Armenian genocide
NJJN’s editorial “Israel’s missed opportunity to acknowledge genocide” (June 7) speaks of when the Knesset failed to adopt a resolution recognizing the historical truth about the slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey in 1915 by the leaders of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Although several governments, the U.N., the Catholic Church, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum have publicly recognized the genocide, which Turkey continues to deny, Knesset members, probably for complicated political reasons, rejected the resolution.
The United States has also not publicly recognized that first genocide, which some say served as a template for the Shoah. Who speaks of it? No one.
Nations conduct their business as they will but people throughout the world should and can be informed. I recommend the magnificent novel written in 1933 by Franz Werfel that drew the world’s attention to the Armenian genocide. “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh’’ (Viking Press, 1934) is a story of heroism and hope that is beautifully told about how a group of people from several Armenian villages chose to defy orders of deportation and vowed to live for a time on a mountain top waiting, hoping for the allies to save them. It depicts a piece of history that should not be lost.
Eleanor Rubin
Tinton Falls
comments