thunderous Migrant Needs Provide Use for Athens Olympics Facilities elected in 1980 for an Assembly applause. seat. GREAT, PLAIN MAN Migrants carry their belongings as they leave a former Olympic indoor stadium where they had Skelos, 67, and his son Behrakis’ cousin, Dr. Panagi - been housed in Faliro on Dec. 16. Hundreds of people have been temporarily housed in the sta - Adam, 33 – who proved to be WITH THIS ISSUE otis Behrakis, a professor at the dium after being removed a few days ago from Greece's northern border with FYROM. his downfall – were convicted University’s Medical School, said this month on Federal corrup - about the honoree: “Today, the tion charges, the second time in National and Kapodistrian Uni - two weeks a powerful state po - versity of Athens honors an ex - litical leader was brought down. ceptional member of the Greek Capital Link Awards Onassis Leader Former Assembly Speaker Community of North America. Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan De - With mixed feelings, of great mocrat, was convicted on honor, as well as emotions re - By Demetris Tsakas Dr. Antonis Papadimitriou when eign Minister for International charges that he took $4 million sulting from my relation with TNH Staff Writer he accepted the Capital Link Economic Relations in charge of in kickbacks. George Behrakis, I will try to Hellenic Leadership Award on International Economic Rela - A Federal jury convicted him briefly present his scientific NEW YORK – “In 2004 when December 14. tions & Investments, Dimitris and his son on charges that the work. “Born and raised in Greece organized those dream Papadimitriou, the President Mardas, Deputy Minister of Long Island Republican used his Boston, he graduated from Olympic Games, when we won and Treasurer of the Alexander Tourism Elena Kountoura, Am - position to extort payments and Northeastern University with a the European Championship in S. Onassis Public Benefit Foun - bassador of Greece in Washing - no-show jobs for son, said to be degree in pharmacy and he im - soccer, we were all very opti - dation was honored at the din - ton, DC Christos Panagopoulos so ungrateful for the largesse mediately dedicated himself into mistic about Greece and if some - ner held at the New York Yacht and Greek Ambassador to the that came through his father’s the field of research and science. one at that time dared say that Club in Manhattan after the suc - UN Catherine Boura. position he lashed out at others He developed new methods of ten years from now Greece cessful conclusion of the 17th The guests of honor included when he did show up. packaging, administering, circu - would end up bankrupt, no one investment forum which was Consuls General of Greece and It was hubris, a lesson from lation, and pharmacotechnical would believe him. Today, I tell held at the Metropolitan Club Cyprus George Iliopoulos and Ancient Greek tragedy, that was use, which made life easier for you that ten years from now we in Manhattan. Guests declare it Vasilios Philippou respectively, the undoing of both. It took millions of people. will again a Greece that will be was one of best-attended ever. as well as Greek-American en - decades to show. When it did, rich and prosperous,” declared The dinner was attended by his fall was faster than his rise. Continued on page 8 Onassis Foundation President dignitaries like The Deputy For - Continued on page 8 Skelos always wanted more, and fast, his record showed and was dripping with ambition. In 1982, after only one term in the Assembly as a staunch Conserv - “Echoes of Historic St. Spyridon Focused on Rebuilding ative, he challenged incumbent Democratic State Senator Caro - line Berman, but lost even Greece” By Constantine S. Sirigos though the district was gerry - TNH Staff Writer mandered to favor a Republi - Brings Greek NEW YORK – While the proud Continued on page 9 and historic parish of St. Spyri - don in Upper Manhattan’s Wash - Life to N.Y. ington Heights neighborhood can be called a wounded com - munity after the dramatic and One Left in By Stephanie Nikolopoulos sudden downfall of its pastor, the now-defrocked George Pas - NEW YORK – Athens street sias, the celebration of its Feast WWII Greek- scenes, Medieval Cretan towns, Day on December 12 with a Di - and Santorini churches exem - vine Liturgy led by Archbishop plify the diversity of Greece in Demetrios and a luncheon American “Echoes of Greece,” a photogra - hosted by its Philoptochos chap - phy exhibit currently on view at ter is evidence of healing and New York City’s Umbrella Arts. hope for the future. Valor Family Seen through the lens of ten Father Evagoras Constanti - photographers, the country and nides, who was assigned to min - people depicted are at once fa - ster to the current needs of St. TNH Staff miliar and timeless to anyone Spyridon, told the congregation who has traveled there in the “I thank each of you for your There were five brothers in past thirty years. love and support.” the Caraganis family of Dracut, A wild-haired, mustachioed During the luncheon that fol - Massachusetts when World War man sits smoking at a visibly lowed the liturgy, Archbishop II broke out and four of them dirty outdoor table in a small Demetrios expressed his faith in went off to war – and returned village, in Judith Panagotopulos’ the historic community. In his safely – three seeing combat and “Good Morning.” Chin tucked sermon highlighting the life of one, Costas, becoming the first into her neck, eyes hidden be - St. Spyridon, he cited the vio - Greek-American to attain the hind sunglasses, a burly shop - lence in the world and the TNH/COSTAS BEJ rank of Brigadier General. keeper in a calf-length floral Father Bill Gikas holds aloft the icon of St. Spyridon, patron saint of the historic parish Wash - The oldest, he saw Nicholas, skirt sleeps in the tiny entrance Continued on page 6 ington Heights, during a procession at vespers for the beloved saint’s feast day. George and Evan join him in the to a newsstand crammed with Army, a family with distin - tourism books, magnets, and guished itself with service and gleaming icons in a typical dedication. They were mostly Athens scene, shot by Susan raised by a devoted mother, Schiffer. Margarita Greece Sells Cathedral Angels Heard on High Christina, who worked at hard Mavromichalis’ vibrantly col - jobs after their father, Louis, ored “Resting” depicts an old died in 1930 at age 59. woman in Rethymno, sleeping Off US Press By Constantine S. Sirigos The Caraganis family stuck peacefully in a bed outfitted TNH Staff Writer together, as described by the with a clash of patterned sheets. Lowell, Mass. Sun in a feature The group exhibition origi - Offices NEW YORK – It was indeed a based on the memories of Evan, nated from two photography choir of angels that the people the youngest and now, at 92, workshops Harvey Stein and who filled the Archdiocesan the last surviving member of Mavromichalis ran in Greece this By Demetris Tsakas and Cathedral of the Holy Trinity en - one of the greatest generation.